Skip to main content
Overview

Professor Kevin Burton

Professor of Geochemistry


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor of Geochemistry in the Department of Earth Sciences+44 (0) 191 33 44298

Biography


2010 – present  — Professor of Geochemistry, Director of NCIET, Durham University

2007 – 2010  — Professor of Earth Sciences, Department of Earth Sciences,

2006 – 2007  — Professor of Paleooceanography, Université Paul-Sabatier,

2000 – 2006  — Professor of Isotope Geochemistry, Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University

1999 – 2000  — Professor of Geochemistry, Université Blaise-Pascal

1998 – 1999  — University Lecturer, Dept. de Sciences de la Terre, Université Blaise-Pascal

1997 – 1998  — Visiting scientist, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Univ. of Michigan.

1995 – 1997  — Physicien adjoint, IPG-Paris, Lab. de Géochimie et Cosmochimie.

1994 – 1995  — European Science Exchange Fellowship, IPG-Paris, Géochimie et Cosmochimie, Univ. Paris VII. Royal Society and CNRS-CIES funded fellowship.

1991 – 1994  — NERC Advanced Research Fellowship, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

1988 – 1991  — University Research Associate, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

1986 – 1988  — NERC Ad hominem Research Fellowship, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge


Career Research Highlights


Isotope geochemistry is a broad field that has made some remarkable contributions to our understanding of the history, surface process and inner workings of the Earth and other solar system objects. Personal research interests have sought to bring together a number of interrelated disciplines within the Earth and environmental sciences, linked by the use of a range of mass spectrometric techniques to provide key information on:

 

  • The timing of events, from the age of the solar system to the timing of climatic or tectonic events recorded in ocean sediments
  • Tracing the sources of components, from ocean circulation to identifying the types of stars that contributed to our solar system.
  • Past conditions of the Earth system, from the redox state of the mantle to past temperatures of the Oceans.

 

In parallel, my research has been driven by the measurement of both conventional long-lived radiogenic isotopes and non-traditional stable isotopes, with an emphasis on measuring isotope compositions to a very high precision with enhanced spatial resolution (i.e. on smaller samples).


Committee and Society Service


Expert evaluator for EU 6th and 7th Framework

2002 – 2006  Member of the NERC - Ion microprobe steering committee


Fellowships


1991 – 1994 — NERC Advanced Research Fellowship

1986 – 1988 — NERC Ad hominem Research Fellowship


Invited Speaker (selected)


2005, 2010; EGU General Assembly[KAM1] 

2007, 2009: AGU Fall meeting

2004; 2006: Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference,

-

Invited lectures at Paris, Zurich, Berne (Switzerland) Royal Holloway and Imperial College (London), Oxford, Bristol, Durham, Southampton and British Antarctic Survey.


Membership of Organisations and Societies


Member: American Geophysical Union

Member: Geochemical Society


Publications

Chapter in book

Journal Article

Supervision students