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Professor Jonathan C. Aitchison School of the Environment, University of Queensland

Jonathan Aitchison is a Professor in the School of the Environment (SENV) at the University of Queensland (UQ), where he leads research at the intersection of plate tectonics, paleontology, and sedimentary geology. Originally from New Zealand, he grew up on an active plate boundary, an environment that inspired his lifelong fascination with the processes that shape Earth’s dynamic crust.

Professor Aitchison earned his BSc (Hons) and MSc in geology from the University of Otago, including early fieldwork in Antarctica, before moving to Japan as a Monbusho Scholar at Niigata University. He later completed his PhD at the University of New England (Australia), where he reconstructed the tectonic evolution of the New England Orogen using radiolarian microfossils to date marine successions and constrain major tectonic events. This expertise led to his role as a micropaleontologist on Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 126, investigating intra-oceanic island arc development in the Izu–Bonin–Mariana system.

After completing a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellowship at Kochi University, Aitchison joined the University of Sydney in the early 1990s, before moving to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1995. At HKU, he established and led the Tibet Research Group, pioneering studies of the India–Asia collision system—research he has pursued for more than three decades. He served as Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU from 2003 to 2009.

In 2011, Aitchison returned to Australia as the Edgeworth David Chair of Geology and Head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. In 2015 he shifted to Brisbane to take up Headship of the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at UQ. He oversaw the merger that created the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, leading this school from 2017 to 2021.

His research continues to span multiple frontiers in Earth Science. He maintains active programs in micropaleontology and tectonics, including the evolution of Early Paleozoic radiolarians and the application of synchrotron microCT imaging to microfossils. His long-standing work on the India–Asia collision integrates field studies in northwestern and northeastern India with broader models of Himalayan–Tibetan orogenesis. He also investigates the Paleozoic tectonics of eastern Gondwana.

Recent projects highlight the breadth of his interests: a groundbreaking study of organic carbon recycling that uncovered “bio-diamonds” in ophiolites of the southwest Pacific, and a collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tokyo examining accreted cherts as potential reservoirs of rare earth elements.

Professor Aitchison’s career reflects a commitment to integrating paleontological detail with large-scale tectonic processes, offering new insights into both Earth’s past and its critical resources for the future.

Grant has degrees in both Chemistry and Earth Sciences and is presently focused on assessing the environmental impact of fluid-rock interactions on groundwater chemistry. This entails a variety of rock characterisation techniques (elemental, mineralogical, petrophysical), benchtop sequential extraction experiments, and pressure vessel experiments that mimic in-situ conditions deep underground, with data then fed into geochemical modelling software. The analytical equipment that Grant has operated to achieve his research outcomes includes ICP-MS, ICP-OES, SEM-EDS, Microprobe, XRF, Synchrotron XFM beamline, Petrographic Microscopes (both scanning and standard), Gas Permeameter, Helium Pycnometer, Pressure Vessels, etc. Grant also has an active interest in the geological storage of carbon dioxide, both via injection into deep geological formations and direct atmospheric capture facilitated by rock weathering to form stable carbonate rocks (mineral trapping of CO2). In the past, Grant has studied natural carbonate mineralisation (both veins and cement) throughout the Great Artesian Basin, to explore the variety of natural conditions that promote the transformation of CO2 into minerals. Early in his research career, Grant participated in paleo-climate research projects that involved botanically describing and assessing the cell morphology of fossil woods, coal petrography, studying coral cores, and picking foraminifera recovered from the sea floor.

I am a sedimentary geochemist, and I work on a variety of problems in sedimentary geology, paleoclimate, and basin analysis through the use of petrology, elemental geochemistry, and stable isotope geochemistry. I run the Carbonate Research and Geochemistry group at UQ, where we have a variety of facilities for sample petrology, carbonate precipitation under controlled environmental conditions, and geochemical analysis. I am also heavily involved with ANZIC, the Australian/New Zealand branch of IODP/ICDP, where I serve on the Science Committee.

Clumped Isotope Reordering and Basin Analysis

Currently we are investigating clumped isotope reordering - the change that occurs in a sample's clumped isotope value as a result of solid-state diffusion of 18O and/or 13C within the crystal lattice of a carbonate mineral. This is important to understand for two reasons. First, if we are trying to get accurate paleoclimate data using clumped isotope paleothermometry, we need to know what conditions (burial depth and heating) allow for primary signals, and under which conditions the primary signal is lost. Second, if we know the kinetics of clumped isotope reordering, we can then apply that knowledge to understand past heat flow in a basin. Combined with a stratigraphic column and burial history for a body of rock, we can reconstruct geothermal gradients, and evaluate tectonic/basin models based on whether they could produce the required heat flux to match observed clumped isotope values. Areas of active research include precipitating model carbonates in the lab to study the effects of different cations, burial diagenesis, and applications to sediment hosted ore bodies/other economic systems.

Carbonate Sedimentation and Diagenesis

Carbonate sedimentation and diagenesis is one of our active research areas, with a focus on combining laboratory experiments, modern analogues, and ancient rocks to understand the long term evolution of carbonates and other sediments. Clumped isotopes are useful here as it turns out they do record the temperature of formation in most cases, and can be applied to a variety of problems, such as contemporary dolomite formation, or the temperature of formation of otherwise engimatic carbonate textures, such as 'beef' calcites. We are also interested in the sedimentation and diagenesis of carbonate reefs, such as the geological history of the Great Barrier Reef, and are currently studying the halogen composition of carbonates, reef rocks and corals, and oceanic sediments in general (see below).

Halogens in Sediments and Carbonates

Anions are undercharacterized in Earth materials, largely due to measurement difficulties. At UQ, we have developed combustion ion chromotography to characterize the halogen abundance in sediments and carbonates. The goal is to determine the overall halogen budget in the oceans and oceanic sediments, as while we know a lot about cation and trace element distributions in oceanic sediments, little is known about halogens. Likewise, halogens in carbonate may be potential paleoenvironmental proxies, but have not been investigated thouroughly. This is something I am pursuing, with collaboration from ANZIC/IODP.

Paleoclimate Research

I have been interested in paleoclimate since I took my first geology class at Northwestern. Since then, I've worked on a variety of timescales and systems, but the common theme has been the application of stable isotopes and clumped isotopes. Clumped isotopes are a wonderful tool for paleoclimate research in situations where the water oxygen isotope composition is uncertain, such as terrestrial and lacustrine settings, deep time where even the oxygen isotopic composition of the ocean is uncertain, or even in (relatively) more modern systems that might be affected by runoff or glacial meltwater. Active projects and areas of interest include Holocene climate change/ENSO, Southern Ocean Cenozoic paleoclimatology, and 'bizzare' climate events such as the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth glaciations.

Degrees and Positions Held

2008 B.A. Geological Sciences and Integrated Sciences (Honors), Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

2014 Ph.D. Geology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

2014-2017 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

2017-2019 Berg-Hughes Postdoctoral Fellow, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

2019-2024 Lecturer in Geochemistry, University of Queensland

2025-Present Senior Lecturer in Geochemistry, University of Queensland

Gilbert Price is a Senior Lecturer in Palaeontology at The University of Queensland. He is a vertebrate palaeoecologist and geochronologist, particularly interested in the evolution and emergence of our planet’s unique ecosystems and fauna, and their response to prehistoric climatic changes. His major research focus has been on the development of palaeoecological models for Australia’s Cenozoic, especially the Quaternary megafauna. Critically, this also involves the production of reliably-dated records for the fossils that he studies. You can follow Gilbert on Twitter (@TheFatWombat) and read his reserach blog at www.diprotodon.com.