The University of British Columbia

Research in southern Africa during my diploma and Ph.D. thesis fostered my interest in petrology and geodynamics. Whereas petrology is concerned with the formation of certain rock types, geodynamics deals with the ‘bigger geological picture’ in order to put information gained from different geological disciplines into a regional context and thereby understand how a specific region was formed. This interest was applied in a metamorphic/geodynamic study of the Limpopo Belt in southern Africa during my diploma mapping around the DeBeersVenetia Diamond Mine and later on during my Ph.D. thesis.

Currently I’m working on the regional aspects of alkaline/carbonatitic magmatism in the Canadian Cordillera. These rocks can form Rare Earth Element (REE) deposits as in the Wicheeda Lake area near Prince George or Nb-Ta deposits as in Blue River, but despite their similarities in age (Mississippian) and formation in similar geological settings their mineralogical and chemical differences are poorly understood. The scope of my research is to understand the origin and chemical and mineralogical differences of these rocks by utilizing field work, petrography, mineralogy, geochronology and isotopic studies.