The London Geochemistry & Isotope Centre (LOGIC) was launched in 2016 and combines research teams and facilities in geochemistry at UCL and Birkbeck colleges. It is an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research group, carrying out chemical and isotopic investigations of natural materials (rocks, soils, waters, and air) using a variety of analytical and experimental approaches to investigate processes both now and in the past. At the moment 18 academic staff, 8 research staff, 10 PhD students and 3 technicians are involved in the LOGIC group. LOGIC meetings, whether informal seminars or formal talks, are held every Wednesday at 1pm. By the start of this academic year, there have been 28 LOGIC talks, covering a wide range of topics from Earth’s oldest hydrothermal deposits to modern mine wastes and arsenic contamination. Diverse geochemical approaches, from non-traditional stable isotopes (e.g. Cd, Se) to rare earth elements and geochemical modelling have all been discussed.
This term the LOGIC seminar kicked off with talks by two newly joined research fellows: Matthew Fox, who talked about thermochronology, and Anna Harrison, who spoke on the mineral-gas-water interface. Their interesting seminars were followed by Jeremy Caves, a postdoctoral researcher from ETH Zurich, who has modelled Earth’s silicate weathering feedback during the Cenozoic, and our own Philip Pogge van Strandmann, who talked about lithium isotopes and new data relating to the recovery from Snowball Earth. There are still two very interesting talks to come. Firstly, Alex Dickson of Oxford University will speak about Mo, Zn and Cd geochemistry and isotopes. Secondly, shortly before the Christmas break we are privileged to be joined by Professor Andrew Putnis who will possibly discuss some aspects of his recent work on fluid-mineral interaction.