Congratulations to the Judith McKenzie fellows!
Fernanda Torres García, PhD student at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and Lena Chen, PhD student at the University of Leeds, are the recipients of the Judith McKenzie Visiting Early Career Researcher Fellowships 2023.
About the Judith McKenzie Visiting Early Career Researcher Fellowship
The Judith McKenzie Visiting Early Career Researcher Fellowship is open to female-identifying PhD students (in any year of their programme) and Postdocs (within three years of obtaining their PhD) who are currently enrolled/employed at an established university or research institute. The goal of the fellowship is to foster scientific interactions, develop broader research networks, and ultimately to help improve gender representation in our community.
The Judith McKenzie fellows 2023
Fernanda Torres García
I’m a PhD candidate at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) in the Tectonics and Resources group.
My PhD project aims to investigate the petrogenetic processes related to the formation of the early (4.0–2.5 billion years ago──Ga) continental crust, the Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite (TTG) suites, today constituting the oldest rocks on Earth (Archean cratons), by studying mafic/ultramafic bodies, which are suggested as potential source rocks. In particular, this project focuses on characterising the role and source of water during partial melting and how the compositional diversity of the mafic-ultramafic protoliths and water availability control the composition and volume of the melts produced. For this project, the study areas include a variety of natural associations of mafic-ultramafic and TTG rocks from a range of Archean terrains that differ in terms of their proposed geodynamic evolution and age. The three main locations include (i) the Itsaq Gneiss Complex in SW Greenland and (ii) the Lewisian Gneiss Complex in NW Scotland, both part of the North Atlantic Craton, and the Barberton Mountain Land in South Africa, part of the Kaapvaal Craton. Together, these areas contain TTGs that range in age between 3900 and 2800 Ma.
Lena Chen
I’m currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds in the UK. I am based in the Earth Surface Science Institute at the School of Earth and Environment.
The main aims of my PhD research are to understand what controls the concentration and isotope composition of nickel in seawater through its interaction with the sediments below. To achieve this, I synthesise minerals analogous to those found in marine sediments and investigate how nickel and its isotopes interact with these. In the ocean nickel is a micronutrient required by phytoplankton to take up carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and photosynthesise, thus its bioavailability of nickel in the ocean helps to regulate global climate. Nickel concentrations and isotope compositions in sediment archives therefore also have the potential to shed light on climate over Earth's history. Outside the lab, I enjoy reading, yoga, and going on long walks.