Student Wins Postgraduate Research Excellence Award

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Fri Dec 17 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Student Wins Postgraduate Research Excellence Award

Friday, 17 December 2010, 1:21 pm
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington

Student Wins Postgraduate Research Excellence Award

John Creech was recently awarded a Postgraduate Research Excellence Award for work done as part of MSc thesis. The research was presented in a paper entitled ‘Eocene sea temperatures for the mid-latitude southwest Pacific from Mg/Ca ratios in planktonic and benthic foraminifera’, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the third highest ranking journal in this field internationally.

John’s work was a combination of geochemistry and paleoclimate research, and used a laser to sample microscopic marine fossils and measure their chemistry. From these measurements, a temperature record was reconstructed from around New Zealand for the period 51 – 46 million years ago. The record showed sea surface temperatures in the Canterbury Basin varied between 25 - 30C, and bottom waters between 15 - 20C - temperatures around 20C warmer than would be found at the same latitude today.

John has also recently been awarded a Victoria PhD scholarship, and will be studying with Professor Joel Baker and Dr Monica Handler using isotopes of platinum to investigate processes in the early Solar System, including the formation of the Earth.

ENDS

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