Three award-winning women from SEE

Three female researchers from the School of Earth and Environment have won 2016 Geological Society Awards.

l-r: Dr Tracy Aze, Dr Anja Schmidt, and Professor Liane Benning

Dr_Tracy_Aze_Dr_Anja_Schmidt_and_Professor_Liane_Benning

Dr Tracy Aze has won the Lyell Fund Award;  Dr Anja Schmidt has won the William Smith Fund Award, and Professor Liane Benning has been awarded the Bigsby Medal.

Tracy is a Lecturer in Marine Micropaleontology in the Earth Surface Science Institute.  Her research is at the interface of palaeobiology and palaeoclimatology. Using the marine plankton fossil record she investigates evolutionary trends, the interactions between species and the response of organisms to environmental change. Her current research is focused upon determining the factors that influence extinction risk during the Cenozoic (65 million years to the present day) to determine whether there are species or ecosystems that are more vulnerable to extinction in the face of rapid environmental change.

Anja is an Academic Research Fellow in the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science since February 2013. She combines expertise in atmospheric science and volcanology to advance the current understanding of volcanic impacts and hazards. In particular, she investigates the impact of volcanism on atmospheric chemistry, climate, air quality, human health, ecosystems and aviation using a wide range of atmospheric models and volcanological datasets. She also applies atmospheric chemistry and aerosol modelling skills to non-volcanic topics in atmospheric and climate sciences.

Liane co-located at GFZ, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany and in the Earth Surface Science Institute, is a Professor of Experimental Biogeochemistry.  Her research addresses geochemical reaction mechanisms at low to hydrothermal temperatures in inorganic and biologic systems.  Her Research team are applying a variety of laboratory and some field approaches to study biogeochemical processes (e.g., nucleation, growth and crystallization kinetics of minerals, fungal weathering, biomineralization, life in extreme geothermal and cryogenic areas, etc).

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