Kirsty Penkman

Last updated

Kirsty Elizabeth Helena Penkman is a analytical chemist and geochemist known for her research in biomolecular archaeology, the use of ancient DNA, amino acid dating, and other biomolecules in order to date fossils and learn about the world as it was in prehistoric times. [1] [2] She a professor in chemistry at the University of York. [3]

Penkman's research has dated early archeology found in East Anglia to 700,000 years ago, the oldest artifacts known in Northern Europe. [4] She has argued that climate change and human landscape modification are likely to destroy the ancient biological materials that go into her studies. [5]

In 2008, the Quaternary Research Association gave Penkman their Lewis Penny Medal for her contributions to the study of Quaternary strata. [6] In 2012 she was a winner of the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences. [7] Penkman is the 2016 winner of the Joseph Black Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry "for rigorous and ground-breaking work in the field of amino acid racemisation dating and its application to earth and archaeological sciences". [8] She is also the winner of the 2017 Pittcon Royal Society of Chemistry Award, [9] and the winner in the Chemistry category of the 2020 UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists. [10]

Penkman has an M.Chem. from University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from Newcastle University. [11] Her 2005 doctoral thesis title was "Amino acid geochronology: a closed system approach to test and refine the UK model". [12]

Related Research Articles

Quaternary geology is the branch of geology that study developments from 2.58 million years ago to the present. In particular, Quaternary geology study the process and deposits that developed during the Quaternary, a period characterized by glacial-interglacial cycles. Quaternary geology has developed over time from being originally a branch of historical geology to becoming a science on its own.

Amino acid dating is a dating technique used to estimate the age of a specimen in paleobiology, molecular paleontology, archaeology, forensic science, taphonomy, sedimentary geology and other fields. This technique relates changes in amino acid molecules to the time elapsed since they were formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JEOL</span> Japanese manufacturer of scientific instruments

JEOL, Ltd. is a major developer and manufacturer of electron microscopes and other scientific instruments, industrial equipment and medical equipment.

Quaternary science is the subfield of geology which studies the Quaternary Period commonly known as the ice age. The Quaternary Period is a time period that started around 2.58 million years ago and continues today. This period is divided into two epochs – the Pleistocene Epoch and the Holocene Epoch. The aim of Quaternary science is to understand everything that happened during the Pleistocene Epoch and the Holocene Epoch to be able to acquire fundamental knowledge about Earth's environment, ecosystem, climate changes, etc. Quaternary science was first studied during the nineteenth century by Georges Cuvier, a French scientist. Most Quaternary scientists have studied the history of the Quaternary to predict future changes in climate.

Rachel Wilson is a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Wilson's work integrates electrophysiology, neuropharmacology, molecular genetics, functional anatomy, and behavior to explore how neural circuits are organized to react and sense a complex environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists</span>

Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists was established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Leonard Blavatnik, chairman of Access Industries, and the New York Academy of Sciences, headed by president Nicholas Dirks.

Isao Noda is a chemical engineer whose research has focused on polymer science and spectroscopy. He holds ninety patents granted in the United States and the EU, has published over three hundred articles, co-authored three books, and received a number of industry-wide awards and recognition for his contributions to his fields of research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraldine L. Richmond</span> American scientist (born 1953)

Geraldine Lee Richmond is an American chemist and physical chemist who is serving as the Under Secretary of Energy for Science in the US Department of Energy. Richmond was confirmed to her DOE role by the United States Senate on November 5, 2021. Richmond is the Presidential Chair in Science and professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon (UO). She conducts fundamental research to understand the chemistry and physics of complex surfaces and interfaces. These understandings are most relevant to energy production, atmospheric chemistry and remediation of the environment. Throughout her career she has worked to increase the number and success of women scientists in the U.S. and in many developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Richmond has served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she received the 2013 National Medal of Science.

Cynthia Larive is an American scientist and academic administrator serving as the chancellor of University of California, Santa Cruz. Larive's research focuses on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry. She was previously a professor of chemistry and provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of California, Riverside. She is a fellow of AAAS, IUPAC and ACS, associate editor for the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry and editor of the Analytical Sciences Digital Library.

