About Oscar — CV

Last updated 5th August 2024.

Research Interests

Biomineralisation

The formation of calcium carbonate minerals by marine organisms is a central theme in my research. I study how organisms manipulate chemical and physical processes to control crystal formation, examine the structure, mineralogy and composition of the complex ‘biominerals’ they produce, and study how these are preserved in the geological record.

Geochemistry

I use the trace element and isotopic composition of marine biominerals as tracers of their formation mechanisms, and use these tracers to examine how biomineralisation processes respond to environmental changes. Empirically established relationships between geochemical tracers and environmental conditions have been widely developed and interpreted as archives for past climate change, which have played a key role in developing our understanding of Earth’s climate system. However, our incomplete understanding of biomineralisation hinders our interpretation of these valuable records. I work to advanced our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of biomineralisation and how they record the state of the climate system, and also how the act of biomineralisation modifies the state of the environment they form in.

Ocean Carbon

The formation and dissolution of calcium carbonate biominerals plays a key role in the ocean carbon cycle, and the ability of the ocean to absorb anthropogenic CO₂. Uncertainties in our understanding of biomineral formation and dissolution mean that we cannot reliably predict the response of these key processes to future climate change, which is a significant area of uncertainty in future climate projections. I conduct field and laboratory experiment to explore the dynamics of these processes in response to environmental stresses. A major goal of my current research is to develop a quantitative mechanistic understanding of biomineral formation that can be used to understand how these processes will change in response to both future climate change, and the modification of seawater chemistry by ocean-based carbon capture and storage technologies.

Academic History

Positions

2024–

• Fellow Queens’ College, University of Cambridge

2019–

• Assistant Professor Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

2016–19

• Research Fellow Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

2014–16

• Postoctoral Researcher Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis

2014

• POST Fellow Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (3 months)

Qualifications

2010–14

• Ph.D. Earth Sciences University of Cambridge

2009–10

• M.Sc. Oceanography National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

2006–09

• B.Sc. Biology University of Bristol

Funding

2024

• NERC Pushing the Frontiers Grant [£800k] A novel proxy for past ocean carbon concentration

2023

• Isaac Newton Trust Research Grant [£22k] Physiology of Marine Calcifying Organisms under Extreme Conditions
• Royal Society International Exchange Grant [£11k] Culture experiments to transform our understanding of foraminiferal palaeoclimate proxies

2022

• Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award [£1M] Building Shells: Towards a Mechanistic Understanding of Biomineralisation
• NERC Cross-disciplinary Research for Discovery Science [£10k] Exploring novel fibre optic sensors for measuring ocean carbon

2020

• Isaac Newton Trust Early Career Support Grant [£54k] The Role of Metastable Phases in Biomineralisation

2016

• ANU Research Fellowship

2011–

• Synchrotron Proposals 13 out of 15 proposals funded

2010

• NERC PhD Studentship

Activities

Leadership Roles

2020–2023

• Co-Director of Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Risk (AI4ER) Doctoral Training Programme & Director of AI4ER MRes Programme

Community Engagement

2023

• Goldschmidt Conference Session Convener

2022

• Challenger Workshop Session Convener
• International Working Group on Reef Calcification Budgets
• Goldschmidt Conference Session Convener

2021–

• International Working Group on Palaeo-CO2 Reconstructions
• Goldschmidt Conference Session Convener

2020

• TMS Geochemistry Workshop Organiser
• Guest Editor for Frontiers Biomineralisation Special Edition

2019

• Goldschmidt Conference Session Convener

2017

• Goldschmidt Conference Session Convener

2016

• AGU Annual Meeting Session Convener

2015

• AGU Annual Meeting Session Convener

Service Roles

2020–2023

• Department Seminar Convener, Earth Sciences, Cambridge

2019–

• Scientific Computing Teaching Group, Earth Sciences, Cambridge

2017–19

• ‘Data Surgery’ Convener, RSES, ANU
• Data Science Research Committee, RSES, ANU

2017–18

• Equity and Diversity Committee, RSES, ANU

Professional

Qualifications

First Aid

• Remote Area First Aid, Field Safety and First Aid, O₂ Administration

Diving

• ADAS Occupational SCUBA Diver to 30m (HSE SCUBA equivalent)
• PADI Rescue Diver

Memberships

AGU

• American Geophysical Union

EAG

• European Association of Geochemistry

MinSoc

• The Mineralogical Society (UK)

Supervision

PostDoctoral Research Associates

2024–

• Duygu Sevilgen Micro-physioloy of marine calcifiers.
• Nishant Chauhan Transcriptomics of marine calcifiers.

2021–22

• Lara Jurković Vaterite formation and geochemistry.

2018–19

• Kate Holland (ANU) Foraminifera geochemistry.

PhD Students

2023–

• Alice Ball The physiology of marine calcifying organisms.
• Robert Petrie Fibre optics for ocean carbon measurement.
• Orlando Timmerman Machine learning and coral reef survival.

2020–

• Madison East Coral calcification mechanisms and geochemistry.
• Wei-Ning (Winnie) Fang Foraminiferal micro-evironments and goechemistry.

2016–18

• Kate Holland (ANU) Thesis: Environmental and biological controls on the shell geochemistry of the planktic foraminifera Orbulina universa. Now: Australian Capital Territory Environment Agency.

2014–19

• Elizabeth Read (Cambridge) Thesis: Diffraction and Spectroscopy of Marine Calcite Biominerals: Insights into Structure and Geochemistry. Now: Senior Analyst, GlobalData.

Masters Students

2023

• Orlando Timmerman Predicting coral reef distribution using multi-modal machine learning.

Undergraduate Students

2019

• Pratyusha Madhnure (IISc, Bangalore) Assisted foraminifera culturing field work in Taiwan and set up of coral aquaria at ANU. Now: MSc in Marine Environmental Science at the University of Bordeaux

Teaching

* denotes newly designed course material.

Course Development

2021–

• Co-Designer & Lecturer of Quantitative Environmental Sciences course, new cross-disciplinary 2nd year course in the Natural Sciences degree.

2020

• Redesigned AI4ER MRes Core Courses, ‘Environmental Risk’ and ‘Environmental Data Analysis’.

Natural Sciences (NatSci)

1st Year

2020–

• *Earth Sciences: Practical class on carbon in the ocean and its interaction with atmospheric pCO2 using an interactive model.

2nd Year

2022–

• *Quantitative Environmental Sciences: lectures on ocean carbon cycling and climate, and practicals building an ocean carbon model in Python [6 lectures, 4 practicals].

3rd Year

2019–

• *Earth Sciences: section of Mineralogy course focussing on Biominerals [6 lectures, 4 practicals].

4th Year

2022–

• *Earth Sciences: section of Environmental Geochemistry course on Ocean Acidification [4 lectures, 4 practicals].

AI4ER MRes

2020–

• *Environmental Risk: Lectures and practical session on machine learning approaches to ocean-atmosphere CO₂ transfer.

Field Teaching

2022–

• Part 1A Earth Sciences field trip to the Isle of Arran, Scotland, UK.
• Part III Earth Sciences field trip to Greece.

2021–

• Sedimentology 2nd year undergraduate trip to the Jurassic Coast, UK.

2017–19

• Coral Reefs Field Course (ANU) Marine chemistry and calcification leader. 3rd year undergraduate trip to One Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef.