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Ryoga Maeda obtained on February 6th 2023, the academic degree of DOCTOR in of SCIENCE with the thesis "Chemical and isotopic characterization of Antarctica meteorites: The chemical and isotopic effects of thermal processing and terrestrial weathering on the (re)distribution of trace eleme

Tessi Loeffelmann obtained on February 3rd 2023, the academic degree of DOCTOR in INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES. The thesis of her doctoral thesis is "There and back again - Mobility and burial rites in early medieval England c.

Christina Makarona obtained on Tuesday February 28, the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES. The title of her doctoral thesis is  "Geochemical proxies for the technological study of Late Bronze Age ceramics from south-western Cyprus". 

On February 15, 2023 Sarah Dalle successfully defended her thesis “Exposing hidden transitions. Integrating strontium and radiocarbon data from archaeological cremated bone within the Belgian landscape”.

Tessi Loeffelmann paper in titled "Sr analyses from only known Scandinavian cremation cemetery in Britain illuminate early Viking journey with horse and dog across the North Sea" receives lots of media attention. 

 This year field season in Antarctica led to the discovery of an almost 8 kg meteorite.

PhD researcher Flore Van Maldeghem is very active in the diffusion of AMGC research, and its communication to schools and a large public. 

Dr. Christina Cheung in now Professor in Hong-Kong. 

Great start for our 2022-2023 meteorite search in East Antarctica, using the Belgian station Princess Elisabeth as logistic base.

Steven and his team enjoy a new toy for studying (micro)meteorites and the flux of extra-terrestrial particules to Earth. 

On December 12 & 13, 2002, AMGC members metin Oostende, at the Thermae Palace Hotel for the annual team building activities. Presentations were given and discussions occured under the leadership of Prof. Steven Goderis:         

From October 11 to today Dr. Marion Peral was a scientist on the Joides Resolution IODP Exp 397. 

Philippe Claeys was in Marocco end of November invited to present a keynote talks during the inaugural session of the MedGU 2022 Meeting.

Join the BB-LAB to study the impact of past Rapid Climate Change on human mobility in prehistoric Belgium.

A new paper as part of the recent PhD of Dr. Sietze de Graaff is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

This year AMGC made a razzia on Research Foundation Flanders Travel Grants (FWO) to spread our research results all over the world. 

Dr. Marta Marchegiano, post-doctoral researcher at AMGC received an International Association of Sedimentologists IAS post-doctoral grant.

The pre-print of Sietze de Graaff is second in the SSRN top 10 list to download list. 

Dr. Ségolène Rabin is a post-doctoral researcher with Professor Steven Goderis on the BELSPO project DESIRE. 

Benjamin Jentgen obtained on July, 5th 2022, the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES. The title of his doctoral thesis is  "Histological and remodelling patterns among neosauropods in insular environments". 

Dr. Niels de Winter video for Universiteit Vlaanderen is online here

This week at the UK Archaeological Science Conference (UKAS) held in Aberdeen, UK, AMGC researchers: Carina Gerritzen, Ellie Stamataki and Dr. Hannah James all 3 received an award for their poster presentation. 

Sietze de Graaff obtained on April 26, 2022, the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES. The title of his doctoral thesis is: "Making Sense of Destruction: A Geochemical and Petrological Investigation of the Impact Melt Rocks and Crystalline Basement of the Chicxulub Impact Structure.

Vendula Smolikovà obtained on April 21, 2022 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES. The title of her doctoral thesis is: "Determination of trace elements in the aquatic environment using diffusive gradients in thin films technique"

The paper by Dr. Christina Cheung a post-doctoral researcher from AMGC and BBLab made the headline in the South China Morning Post.

Barbara Veselka, post-doctoral researcher, recent paper titled  "Estimating age-at-death in burnt adult human remains using the Falys-Prangle method" Is within the top cited for 2020-2021 in the journal "American Journal of Biological Anthropology"

 Dr Hannah James, Jacob Griffith, Dr. Christina Cheung and co-authors published a paper in "Frontiers for Young Mind" describing their research on the application of isotope tracers measured in teeth to document migration and diet. 

On Monday 28 of March, Dr. Niels de Winter presents his research on how North Sea oyster-shells register climate changes at very high resolution (in Dutch). For "Universiteit Vlaanderen" filming at the Choux de Bruxelles, near VUB campus. 

The book to honor Prof. Walter Alvarez career achievements is now published online by Geological Society of America Special papers. Title From the Guajira desert to Appenines and from the Mediterranean microplate to the Mexican killer asteroid  Check it out here

Pim Kaskes, PhD student working on Chicxulub crater is one of the 2022 winners of the Career Development Award from the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) presented this year at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston Texas.

