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Recent happenings

NIRVANA Lab at Museum of Science, Boston

A Day at the Museum

By Tristan Horner | 2022-05-17

Jurek, Logan, Iulia, Peter, and Tristan were at the Museum of Science, Boston for: “An Encounter with Isotopes, ICP, Lasers, and Mass Spectrometry.” We learned about laser ablation, the Neoma MS/MS MC-ICP-MS, and recent developments in measuring the isotope composition of intact molecules. Thank you to ThermoFisher Scientific for the day out!

NE GeoBio 2022 Logo

Northeast Geobiology Symposium 2022

By Tristan Horner | 2022-04-16

Öykü Mete is at the Northeastern Geobiology Symposium presenting her research looking at the marine distribution of barium (Poster Session #1). Poster info: Mete, Ö.Z., H.H. Kim, A.G. Dunlea, A.V. Subhas, and T.J. Horner (2022). Dissolved distribution of barium in seawater and its relationship to silicon.  

Jule Middleton Defense Cake

Congratulations Dr. Middleton!

By Tristan Horner | 2022-04-11

Congratulations to Dr. Jule Middleton, who today successfully defended their thesis entitled: Barium isotope cycling in the marine environment: Pathways of fractionation and implications for paleoceanographic applications. Amazing work! The thesis can be accessed here, via DSpace@MIT.

GN01 Barium Isotope Data

Paper in press: Margins matter for the Arctic barium budget

By Tristan Horner | 2022-04-01

What controls the distribution of dissolved barium in the Arctic? This is the question we tried to answer in a recent study led by Laura Whitmore. The study integrates measurements of dissolved and particulate barium and barium isotope compositions measured on samples collected during four GEOTRACES Arctic expeditions in 2015—GN01, GN02, GN03, and GN04 (HLY1502,…

Lab Writing Retreat Group Photo

Writing Retreat 2022

By Tristan Horner | 2022-03-05

Seven members of the NIRVANA Labs gathered at the Old Red Farm Inn in Little Harbor, Wareham, for a Writing Retreat—the first group retreat since 2019. Lots of exciting projects coming down the pipeline!

GEOTRACES

We are hiring!

By Tristan Horner | 2022-01-04

We are looking to recruit a Postdoctoral Investigator to join the team to study the cycling of radium and/or barium isotopes in the Southern Ocean as part of GEOTRACES GP17. The initial appointment would be for 18 months with the possibility of renewal for a further 18 months. Review of applications will begin on February…

AGU 2021

NIRIVANA at AGU Fall Meeting 2021

By Tristan Horner | 2021-12-13

Be sure to check out the following NIRVANA presentations at AGU 2021: Barium in seawater: An isotopic perspective (OS25E-1044), Tuesday, 14 December, 16:00 – 18:00 in Poster Hall D-F The role of P-rich precursors in barite formation in the ocean (OS25E-1046), Tuesday, 14 December, 16:00 – 18:00 in Poster Hall, D-F Putting productivity proxies to…

Peter Crockford

Welcome Peter!

By Tristan Horner | 2021-12-01

We’re pleased to welcome Peter Crockford, WHOI Postdoctoral Scholar, to the NIRVANA Labs! Peter will be researching modern and ancient biogeochemical cycles alongside Ann Dunlea, Tristan Horner, and Scott Wankel.

Workshop venue

Paper(s) in press: Putting productivity proxies to the test with GEOTRACES data

By Tristan Horner | 2021-11-23

Are you interested in productivity, paleoceanography, or proxies, but don’t know where to start? Maybe you have a question about a specific bioactive element and want to find out if it has already been addressed? Or perhaps you just want to look at cartoons summarizing modern marine micronutrient cycling? If any of these apply to…

Paper in press: Studying sinking in the subarctic Pacific

By Tristan Horner | 2021-06-28

Study led my Muntsa Roca-Martí published in Elem. Sci. Anth. examining the composition, modification, and export of particulate bioelements (C, N, P, Si) at Ocean Station Papa. This comprehensive characterization of marine particles was conducted as part of the first EXPORTS field campaign in the northeast Pacific, and the paper is part of a special…