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 Lecturer
School of Chemistry
Contact
Media 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.
Positions
University of Bristol positions
Royal Society University Research Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer
School of Chemistry
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
07/12/2020Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink
Nature Climate Change
Effects of temperature and pH on archaeal membrane lipid distributions in freshwater wetlands
Organic Geochemistry
Repeated near-collapse of the Pliocene sea surface temperature gradient in the North Atlantic
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
Climatic and environmental changes across the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum at mid-Waipara River, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand
Earth-Science Reviews
Did North Atlantic cooling and freshening from 3.65–3.5 Ma precondition Northern Hemisphere ice sheet growth?
Global and Planetary Change
