NERC Indendent Research Fellow awarded the Max Hey Medal of the Mineralogical Society for 2020

Congratulations to Oxford Earth Sciences postdoc Dr Kate Kiseeva for being awarded the Max Hey Medal of the Mineralogical Society for 2020.

The Max Hey Medal was founded in 1993 and named in honour of the eminent British mineralogist Dr M.H. Hey (1904–1984). It has been established by the Council of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and is awarded:

“To recognise existing and ongoing research of excellence carried out by young workers, within the fields of either Mineralogy, Crystallography, Petrology or Geochemistry. Evidence of excellence should be in the form of work published in highly-regarded, international scientific journals.”

Dr Kiseeva’s research is focussed on the application of experimental petrology to global petrological problems. As many geological processes, such as magma genesis, the formation of mineral deposits, or the metamorphism of rocks, cannot be observed directly because they occur deep within the Earth. Dr Kiseeva’s research uses laboratory experiments to confirm, or discredit, the hypothesis that have been made about their formation. Her current research projects are aimed at understanding how a number of economically and geologically important chemical elements partition themselves between the silicates of the outer parts of the Earth and sulphides, minerals and liquids rich in sulphur. This research covers a wide range of applications. It helps to shed light on Earth’s and Moon’s bulk compositions, mantle and core geochemistry, generation of basaltic lavas as well as to provide important information for metallurgy, polymetallic ore deposits and platinum group element (PGE) exploration.