Professor Mark H. Thiemens making presentation

At the invitation of Prof. LIU Yun of State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry (SKLODG), and with the award of CAS Einstein Professorship, Distinguished Professor Mark H. Thiemens from University of California, San Diego(UCSD), visited IGCAS during June 16-19.

On the morning of June 17, Professor Thiemens presented a talk entitled “Mass independent signatures in geochemistry and the atmosphere--tracking the origin of life and present global atmospheric geochemical processes” at the SKLODG lecture hall.  Professor LIU Yun hosted the meeting.

Professor Thiemens’ presentation introduced the application of Mass independent signatures in geochemistry and atmosphere.  The topics in his presentation included how to use the signal to trace the origin of life and the earth's atmospheric composition mutation, the mystery of the "Snowball Earth" event, the space environment and its change of mars, the evolution of stratosphere, and some key problems unsolved.

With interesting images and funny illustrations, Professor Thiemens’s presentation was well-delivered and easy to understand, receiving applause and cheers from the audience.  At the end of the presentation, Professor Thiemens had a thorough discussion with the audience and answers many questions.

Professor Thiemens is currently a Distinguished Professor and Dean of Faculty of Physical Science in UCSD.  He is an elected member of National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and American Academy Arts and Sciences of U.S.A.  He has received numerical awards and honors for his distinguished research and academic achievements, including the Geochemical Society’s Goldschmidt Medal, and E.O. Lawrence Award of U.S. Department of Energy.  As an outstanding scientist in stable isotope geochemistry and cosmochemistry, he has made a series of important achievements in the research of non-mass fractionation of stable isotopes, and published 26 articles in the journal of “Nature” and “Science”.  In 2007, one diameter of 20 km asteroid was named Mark Thiemens for his great contributions.

(By ZHANG Siting)