January 2016

Goldschmidt2016: abstract submission and registration open

Preparations for the 26th Goldschmidt conference, which will be held in Yokohama from 26 June to 1 July, are now well underway and abstract submission and registration are open. Abstract deadline is 26 February and Early Registration deadline is 26 April.

Several events for Early Career Scientists will be proposed, as well as an exciting range of social events, workshops and field trips. Finally, Goldschmidt needs student helpers (volunteers receive waived registration and an honorarium) so if interested, apply online before 26 February.

2016 EAG Medallists

We are excited to announce the 2016 EAG Medallists, to be presented at the upcoming Goldschmidt2016 conference:

• Klaus Mezger (University of Bern) receives the Urey Award, recognizing outstanding contributions advancing geochemistry over a career.
• Jon Blundy (University of Bristol) receives the Ted Ringwood Science Innovation Award recognizing an important and innovative breakthrough in geochemistry.
• Kate Hendry (University of Bristol) receives the Houtermans Award recognizing exceptional contributions to geochemistry by scientists under 35 years old or within 6 years of their PhD.

Shogo Tachibana to deliver Gast Lecture at Goldschmidt2016

Professor Shogo Tachibana of Hokkaido University was selected by the Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry to deliver the 2016 Paul W. Gast Lecture during the Goldschmidt Conference in Yokohama, Japan. The lecture is awarded to a mid-career scientist for outstanding contributions to geochemistry. Professor Tachibana studies the origin and evolution of the solar system and the chemical diversity within planets.

Changes in the EAG Council

Following elections last fall, Donald E. Canfield, Kirsten Küsel and Helen Williams have joined the EAG Council this month and Andreas Kappler agreed to renew his term as EAG Secretary.

We also are deeply grateful to Dan Frost, Britta Planer-Friedrich, Maria Schönbächler and Nathalie Vigier, who left the council end of 2015; they have been fully committed to their councillor role and brought valuable initiatives and ideas to the society. Their time and energy is deeply appreciated.

Announcing the winners of the EAG Photo Contest

The EAG would like to thank all who submitted photos to the 2015 Photo Contest and all who casted their vote. We are very pleased to announce the 2 winners: Ingrid Smet for the theme ‘Earth, Fire, Air, Water’ with the photo The beauty of disequilibrium, and Anton Bischoff for the theme ‘What is geochemistry for you?’ with the photo The Tower of Chalk. Read the story behind the winning photos in our special blog post.

New in Geochemical Perspectives Letters

Carbon isotope discrimination in C3 land plants is independent of natural variations in p_CO2 by M.J. Kohn was recently published in Geochemical Perspectives Letters, the new EAG journal publishing peer-reviewed high quality articles spanning geochemical sciences, fully open access, carrying NO author charges.

EAG Early Career Ambassador at the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting

[By Billy Hunter] Thanks to the EAG’s Early Career Ambassador Program I was fortunate to be able to attend the recent American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The AGU Fall meeting is one of the largest multidisciplinary earth science meetings, where around 24,000 delegates congregate to network and discuss the latest developments in earth and planetary sciences... Read more

The story behind the winning photos

[By Ingrid Smet and Anton Bischoff, winners of the 2015 Photo Contest] PhD fieldwork brought me to the Greek islands where I studied and sampled different volcanic deposits. I thereby felt that detailed photography of the outcrops and large-scale magmatic structures was important documentation of the ´bigger picture´. Read more

Solid inner, inner core may be relic of Earth’s earliest days

[Science News] Earth’s deepest realm may be billions of years older than previously thought. New simulations of the planet’s formation suggest that the innermost part of the inner core solidified shortly after Earth’s assembly, rather than roughly 3 billion years later alongside the rest of the inner core. Read more

World’s largest canyon, might be buried underneath Antarctica

[Fusion] A team of researchers surveying Antarctica have discovered what they believe to be a canyon that’s as deep as the Grand Canyon, but much longer. According to the study, published this month in the journal Geology, what could be the world’s largest canyon may cut across nearly 700 miles of East Antarctica, reaching depths of over half a mile. Read more

Hunting for Phantom Worlds

[Discover] I'm tucking in to dinner with astronomer Alexander Wolszczan in a bustling bistro near his office at Penn State, and he’s in a cheerfully gloomy frame of mind. He has reason enough to be gloomy. He discovered the first planets beyond our solar system but gets little recognition. Read more

Giant icebergs play key role in removing carbon dioxide...

[Science Daily] Giant icebergs are responsible for storing up to 20 percent of carbon in the Southern Ocean, a new study has found. The Southern Ocean plays a significant part in the global carbon cycle, and is responsible for approximately 10 per cent of the ocean's total carbon sequestration through a mixture of biologically driven and chemical processes, including phytoplankton growth. Read more

Rosetta team confirms water ice on Comet 67P’s surface

[Astronomy Magazine] Observations made shortly after Rosetta’s arrival at its target comet in 2014 have provided definitive confirmation of the presence of water ice. Although water vapor is the main gas seen flowing from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the great majority of ice is believed to come from under the comet’s crust, and very few examples of exposed water ice have been found on the surface. Read more

Check the latest job opportunities

Receive job ads as they are posted: like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter (@EAG_). To post a position on the EAG job page (free of charge): click here.

• 16 PhD positions and 6 Postdoc positions on late accretion processes - Collaborative Research Center Late Accretion onto Terrestrial Planets TRR 170, Berlin and Münster
• 2 PhD posts (arctic microbiology and weathering) within a new Marie Curie ITN “Microorganisms in Warming Arctic Environments - MicroArctic” - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam
• PhD student (arctic microbial ecology) within a new Marie Curie ITN “Microorganisms in Warming Arctic Environments - MicroArctic” - University of Akureyri and University of Iceland Biomedical Center
• 3 fully funded PhD positions on the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere - University of St Andrews
• Investigation of in situ microbial H2 consumption in biofilms in the deep subsurface - Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
• Multiple Msc and PhD positions in analytical, environmental and exploration geochemistry - Multidisciplinary Applied Geochemistry Network (MAGNET), multiple universities
• PhD Position in Geomicrobiology/Biogeochemistry 'Mechanisms of extracellular microbial electron transfer' - University of Tuebingen
• Three year PhD position in isotope geochemistry - Leibniz Universität Hannover Institut für Mineralogie
• Time-resolved Raman spectroscopy for investigating Mars habitability - IMPMC / Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS and Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle
• Post-doctoral opportunities in microbial geochemistry / geomicrobiology in subsurface and cryospheric (subglacial / supraglacial) environments. EU COFUND fellowships. Aberystwyth University
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Geo-Bio-Weathering Processes - German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ
• Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f) Application and development of new instrumentation for multi-collector mass spectrometry - ETH Department of Earth Sciences
• Two Lecturer positions in Geology and Geochemistry/Geomicrobiology (fixed for 3 years each) - Newcastle University
• Full-Time faculty position in Geoscience - Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Upcoming deadlines for other geochemistry related events

• Water Rock Interaction 15: Abstract deadline 29 January (EAG members can register at member rate)
• Workshop Without Walls: Upstairs Downstairs - Consequences of Internal Planet Evolution for the Habitability and Detectability of Life on Extrasolar Planets - 17-19 February
• Geomicrobiology Workshop “Building a Habitable Earth”: Application deadline 1 March
• 4th International Workshop on Highly Siderophile Element Geochemistry (co-sponsored by the European Association of Geochemistry): Abstract and registration deadline 4 March
• EGU General Assembly 2016: Early Registration deadline 17 March

See all upcoming conferences and workshops.

We thank you for your attention