Earth Science DPhil student Odysseus Archontikis wins a G A Paul Graduate Scholarship at University College.

Congratulations to Odysseus Archontikis who has been awarded a senior scholarship from University College in memory of G A Paul, a fellow of Univ College from 1945-62. The award is in recognition of research excellence and the scholarship awards £200 and it also carries some High Table dining rights at the College.

Odysseus is supervised by Prof. Ros Rickaby and funded by a NERC-DTP and an Oxford-Radcliffe Graduate Scholarship (University College). He is fascinated by the bidirectional interplay between plankton (palaeo)biology and the Earth’s climate and his research aims to understand the evolutionary history of marine calcifying microplankton under past and future climate change using combined approaches.

Calcifying microplankton play a pivotal role in the functioning of the global carbon cycle as they help tamp down atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the long term by providing a sink for emitted carbon, thus mediating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding the evolutionary processes driving speciation under past climate regimes will therefore improve predictions of the future character of plankton biodiversity that is the foundation of all ocean ecosystems.

Odysseus has authored six publications, presented at multiple international conferences and sailed as a UK scientist on the international scientific ocean drilling expedition 392 in the Agulhas Plateau, Southern Ocean. He is a Council member and Chair for the Nannofossils of The Micropalaeontological Society, and has received previous awards including the ‘European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling Graduate Research Award’ and the ‘International Nannoplankton Association Foundation Graduate Fellowship’ for academic excellence and innovation.

Many Congratulations Odysseus!