Professor Ros Rickaby elected Fellow of the Royal Society

We are incredibly proud to announce that Professor Ros Rickaby, Chair of Geology has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society along with 60 other exceptional scientists from around the world and one of 8 from the University of Oxford, for their outstanding contributions to science.

Ros investigates the interactions between life and the composition of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere using an innovative combination of geochemical, microbiological, and genomic approaches. Her highly original research uses the past to understand ocean oxygenation, the biological response to ocean acidification, the critical role of metal-bearing-enzymes in the ocean, and the role of alkalinity in driving atmospheric CO2 and climate change.

Ros leads the OceanBUG research group, in developing inventive ways to reconstruct oceans of the past and in understanding the adaptation of organisms and changing ocean chemistry in the modern perturbed world.

She says of the award: “I am absolutely stunned but thrilled to receive such an honour! Proud as I am to have those three letters by my name; they also very much reflect the incredible set of outrageously talented folk that I have had the good fortune to work with as mentors and colleagues here in Oxford Earth Sciences, and as young researchers coming through the Oceanbug group. To all of them, I am hugely grateful.”

Professor Mike Kendall, our new Head of Department said: “I am delighted that Ros has been recognised for her innovative and ground breaking research. Her research marks an impressive fusion of chemistry and biology with geology to better understand our oceans and how they are changing. It is great that our Department excels in a diverse range of research areas, and Ros is an exemplar.”

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said of the awardees: “It is an honour to welcome so many outstanding researchers from around the world into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“Through their careers so far, these researchers have helped further our understanding of human disease, biodiversity loss and the origins of the universe. I am also pleased to see so many new Fellows working in areas likely to have a transformative impact on our society over this century, from new materials and energy technologies to synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. I look forward to seeing what great things they will achieve in the years ahead.”

Many congratulations to Ros on this well-deserved honour.