Richard Palin – New Assoc. Prof. of Petrology and Crustal Processes

It is with great pleasure that Earth Sciences welcomes Dr. Richard Palin, who will be joining the Department in January 2020, as Associate Professor of Petrology and Crustal Processes. Richard will also taking on a non-tutorial fellowship at St. Cross College, Oxford.

Richard completed his DPhil at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK, in 2013, where he studied the thermal and structural evolution of parts of the Himalayan Range and Tibetan Plateau. He then worked as a lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow for three years at the Institute of Geosciences, JGU Mainz, Germany, where he was involved in various projects focused on expanding capabilities to computationally model partial melting of mafic rocks within the Earth’s crust, and understanding the geological processes responsible for stabilization of Earth’s first continents. Richard then moved to the Colorado School of Mines, USA, in early 2017 to begin a post as an Assistant Professor of Metamorphic Geology, where he oversaw a number of student-led and field-based projects focusing on the tectono-thermal history of the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Plateau.

Richard primarily conducts field- and laboratory-based studies combining metamorphic petrology, isotope geochronology, geochemistry, and thermodynamic phase equilibrium modeling to investigate the evolution of the lithosphere from the micro- to the macro-scale. His areas of current research interest include quantifying the physico-chemical effects of fluid–rock and melt–rock interactions in the crust, and performing comparative studies of the early Earth with other rocky bodies in our solar system to quantify how metamorphic and magmatic processes and products have changed though geological time.

Richard has published 35 papers in just six years since earning his DPhil, with several high-profile contributions in Nature, Nature Geoscience, and Scientific Reports. He has been PI or Co-PI on grants from the National Science Foundation (USA), the Natural Environment Research Council (UK), and Peruvian government awarded to support research, which total over $1.2 million, and maintains successful collaborations with many institutions worldwide. In addition, as a result of giving tutorials to undergraduate students during his time at Oxford as a DPhil candidate, he was awarded an Individual Divisional Teaching Award from the MPLS division in recognition of his ability to explain complex concepts in a simple manner.