Richard P. Evershed | |
---|---|
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | British |
Occupation | Professor of Biogeochemistry |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Nottingham Trent University |
Thesis | (1981) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Biogeochemistry |
Sub-discipline | Archaeological chemistry |
Institutions | Bristol University |
Website | http://www.bris.ac.uk/chemistry/people/richard-p-evershed/overview.html |
Richard Evershed is a Professor of Biogeochemistry and Fellow of the Royal Society.
Evershed attended St Ivo School,St Ives in the late 1960s [1] and graduated in 1978 from Nottingham Trent University (Trent Polytechnic,Nottingham) with a BSc in Applied Chemistry. He undertook his PhD in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Keele,investigating pheromones in social insects. Following his PhD he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Organic Geochemistry Unit in the School of Chemistry,University of Bristol,where he worked with Professor Geoffrey Eglinton and Professor James Maxwell to develop GC/MS and HPLC methodologies to investigate porphyrins in crude oils and source rocks. He moved to the Department of Chemistry,University of Liverpool in 1984 to manage a biochemical mass spectrometry unit,before taking up a position as Lecturer in the School of Chemistry,University of Bristol,in 1993. He was promoted to Reader in 1996,and a Chair of Biochemistry in 2000. [2]
He is currently the Director of the Bristol Biogeochemistry Research Centre,and the Bristol node of the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2010. [3]
Evershed's research is highly interdisciplinary. He applies the principles and techniques of organic and analytical chemistry,to address questions spanning archaeological chemistry and palaeontology to biogeochemistry. These diverse areas are linked by his overarching interests in the preservation,recycling,decay and transport processes that impact biological materials once they enter the geosphere. [4]
He pioneered several methodologies to analyse archaeological materials and provide ‘chemical fingerprints’,for example the method of lipid residue analysis in archaeological pottery. He has also developed techniques for comparing and distinguishing between food signatures and possible environmental contamination. [5] His research has had a significant impact on our understanding of human activity in the past,opening new avenues for the identification of plant and animal exploitation in the past. These methods have contributed to our understanding of the origins of dairying,and provided evidence for the earliest use of beeswax,for example. [6] Other areas his research has focused on includes stable isotope applications for studying ancient diet and agriculture,the study of marker compounds in ancient soils,and the analysis of ancient tars,resins and embalming agents. [7] His palaeontological research has applied a similar approach to fossils,to develop a better understanding of the processes involved in the diagenesis of fossil and sub fossil organisms.
In biogeochemistry his research has focused on understanding the fate of soil organic matter. His research has developed biomolecular and isotopic methods to characterise soil organic matter and to understand how soil organisms impact the cycling of organic matter. The wider aim of this research is to produce better models for nutrient cycles,which are central to understanding the effects of global warming and intensive agriculture. This study of organic matter has also been applied to palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimatic reconstruction,using sedimentary archives such as ocean sediments and peat bogs.
One of his areas of research involves the relationships between prehistoric milk use and the evolution of lactase persistence. His research suggests that milk was being processed in pots in Europe in the 7th millennium BC,well before the lactase persistence allele became common there. [8] Evershed was awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant (2013–2018) for Neo-Milk,The Milking Revolution in Temperate Neolithic Europe,which investigated where,when and why dairying arose in temperate Neolithic Europe. [9]
Evershed was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Interdisciplinary Award in 2003, [10] and the Aston Medal of the British Mass Spectrometry Society in 2010. [11] In 2016,he was the winner of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Robert Boyle Prize for Analytical Science. [12] In 2002,he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Lectureship. [13]
Environmental chemistry is the scientific study of the chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur in natural places. It should not be confused with green chemistry,which seeks to reduce potential pollution at its source. It can be defined as the study of the sources,reactions,transport,effects,and fates of chemical species in the air,soil,and water environments;and the effect of human activity and biological activity on these. Environmental chemistry is an interdisciplinary science that includes atmospheric,aquatic and soil chemistry,as well as heavily relying on analytical chemistry and being related to environmental and other areas of science.
