Academic staff

Professor Jenni Barclay
I am a volcanologist and the ambition at the centre of my research is the reduction of risk and prevention of disaster in volcanic settings. I aim to reduce the impact of volcanic eruptions on sustainable development trajectories. Volcanic risk is dynamic, multi-faceted and embedded within the social, political and cultural landscapes into which volcanoes erupt.  So, my research focusses on both the fundamental physical understanding of volcanic processes, often using petrological methods, and on the integrative interdisciplinary research necessary to understand and tackle the core drivers of disaster losses. 

Dr Richard Brooker
I manage the experimental petrology facilities, with projects ranging from planetary mantle petrology, crustal processes such as magma mushes through to volcanology, with a particular interest in the role of volatiles and more recently rheology. Other current research interests include ash damage in jet engines, survival of DNA and organic material during diagenesis and the environmental impact of mining ‘sulphide smoker’ deposits from mid-ocean ridges. I have a keen interest pushing experimental boundaries by designing new experimental equipment in close collaboration with our workshop.

Professor Claire Corkhill
I am a mineralogist interested in ancient uranium- and thorium-containing minerals, as well as glasses, which I use as templates to design new materials for radioactive waste immobilisation and disposal. I use a range of bulk and micro-focused X-ray techniques to probe the chemistry, local structure and crystallography of minerals, and couple these with surface-sensitive analytical techniques and aqueous geochemistry to understand their degradation in water.

Professor Simon Kohn
My research is aimed at understanding the materials that control large-scale processes in the Earth’s mantle and crust and includes volatile dissolution mechanisms in silicate melts and OH storage in nominally anhydrous minerals in the mantle. My current focus is on diamonds and their inclusions and the unique information they provide on global geochemical cycling and the history of the lithosphere.

Dr Oliver Lord Research Group Leader
I study the deep interior of the Earth by recreating its extreme pressures and temperatures in my home lab, at a variety of international synchrotron x-ray facilities and, more recently, inside supercomputers.

Dr Robert Myhill
I study the evolution and structure of the Earth and Mars through a combination of high-pressure experimental petrology, mineral physics, and geodynamics. I am particularly interested in where and how our planet melts, and in how melting over the last 4.5 billion years has led to the diverse geology of our planet. I am a principal developer of the BurnMan thermodynamics software (https://burnman.org) and ASPECT geodynamics software (https://aspect.geodynamics.org/).

Postdoctoral researchers

Dr Lena Chen
I am a geochemist interested in how minerals control the fate of trace metals and nuclear waste in the environment.

PhD students

Specialist Technician

Sophie Litherland
I am the technician attached to the Radio mineralogy labs, working closely with lab users to ensure the safe working with radioactive isotopes. The work being carried out in the labs is to find long term disposal solutions for radioactive waste generated from Nuclear energy, primarily assisting in the development of a geological disposal facility