AMGC is hiring a new PhD student on a project in collaboration with SCK-CEN  Topic: Development of fast and sensitive methods for radiotoxicological and biodistribution studies/analyses of radionuclides used in medical applications.  AMGC contact: Prof. Martine Leermakers

Machine learning helps find Antarctic meteorites, new paper by PhD student Veronica Tollenaar (@FNRS) and Dr. Harry Zekollari in Science Advances read it here in open access. A fine collaboration @ULBruxelles, @VUBrussel, @TUdelft.  Twitter 

Join a motivated, dynamic and diverse research group in Brussels, supported by outstanding analytical facilities. 

Dr. Barbara Veselka, AMGC and MARI specialist in Osteology, co-authors a recent paper in Nature titled "Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age".

Pim Kaskes receives this award from the Planetary Science Institute to present his PhD research at the 2022 Lunar and Planetary Conference in Houston, Texas

David De Vleeschouwer did his PhD as FWO fellow within AMGC at the VUB with Philippe Claeys, on orbital forcing influence of Devonian Greenhouse Climates, after successful years in MARUM Bremen and an IODP cruise offshore Australia, he is now the new Earth System professor a

Good researchers never grow old... New Paper published this week by Emeritus Professor Eddy Keppens.

Video of the ceremony VUB Vice-rector research Karin Vanderkerken and Minister for Science Policy Thomas Dermine is on YouTube click here Website Paleontologica Belgica

National Institute of Polar Research International (NIPR) Internship award granted to Ph student Ryoga Maeda.  Ryoga will spend 3 months at NIPR from December 2021 to March 2022.

Dr. Kevin Salesse from AMGC & BBLab experimentally cremated pigs remains and then used stable isotopes of C and O together with Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) to determine the position of a body on the pyre and the presence of footwea

Great work by Dr. Ines Tomasek, in collaboration with AMGC'ers and FARD team-members.

Dr. Niels de Winter is the 2021 EOS Wetenschappen Pipet Award laureate

Bastien Soens obtained on September 17, 2021 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis: 'Petrographic and geochemical characterization of the micrometeorite collection from the Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica: Nature and origin of the extraterrestrial f

Former AMGC'ers Dr. David De Vleeschouwer (PhD 2014), now Earth System Professor at Muenster University and Dr. Matthias Sinnesael (PhD.

In Oostende on Saturday 7th Aug. Flore Van Maldeghem from AMGC explained the formation of the solar system, planets and meteorites to the next generation of geologists and planetary scientists.

In this paper, titled "Formation of the crater suevite sequence from the Chicxulub peak ring: A petrographic, geochemical and sedimentological characterization", recently published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, Pim Kaskes, FWO PhD fellow, describes the thick suevite sequences

International Association of Sedimentologists funds Johan Maastrichtian Geo-Heritage project

Dr Matthias Sinnesael last (of many) paper from his PhD at AMGC is now available in Geology (read it here).

Nice article in Dutch in Het Nieuwblad, a very popular journal in Belgium over meteorites, with an extensive interview of Prof. Steven Goderis.

In this new paper published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment Dr. Niels de Winter and co-authors reconstruct absolute seasonal temperature by measuring clumped isotope in bivalve shells.

Ehab Abdulbur Alfakhory obtained on June 10, 2021 the academic degree of  DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis: 'Development of the Diffusive Gradient in Thin-Films (DGT) passive sampling technique for Platinum Group Elements (PGEs) and its application in urban rivers'

A new laser ablation triple-quad inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, coupled with high performance liquid chromatography for AMGC are part of the large instruments funded for the VUB by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) this year, with Proferssor Steven Goderi

PhD student Sietze de Graaff wrote this very complete and detailed paper showing how the impact melt material formed within the 200 km size Chicxulub impact structure, based on the material recovered by the IODP-ICDP drilling in 2016 within the peak-ring part of the structure.

New CycloNet project (European Cyclo-Stratigraphy Network) supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) is presented at the EGU 2022 General Assembly by Philippe Claeys, Christian Zeeden, David De Vleeschouwer and Matthias Sinnesael.

Ryoga Maeda PhD student on EOS ET-Home project published the first paper of his PhD on alteration of meteorites collected in Antarctica.

