Project PI: Dr. Michael J. Henehan

Michael Henehan, a white man with brown hair and beard, smiling in front of a forested background

I’m a Senior Lecturer in Marine Geochemistry in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. I’m an isotope geochemist, with a particular interest in Boron, Lithium and Silicon isotopes, and use these tools to reconstruct past CO₂ levels and carbon cycling behaviour.

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PostDoctoral Research Associate: Dr. Sophie Westacott

Sophie, a white lady with brown hair, smiling in the wind in front of a mountainous background.

Sophie Westacott is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate on the Petrarch Project in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. She did her PhD at Yale University on the interplay between changes in the ocean silica cycle through the Phanerozoic and the fossil record of marine silicifiers, particularly radiolarians.

Within PETRARCH, Sophie is leading WP1, calibrating the boron isotope-pH proxy in radiolaria.
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PostDoctoral Research Associate: Dr. Markus Adloff

Markus, a white man in winter clothes, in front of a snowy mountainous background.

Markus is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the PETRARCH group at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. After my PhD in Bristol, I worked in Birmingham and Bern, Switzerland. I use and develop Earth system models to understand biogeochemical cycling in different periods of the Phanerozoic and investigate drivers and thresholds of marine anoxia in the PETRARCH project.

Within PETRARCH, Markus is leading WP3, which is concerned with modelling the drivers of ocean anoxic events.
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PhD Candidate: Mr. Bernát Heszler

Bernát, a white male with brown hair and glasses, smiling in front of a rocky landscape.

I’m Bernát, a PhD Student on the Petrarch Project at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol from September 2023.
My research focuses on exploring past climate and environmental change, such as understanding larger perturbations in the Earth’s physical and biological systems, specifically climate change during globally warm intervals and oceanic anoxic events.
Within PETRARCH, I will be looking at the geochemistry of Cretaceous microfossils, with the aim of reconstructing long-term CO2 change through the late Cretaceous.
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PhD Candidate: Mr. Gowtham Sekar

Gowtham, a south asian male with brown hair, smiling for the camera.

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PETRARCH Alumni

Specialist Research Technician: Dr. Emmeline Gray

Emmeline Gray began her time at the University of Bristol as a Specialist Technician on the Petrarch Project, but has since moved on to become technical manager of the Bristol Isotope Group clean laboratories. She did her PhD at the Open University researching Indian Monsoon-driven productivity and stratification changes across the Plio-Pleistocene, using a multiproxy approach. She has experience in isotope geochemistry, trace element analysis and micropalaeontology.

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M/Sci student: Ms. Ellie Chambers

Ellie Chambers, a white female with blond hair smiling in front of some cliffs with her camera.
Ellie did her 4th-year M/Sci Environmental Geoscience research project with us in 2023/24. She completed her integrated masters with a research project looking at boron isotope vital effects in Late Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera, and finished with first class honours. She’s currently preparing her manuscript for publication once a certain PI gets some time away from teaching to work on it…

External Collaborators

Prof. Brian Huber (Smithsonian Institution)
Ms. Giulia Amaglio (Uni. Milan)
Prof. Maria Rose Petrizzo (Uni. Milan)
Prof. Fabien Lombard (LOV)
Prof. Nathalie Vigier (LOV)
Prof. O. Roger Anderson (Columbia University)
Prof. Jochen Erbacher (BGR Hannover)