Robinson, Professor Stuart

Professor

Stuart Robinson

Professor in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Tutorial Fellow in Earth Sciences

Dr Stuart Robinson completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (B.A. in Geology, 1998; DPhil in Geology, 2002) in Oxford (at St Edmund Hall) before undertaking research positions at Columbia University in New York, the University of Reading and University College London, where he was also a lecturer. Stuart returned to Oxford in 2013 and joined St Anne’s in 2016.

Stuart’s research focuses on how components of the Earth system (e.g. climate, carbon cycling, oceanography) has operated in the geological past, with a particular interest in periods of extreme greenhouse warmth, such as the Mesozoic (250 to 65 million years ago). Warm intervals in Earth history, characterised by an absence of polar ice sheets, high sea levels, and major perturbations to ocean chemistry, provide examples of how the Earth system works under very different boundary conditions to the present day. Understanding the processes operating in the geological past can help inform our understanding of how our planet may evolve in the future in response to anthropogenic CO2 release.

Stuart uses a multidisciplinary approach drawing on geology, palaeontology and geochemistry to reconstruct Earth history. He has conducted fieldwork in many parts of the world and participated in two scientific ocean drilling expeditions.

Teaching

Degrees:

MEarthSci – Master of Earth Sciences

BA – Geology

Lecture courses

1st year: Fundamentals of Geology (Introduction to Earth Surface Processes)

2nd year: Sedimentary Petrology; Sedimentology and Stratigraphy

4th year: Major Environmental Change

Field classes

1st year: Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire

2nd year: Dorset

Tutorials

Foundational topics, fundamental geological skills, sedimentology, stratigraphy, palaeoclimatology and palaeooceanography

Graduate teaching

Various topics on an ad hoc basis but including: Stable isotopes and other proxies in environmental sciences; Deep-time palaeoclimatology

Course Highlights

St. Anne’s is home to one of the largest collegiate communities of Earth Scientist’s in Oxford, including up to 24 undergraduates, several graduate students, 4 fellows as well as research and visiting fellows. The St Anne’s Geological Society (STAGS) organises various social events throughout the year to bring this community together, including the annual ‘Mapping Dinner’, to which former St Anne’s Earth Science students are also invited.

Recent publications

Robinson, S.A., Dickson, A.J., Pain, A., Jenkyns, H.C., O’Brien, C.L, Farnsworth, A., and Lunt, D.J., (2019), Southern Hemisphere sea-surface temperatures during the Cenomanian–Turonian: Implications for the termination of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2. Geology, 47, 131-134

Tedeschi, L.R., Jenkyns, H.C., Robinson, S.A., Sanjinés, A.E., Viviers, M.C., Quintaes, C.M. and Vazquez, J.C. (2017). New age constraints on Aptian evaporites and carbonates from the South Atlantic: Implications for Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a. Geology, 45, 543–546

O’Brien C.L., Robinson S.A., Pancost R.D., Sinninghe Damsté J.S., Schouten S., Lunt D.J., Alsenz H., Bornemann A., Bottinni C., Brassell S.C. et al. (2017), Cretaceous sea-surface temperature evolution: Constraints from TEX86 and planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes, Earth Science Reviews, 172, 224-247.

Robinson, S.A., Heimhofer, U., Hesselbo, S.P., Petrizzo, M.R., (2017), Mesozoic climates and oceans – a tribute to Hugh Jenkyns and Helmut Weissert, Sedimentology, 64, 1-15

Linnert, C., Robinson, S.A., Lees, J.A., Bown, P.R., Pérez-Rodríguez, I., Petrizzo, M.R., Falzoni, F., Littler, K. Arz, J.A., & Russell, E.E., (2014) Evidence for global cooling in the Late Cretaceous, Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/ncomms5194