We are delighted to share the news that Professor James Farquhar, currently Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris), was elected to the U.S Academy of Science. Please read the full article that his home institution, the University of Maryland has recently published.
Professor Farquhar will give a public lecture at the Grand amphithéâtre de l' IPGP on June 13 at 11 am on the following topic:
Geochemistry through the lense of multiple sulfur isotopes
Geochemistry – the study of terrestrial and solar system processes that draws on chemical reasoning – has revealed a number of striking new insights into the evolution of the Earth and of our solar system. The study of isotopes, atomic species from the same element differing only in the number of neutrons, have opened up ways to trace reactions and transport and origin of materials where other chemical information can be scrambled. Elements like sulfur are ready targets for such isotopic studies because they have multiple stable isotopes, are involved in a rich suite of chemical reactions, and are sufficiently abundant to be easily measured and this is where my research has focused for the past 20 years. In this lecture, we will explore how the facet of geochemistry that draws on information preserved by the isotopic composition of sulfur in various forms, has shaped thinking on deep time understanding of processes that have shaped our Earth and its environments. We will examine information that tells of its atmospheric and biospheric states as well as of events that have shaped its evolution.