Renã A. S. Robinson is an associate professor and the Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips Chancellor's Faculty Fellow in the department of chemistry at the Vanderbilt University, where she is the principal investigator of the RASR Laboratory.

Jeanette Grasselli Brown is an American analytical chemist and spectroscopist who is known for her work with Standard Oil of Ohio as an industrial researcher in the field of spectroscopy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christy Haynes</span> American analytical chemist

Christy Lynn Haynes is a chemist at the University of Minnesota. She works at the interface of analytical, biological, and nanomaterials chemistry.

Emily P. Balskus is an American chemical biologist, enzymologist, microbiologist, and biochemist born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1980. She has been on the faculty of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department of Harvard University since 2011 and is currently the Morris Kahn Professor. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and three book chapters. Since 2012 she has been invited to give over 170 lectures, has held positions on various editorial boards, and served as a reviewer for ACS and Nature journals among others. Balskus also currently serves as a consultant for Novartis, Kintai Therapeutics, and Merck & Co.

Karen Jane Faulds is a Scottish academic and Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. She develops surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for bioanalysis, and has won several awards for her research, including the Coblentz Society Craver Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Meng</span> Singaporean-American materials scientist

Ying Shirley Meng is a Singaporean-American materials scientist and academic. She is a professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) chief scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Meng is the author and co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapter and six patents. She serves on the executive committee for battery division at the Electrochemical Society and she is the Editor-in-Chief for MRS Energy & Sustainability.

Antje Baeumner is a German chemist who is Professor and Director of the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Her research considers biosensors and lab-on-a-chip devices for the detection of pathogenic organisms.

Sun Hur is a South Korean-born scientist. She is an Oscar M. Schloss Professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Rebekka Klausen is an American chemist who is the Second Decade Society Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her research considers carbon and silicon-based nanomaterials for optoelectronic devices. She was a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.

Bonnie Ann Wallace, FRSC is a British and American biophysicist and biochemist. She is a professor of molecular biophysics in the department of biological sciences, formerly the department of crystallography, at Birkbeck College, University of London, U.K.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan M. Lunte</span> American chemist and academic

Susan M. Lunte is an American chemist who is the Ralph N. Adams Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas. She also works as director of the NIH COBRE Center for Molecular Analysis of Disease Pathways. She was awarded the 2023 ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry.

References

  1. "On the Dating Scene: Kirsty Penkman combines analytical science, archaeology, earth science, and oceanography to delve into the history of our planet. Here, she describes her work in amino acid dating, and tells us why understanding the Earth's past helps us prepare for what's to come", The Analytical Scientist, retrieved 2019-09-04
  2. "Dr Kirsty Penkman", About staff, University of York Department of Chemistry, retrieved 2019-09-04
  3. "Dr. Kirsty Elizabeth Helena Penkman", York Research Database: Researchers, University of York, retrieved 2019-09-04
  4. Hooper, Rowan (14 December 2005), "Did humans colonise north Europe earlier than thought?", New Scientist
  5. High, Kirsty; Penkman, Kirsty (2 November 2016), "Environmental change could be damaging some of the world's most precious archaeology: Wetland disappearance is destroying organic historical evidence that's been preserved for thousands of years", The Independent
  6. York scientist wins award for fossil amino acid advance, University of York, 14 January 2008
  7. "Top prizes awarded to York academics", York Press, 20 December 2012
  8. Joseph Black Award 2016 Winner, Royal Society of Chemistry, retrieved 2019-09-04
  9. The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (9 March 2017), "Pittcon 2017 Award Recipients for Outstanding Achievements in Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy", R&D Magazine
  10. "Three innovative scientists receive US$100,000 (£75,000) each from prestigious Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists". Blavatnik Awards Young Scientists. New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  11. "Kirsty Penkman". Blavatnik Awards Young Scientists. New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  12. "Catalogue record for Penkman's PhD thesis". Jisc Library Hub Discover. Retrieved 18 January 2020.