On Tuesday 17 of May 2022, at 7 PM, Professor Steven Goderis presented a lecture to the "Koninklijke Vlaamse Chemische Vereniging" (Royal Flemish Chemical Society, KVCV) at the VUB, titled:"Iridium distributed around the globe following the Chicxulub impact event"

Dr. Niels de Winter (PhD 2019) is selected for BOTH the 2021 EOS Pipet price and for the New Scientist Science Talent 2021.  Please vote on websites of New Scientist Wetenschapstalent 2021 and EOS Pipet price 2021: to support Niels

Former AMGC'er Dr. Matthias Van Ginneken is first author a new manuscript in Science Advances describing the explosion of a meteorite above Antarctica some 430000 years ago, and the production of a touchdown event when a vapor jets interact with the ice sheet

Annelies Van Heyst obtained on April 1, 2021 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis: 'Challenges in the evaluation of mineral oil hydrocarbons in food' Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. Marc Elskens

PhD student Marta Hlad (FWO Fellow) is first author of a new paper recently published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology together with other members of the CRUMBEL team, led by Professor Christophe Snoeck. 

Days were shorter in time of the dinosaurs, according to 2020 AMGC paper in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). This paper is among the AGU top-download of 2020

Chunyang Zhou obtained on February 16, 2021 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis: 'Understanding biogeochemical processes of trace elements in marine sediments at various spatial scales' Promotor: Prof. dr. Yue Gao

Check out our two flying Mass Spectrometers entering the VUB building F through the window on the 8th floor. 

Matthias Sinnesael obtained on June 12, 2020 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the doctoral thesis: "Astronomical cycle identification methods and their application to high-resolution Ordovician stratigraphy".

Prof. Steven Goderis published a paper in Science Advances showing the presence of the KT boundary Ir positive anomaly within the Chicxulub crater in Yucatan (read it here open access)

Camille Gaulier is the laureate of the VLIZ (Flanders Marine Institute) North Sea Award 2020 for her research on trace metals and their speciation in the Southern Bight of the North Sea and along the Scheldt estuary.

AMGC paleoclimate research using speleothems (stalagmite and cave deposits) is featured on Belgian TV (RTBF), with interview of Sophie Verheyden and Philippe Claeys. Click here to watch video (in French)

Professor Steven Goderis from AMGC was in charge of the 2019-2020 Belgian mission to Antarctica that collected meteorite from the Nansen Ice field, near Princess Elisabeth station. The international mission was composed also of Dr. Hamed Pourkhorsandi (ULB), Professor N

Click here to download the filepdf filejob-vub-2020.pdf (59 KB)

For the scientists of the future, in the framework of "Kinderuniversiteit" at the VUB, PhD researcher Flore Van Maldeghem organized a workshop searching for and finding micrometeorites on the roof-tops in Brussels (see below a summary In Dutch) Samenvatting

Joint PhD between the KU Leuven and the VUB, supervised by Professors Patrick Degryse and Philippe Claeys.

PhD jointly with Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil, carried out with AMGC'ers Frank Dehairs and Marc Elskens.   

More biogeoarchaelogy output from AMGC, Niels de Winter, Christophe Snoeck and Philippe Claeys, research presented at theBone Diagenesis meeting organized in Oxford in 2017.  Read it here

Genyffer Troina obtained on October 17, 2019 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following thesis "Trophic interactions and ecology of cetaceans from the western South Atlantic"

More biogeoarchaelogy output from AMGC, research presented at the Bones Diagenesis meeting organized in Oxford in 2017.

Philippe Claeys video on YouTube for Universiteit Van Vlaanderen (in Dutch) about the end of the dinosaurs and the formation of the Chicxulub crater in Yucatan 66 million years ago, cause by the collision on Earth of a 10 to 12 km asteroid.

During her 1 month stay, Dr Perrine Mangion performed the extraction and isotopic analyses of N and O in nitrates from groundwater and river water samples from La Réunion to identify the origin of the nitrate contamination.

The output is spread 50% in Earth and Planetary sciences, the rest is distributed between 9 other disciplines from Environmental Sciences 8.7%) to Arts and Humanity (6.1%), Physics and Astronomy (4.8%) etc. See figure below

On October 29, at Wiels (http://www.wiels.org) a series of conferences presented by AMGC'ers Natacha Brion and Philippe Claeys, together with Landscape Architect Bas Smets discussion how to properly manage urban waters in Brussels and propose solutions for the future.

Two lectures on Wed. Oct. 23 on VUB campus, room D.2.01, by Sebastien Olive (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences) on Placoderms (fishes) and by Philippe Claeys on the dinosaur extinction.

Our recent PNAS publication on the mechanism of the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago led to a special article (in Dutch) in the popular journal "Het Laatste Nieuws".

Steven, Thomas, Sietze and Pim then carried out field work around the Araguainha crater, trying to avoid deadly snake bites....

