22–23 June 2021
The Geochemistry Group’s Research in Progress meeting (GGRiP) entered new territory in 2021. In addition to being the first time that the event was held fully online, it was also the first time that we were able to welcome contributions and attendance from overseas delegates, with free participation for institutions in low- and middle-income countries as recognised by the Research4Life partnership. Whilst we fully recognise and appreciate the benefits of meeting and sharing our latest research face-to-face, the group was delighted to be able to support PhD students and early career researchers from throughout the international Geochemistry community, and we will do our best to build on this success by continuing to offer access to the meeting for international delegates at future events.
As always the meeting itself was underpinned by a series of fantastic talks and poster presentations that spanned the full geochemical spectrum. Amongst the many highlights were keynote talks by Dr Magali Ader and Dr Amy Riches on the Geochemical Society’s and European Association of Geochemistry’s approaches towards advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Dr Ashley King and Dr Queenie Chan presenting as part of the Geological Society’s Year of Space; and Dr Emma Tomlison and Dr David Naafs taking us from the heat of the Archean mantle to the relatively cool temperatures recorded by bacterial biomarkers. In addition, the unfortunate cancellation of our 2020 GGRiP meeting meant we were treated to 2 years’ worth of Early Career Researcher award recipient talks from Dr Richard Taylor, Dr Matthew Warke, Dr Emily Stevenson Dr Chris Standish, on top of some truly excellent student presentations. Our poster session was held in a virtual exhibit hall using Gather.Town; it featured many really excellent posters that can still be viewed here.
The programme and abstract volume are available here.
The Group’s AGM was held on the second day of the meeting and changes to the committee were agreed. Chris Pearce stands down after several years of sterling service, to be replaced in the chair by Marc-Alban Millet. Jane Barling takes over as treasurer (following in the careful footsteps of Sam Hammond). Wes Fraser has stepped up to the position of Secretary, taking over from Marc-Alban. Gordon Inglis becomes to Communications Officer, in place of Wes. Two new members of the committee were approved and welcomed: Hal Bradbury (U. Cambridge) and David Wilson (UCL). A full list of the new committee is available here.
Finally, we would like to thank Nu, QMX Laboratories, SciMed and Zeiss for their generous support of the meeting. In particular we would like to acknowledge Nu and Zeiss who kindly supported our student prizes this year, which were awarded to:
Zeiss Prize
Faidra Katsi, University of Nottingham: Using the chemical fingerprint of pollen as an alternative method for classification of grass species
Poster prizes
Madeleine Murphy, University of St Andrews: The Si isotope evolution of the continental crust: spatial and temporal trends from glacial diamictites
Chunyao Liu, University College London: Tracing silicate weathering in estuaries using lithium isotopes
Oral presentation prizes
James Kershaw, University of Bristol: Ba/Ca ratios of stylasterid coral skeletons: implications for palaeoceanography and coral biomineralisation
Peter Methley, University of Cambridge: Using Pyrite to Explore the Diagenesis of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation
Caroline Soderman, University of Cambridge: Global trends in novel stable isotopes in basalts: theory and observations
RECORDINGS OF KEYNOTE LECTURES