Personal Info

E-mail: don.porcelli(at)earth.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 282121

Academic Background:

BSc (Yale University, 1982), PhD (Cambridge, 1986). After serving as an environmental consultant in the US, I held research positions at Caltech (1993-2000) and ETH (2000-2002). I have been at Oxford since 2002, and at St Anne’s since 2003.

Teaching Interests:

Undergraduate:
Introduction to the formation of the Earth and solar system, Isotope geochemistry, Quantitative reasoning in Earth sciences, Hydrology and environmental geochemistry, and Planetary chemistry.

Graduate:
Supervising DPhil projects in environmental geochemistry, in identifying impact structures in the geological record, in meteoritics, and in the development of chemical and isotopic methods for tracing geological processes.

Research Interests:

Developing and applying trace element and isotope methods for studying a range of geological and planetary subjects, including:
The formation of the atmosphere and the early history of the Earth, the interior structure of the Earth and the distribution of volatile elements; the evolution of groundwater chemistry and contaminant migration; the influence of rivers and ocean shelves on Arctic chemical oceanography; and the nature of past climate change.

Selected Publications:

D. Porcelli, P.S. Andersson, M. Baskaran, M. Frank, G. Bjork and I. Semiletov, ‘The distribution of neodymium isotopes in Arctic Ocean basins’, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (2008)
K. Amor, S.P. Hesselbo, D. Porcelli, S. Thackrey and J. Parnell, ‘A Precambrian proximal ejecta blanket from Scotland’, Geology 36 (2008), 303-6
D. Porcelli, ‘Investigating groundwater processes using U- and Th- series nuclides’ in S. Krishnaswami and J.K. Cochran (eds.), U/Th Series Radionuclides in Aquatic Systems, (2007)
D. Porcelli and K.K. Turekian, ‘The History of Planetary Degassing as Recorded by Noble Gases’, in K.K. Turekian and H.D. Holland (eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry, vol.4 (2003), 281-318
D. Porcelli, C.J. Ballentine and R. Wieler, (eds.) Noble Gas Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, vol. 47. Mineralogical Society of America and Geochemical Society joint publication (2002)