Innoviris, the Brussels Agency for Research and Innovation supports this new project called SUBLIMUS through its Bridge Strategic Platform: Green Chemistry action. SUBLIMUS  develops an integrated low-cost and green process to harvest the substantial quantities of gold, platinum, silver pr

Paper title: An extraterrestrial trigger for the mid-Ordovician ice age: Dust from the breakup of the L-chondrite parent body.

Paper title: An extraterrestrial trigger for the mid-Ordovician ice age: Dust from the breakup of the L-chondrite parent body.

This new paper written with a large number of colleagues from the IODP-ICDP expedition 364 describes how the Chicxulub impact vaporized sediments from the target rock and injected a large volume of S-rich components into the atmosphere leading to the mass extinction.

JEONG-HYUN LEE Dept. of Geological Sciences, Chungnam National Universit MARINE OXYGENATION AND THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF PALEOZOIC REEFS Friday, Sept. 13, 2019 11 am, room F10.720

Geological Society of America Special Papers 542 just published: Manuscripts online at https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/2157: 4 papers authored by AMGC'ers/

Manuscripts online at https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/2157 87Sr/86Sr record from the Lower Cretaceous pelagic Maiolica limestone (Central Apennines, Italy) and its offset from the global seawater reference curve 

JOHN W. VALLEY Charles R. Van Hise Distinguished Professor Dept. of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin – Madison HADEAN ZIRCONS ARE NOT FROM HELL: EVIDENCE FROM ATOM PROBE & SIMS Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 4 pm, room F10.720

Professors Yue Gao and Martine Leermakers organized a DGT workshop and training in Vietnam as parts of the Global Minds Programme. Afterwards they went on a field trip to deploy DGT in the Đáy River

PhD student Pim Kaskes receives "The Barringer Family Fund for Meteorite Impact Research 2019" to carry out detailed field mapping of the Chicxulub crater ejecta in North America.   see https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Awards/Barringer_Fund/awardees/

On Monday 17 June 2019, Philippe Claeys is invited by Universiteit Van Vlaanderen, at Club Fuse in Brussels, to talk about the extinction of the dinosaures (In Dutch). Show starts at 19:00 and is to be recorded for the YouTube channel of Universiteit Van Vlaanderen 

BY GUILLAUME LENOIR

Alicia Van Ham - Meert obtained on May 06, 2019 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the thesis: "Development of non-destructive analysis protocols for the chemical and isotopic analysis of archaeological materials".

Niels de Winter obtained on February 22, 2019 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis " A critical assessment of the proxies, archives and techniques available for high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions".  With Philippe Claeys as advisor. 

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP IN MERCURY MARINE BIOGEOCHEMISTRY

Dr. Christophe Snoeck is nominated as Archeaologist of the year 2019 and his research paper: 

De Vrije Universiteit Brussel organiseert maandag 26 november een live-streaming van de landing van het ruimtetuig InSight op Mars. Om 21 uur Belgische tijd landt InSight op de rode planeet.

Kevin De Bondt obtained on September 21, 2018 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the doctoral thesis "The forgotten connections between groundwater and urban water management policies: Stable isotope and the Urban Hydrological Landscape applied to Brussels".

Christophe Snoeck's paper on " Strontium isotope analysis on cremated human remains from Stonehenge support links with west Wales " that was published in Nature Scientific Reports is seen as a breaktrough in developing insights on the Stonehenge mystery.

AMGC ORGANIZES THE CYCLOSTRATIGRAPHY INTERCOMPARISON PROJECT 2018 WORKSHOP IN BRUSSELS From July 30 till August 01, 2018 the AMGC research group will organize the Cyclostratigraphy Intercomparison Project 2018 Workshop in the ‘Paleis de Academiën” in Brussels.

BY LIDIA PITTARELLO

The paper "Rapid recovery of life at ground zero of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction" is in collaboration with many international science researchers including Prof. Dr.

Tara Vandermarken obtained on May 25, 2018 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis: "Development of estrogens in the environment and in food packaging materials".  PhD advisors Marc Elskens.

Stef Vansteenberge obtained on May 25 2018 the academic degree of DOCTOR OF SCIENCES with the following doctoral thesis:  Reconstruction of last interglacial & last glacial inception paleoclimate using Belgian speleothems. Promotor: Prof. dr. Philippe Claeys

BY STEVEN GODERIS

BY CHRISTOPHE SNOECK

BY POPPE L. DE BOER

AMGC’ers Steven Goderis and Matthias Van Ginnenken brought back more than 100 kg of material full of micrometeorite, their successful expedition is reported in De Standaard De Morgen RTL/info

BY KRISTOF  CUADROS  PEREZ Climate Response