Dr David Naafs
BSc(Utrecht), MSc(Utrecht), PhD(Bremen)
Expertise
I’m an organic biogeochemist at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, specialized in using organic geochemical techniques to investigate climatic and biogeochemical processes in ancient and modern environments.
Current positions
Royal Society University Research Fellow and Proleptic Senior Lecturer
School of Chemistry
Contact
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Biography
I was born in The Netherlands in a small suburban town. My parents are both teachers, my father in chemistry, my mother in Dutch and theology. I started my academic career at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), where I obtained a B.Sc in Earth Sciences and M.Sc. in Geochemistry. My M.Sc. included a research stay at both Yale and the University of Florida in the USA. Following my M.Sc., I did my PhD and 1-year postdoc at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. I then moved to the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU) at the University of Bristol where I was a research fellow from 2012 to 2018. In 2018 I was awarded a Royal Society Tata University Research fellowship (link) and became a proleptic lecturer at the University of Bristol.
Research interests
I’m an organic biogeochemist at the Organic Geochemistry Unit at the University of Bristol, specialized in using organic geochemical techniques to investigate climatic and biogeochemical processes in ancient and modern environments. My interdisciplinary research is driven by my desire and curiosity to understand the natural processes and mechanisms that influence Life and operate in Earth’s climate system. My approach is based on the rigorous application of state-of-the-art isotopic and organic mass spectrometry to study lipids and molecular fossils (biomarkers) derived from organisms across the three Domains of life, accumulated in modern and ancient natural archives from both the marine and terrestrial realm. By using climatological and biogeochemical information recorded in the lipids of organisms and preserved in the geological record I aim to answer long-standing questions related to the processes and mechanisms that drive changes in climate and biogeochemistry.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Terrestrial tempeRature Across the Cenozoic Era (TRACE)
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/01/2019 to 31/12/2023
Terrestrial tempeRature Across the Cenozoic Era (TRACE)
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/01/2019 to 31/12/2023
Enhancement AwardResponse Of the MethANe Cycle to Climate changE (ROMANCCE)
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of ChemistryDates
01/10/2018 to 31/03/2022
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/08/2022Astronomically controlled aridity in the Sahara since at least 11 million years ago
Nature Geoscience
Evaluation of the wider applications of the alkanol index BNA15 as temperature proxy in a broad distribution of peat deposits
Organic Geochemistry
Late Paleocene CO2 drawdown, climatic cooling and terrestrial denudation in the southwest Pacific
Climate of the Past
Metabolic and ecological controls on the stable carbon isotopic composition of archaeal (isoGDGT and BDGT) and bacterial (brGDGT) lipids in wetlands and lignites
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Spatiotemporal dynamics of dissolved organic carbon in a subtropical wetland and their implications for methane emissions
Geoderma
Related people
Professor Dan Lunt
Professor of Climate Science
School of Geographical Sciences
Professor Rich Pancost
Professor of Biogeochemistry
School of Earth Sciences
Dr Fanny Monteiro
Associate Professor in Ocean Sciences
School of Geographical Sciences
Dr Alexander Farnsworth
Senior Research Associate
School of Geographical Sciences
Professor Richard Evershed
Professor
School of Chemistry