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical,physical,geological,and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment. In particular,biogeochemistry is the study of biogeochemical cycles,the cycles of chemical elements such as carbon and nitrogen,and their interactions with and incorporation into living things transported through earth scale biological systems in space and time. The field focuses on chemical cycles which are either driven by or influence biological activity. Particular emphasis is placed on the study of carbon,nitrogen,oxygen,sulfur,iron,and phosphorus cycles. Biogeochemistry is a systems science closely related to systems ecology.
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5β-Coprostanol (5β-cholestan-3β-ol) is a 27-carbon stanol formed from the net reductive metabolism of cholesterol (cholest-5en-3β-ol) in the gut of most higher animals and birds. This compound has frequently been used as a biomarker for the presence of human faecal matter in the environment. 5β-coprostanol is thought to be exclusively bacterial in origin.
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Geoffrey Eglinton,FRS was a British chemist and emeritus professor and senior research fellow in earth sciences at the University of Bristol.
Renato Zenobi is a Swiss chemist. He is Professor of Chemistry at ETH Zurich. Throughout his career,Zenobi has contributed to the field of analytical chemistry.
Roger Everett Summons is the Schlumberger Professor of Geobiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Professor of Geobiology in the Department of Earth,Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.
Kliti Grice,is a chemist and geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events. Her research integrates geological information with data on molecular fossils and their stable carbon,hydrogen and sulfur isotopic compositions to reconstruct details of microbial,fungal and floral inhabitants of modern and ancient aquatic environments and biodiversity hot spots. This information expands our understanding of both the Earth's history and its current physical state,with implications ranging from energy and mineral resource exploration strategies to environmental sustainability encompassing climate dynamics and expected rates,durations and scale of our future planet's health. As one of the youngest women professors in Earth Sciences,she is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth,Western Australia.
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Jacqueline Mulville is a British bioarchaeologist and Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University. Mulville is a field archaeologist whose research focuses on osteoarchaeology,human and animal identities,and island archaeologies concentrated on Britain.
Caroline Masiello is a biogeochemist who develops tools to better understand the cycling and fate of globally relevant elemental cycles. She is a professor at Rice University in the Department of Earth,Environmental and Planetary Sciences and holds joint appointments in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Departments. Masiello was elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2017. She currently leads an interdisciplinary team of scientists who are developing microbial sensors for earth system science.
M. Francesca Cotrufo is a soil ecologist who focuses her work on litter decomposition and the dynamics of soil organic matter. She is currently a Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences,as well the Senior Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab,at Colorado State University.
Lisa-Marie Shillito is a British archaeologist and senior lecturer in landscape archaeology as well as director of the Wolfson Archaeology Laboratory and Earthslides at Newcastle University. Her practical work focuses on using soil micromorphology,phytolith analysis and geochemistry in order to understand human behaviour and landscape change. Her work includes the Neolithic settlements of Çatalhöyük in Turkey and Ness of Brodgar and Durrington Walls in Britain,but also Crusader castles and medieval settlements in Poland and the Baltic and in the Near East.
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. She a professor in chemistry at the University of York.
Ian Croudace is a British geochemist,academic,researcher and entrepreneur. He is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Radioactivity and Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Southampton and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Croudace has published over 200 research articles and has supervised 32 PhD projects over his career. He is director at Raddec International Limited. He is the author of the book Micro-XRF Studies of Sediment Cores:Applications of a non-destructive tool for the environmental sciences and Executive Editor for the Quaternary International Special Issue entitled "Advances in Data Quantification and Application of High Resolution XRF Core Scanners". He specializes in analytical,environmental and isotope geochemistry and radioactivity. His research interests range from Micro-XRF analysis of sediments to Forensic Geochemistry to Radio-analytical developments.
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