Dr. Patrick Blaser

I come from a physics education with interest in chemistry, and am now working in palaeoclimatology and marine isotope geochemistry – which helps me maintain a broad and comprehensive scientific approach. Combined with rigorous statistical analysis, method development, and modelling, it allows me to improve the spatial and temporal coverage of palaeoclimatological data and decreases the risk of bias, thus increasing our confidence and the significance of the interpretations. I also enjoy to supervise student theses, foster critical thinking, and teach classes.

My ongoing research topics include the investigation of:
– Atlantic deep water mass distributions since the Last Glacial Maximum,
– biological productivity, ocean circulation, and carbon storage in the Southern Ocean, and
– deep sea sediments as sinks and sources of dissolved trace metals.

Office 3635, Batiment Geopolis
email: patrick.blaser@unil.ch
website: http://patrick-blaser.github.io

Dr. Isabelle Baconnais

Isabelle Baconnais is a Research Assistant for the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment of the University of Lausanne since June 2022. As part of the team of Prof. Samuel Jaccard, her project aims at better constraining the removal of chromium (Cr) from seawater and its subsequent export onto sinking particles to the underlying sediments. This project is within the framework of the Horizon 2020 ERC project SCrIPT, for which the overarching goal is to use Cr as a tracer for measuring changes in the strength of the Marine Biological pump. This project is an excellent continuation of her thesis subject accomplished at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), for which she studied the distribution of dissolved Cr and its stable isotopes in Modern Oceans.

She specializes in the measurement of trace elements and their stable isotopes in seawater. Her work answers to two objectives: [1] the evaluation of the sources, sinks and internal cycling of the selected trace elements to characterize the processes regulating their distributions in the oceans; [2] the use of this knowledge to develop tracers of global change and its impact on the carbon cycle.

Born in France, Isabelle Baconnais graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest, France), a Master Degree in Marine Chemistry at the Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (Plouzané, France), and a doctorate in Marine Geochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada).

Office 3639, Batiment Geopolis
email: isabelle.baconnais@unil.ch

Dr. Sylvie Bruggmann

My research interests range between the water column and the sediment, as well as between modern environments and the early Earth. I seek to understand how geochemical information is translated from the water column to the sediment, and how we can interpret it in the geological record. In particular, I investigate trace metals and their isotopes (e.g., Cr and U) in modern (sediments, fluids) and fossil (sedimentary rocks) samples. Ultimately, I am interested in reliable geochemical tools that can aid in improving reconstructions of the Earth’s geo- and biosphere in the past.

I studied geography and geology at the University of Zurich and ETH (Switzerland). After my studies, I moved to Denmark to obtain a PhD in geochemistry at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). In 2019, I started a postdoc project at Rutgers University (USA), followed by a postdoc project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands). In 2022, I went back to my roots, trying to detangle the Cr isotope system at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).

Office 3635, Batiment Geopolis
email: sylvie.bruggmann@unil.ch

Michael Bollen

My current work at the University of Lausanne investigates variability in the formation and export of oxygenated bottom water from the last glacial maxima to present. I am applying a suite of geochemical proxies to investigate long-core sediment records from the Weddell Sea, with a focus on the authigenic and detrital records of Neodymium, Lead, and Uranium. My past research has addressed similar questions using diatom micropaleontology, paleomagnetism, and sedimentology during a Master of Science at the University of Otago. In the past, I’ve also worked as a Paleomagnetism Laboratory Technician onboard the JOIDES Resolution.

Office 3640, Batiment Geopolis
email: michael.bollen@unil.ch