Department of Earth Sciences

People > Staff > Dr Stuart Kearns

Position | Departmental responsibilities | Research Interests | Publications | Further information

Position

Senior Lecturer

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Departmental responsibilities

Manager Electron Microbeam Laboratories. Instructor in EM techniques, Year 2 Field trip leader.

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Research Interests

My principal research interest is the investigation of signals resulting from the electron beam interaction with geological materials. Specifically this is applied to a diverse range of problems such as the mineralogy of exceptionally preserved fossils, from the Cambrian Burgess Shale to the Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China, and the mineralogy and petrogenesis of carbonatite ash deposits.

I experiment with novel techniques in electron microscopy as applied to a range of materials: Variable Pressure SEM offers the possibility of non-destructive analysis of rare and precious fossil material; cryogenic electronprobe microanalysis is applied to the quantitative analysis of volcanic glass and other unstable materials.

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Publications

Link to Dr Stuart Kearns on the University's on-line database of research outputs (opens in a new window)

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Further information

Dr Stuart Kearns works with the Deep Earth Research Group, and with the Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research Group at Bristol.