News

2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003

2012

On Monday 21 May 2012 Konstantin Stolpovsky will defend his PhD thesis, entitled "Simulating the influence of dormancy on microbial community dynamics"
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen; co-promotor: Martin Thullner
The defence will take place at 14.30 at the Academiegebouw, Domplein 29 te Utrecht (see map here).

Our own Johan Weijers (Organic Geochemistry) has been awarded the NWO Vening Meinesz prize.
NWO awards this prize to the most promising recent PhD graduate in the earth sciences.
The committee forecasts a great scientific future for Johan Weijers.
Congratulations, Johan!!
For more information (in Dutch) see

Lex Bouwman gave his inaugural lecture as Professor by Special Appointment in 'Transport of nutrients from the land to the sea' on Tuesday 17 April 2012.
The lecture was entitled: Een lange reis van bodem naar zee".
Professor Bouwman has been a professor at the Faculty of Geosciences since 2011 and also works as a senior researcher for the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), which was previously part of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

The Patterson Award in 2012 is bestowed on Stefan Schouten, also at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). Stefan is recognized for his many contributions to organic geochemistry and specifically for his identification of archaeal membrane lipids in marine environments and their application as a novel sea-surface paleothermometer.
The Clair C. Patterson Award, for a recent innovative breakthrough in environmental geochemistry of fundamental significance, published in a peer-reviewed journal, will normally be made annually at the Goldschmidt Conference.

On Tuesday 17 January 2012 Susann Vollrath successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Microbial Fe(II) oxidation at circumneutral pH: reaction kinetics, mineral products, and distribution of neutrophilic iron oxidizers in wetland soils."
Promotores were Philippe Van Cappellen and Riks Laanbroek; co-promotor: Thilo Behrends.

2011

On Monday 28 November 2011 Joost Brandsma (NIOZ) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "The origin and fate of intact polar lipids in the marine environment".
Promotores were Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and Stefan Schouten; co-promotor Ellen Hopmans (NIOZ).

On Friday 4 November 2011 Julia van Winden successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Methane cycling in peat bogs: Environmental relevance of methanotrophs revealed by microbial lipid chemistry".
Promotores were Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and Mike Jetten, Radboud University;
co-promotor: Gert-Jan Reichart.

On Thursday 15 September 2011 Francien Peterse (NIOZ) successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Environmental controls on the distribution of bacterial tetraether membrane lipids: Constraints on the MBT-CBT paleothermometer".
Promotores were Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and Stefan Schouten.

Dr. ir. A.F. Bouwman (Lex) - research scientist at Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) in Bilthoven, and Associate Researcher at our Geochemistry Group - has per 1 August 2011 been appointed as Professor Nutrient Transport from land to sea. He will work part time here, and part time at PBL.

Lex, many congratulations!, and good luck to you!

From Sunday 17 July until Wednesday 20 July 2011 we organized EREM 2011

10 th International Symposium on
Developments in Electrokinetic Remediation of Soils,
Sediments and Construction Materials
at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

More information:
http://www.geo.uu.nl/erem2011/

ERC Starting Grant for Caroline Slomp

Our Caroline Slomp has been awarded an ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant of 1.5 million Euros by the European Research Council (ERC).
Her research proposal is entitled 'Phosphorus dynamics in low-oxygen marine systems: quantifying the nutrient climate connection in Earth's past, present and future'.
The grant will finance her research on the role of variations in the availability of phosphate for the development of anoxic zones in the ocean for the next five years.
More information: http://www.darwincenter.nl/DarwinCenter.aspx?id=503&idn=91

Many, many congratulations, Caroline!!!

On Monday 16 May 2011 José M. Mogollón Lee succesfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Coupled models of free methane gas and anaerobic oxidation of methane: From core to regional scales".
Promotor was Philippe Van Cappellen, co-promotor Pierre Regnier

Op vrijdag 15 april 2011 heeft Stefan Schouten - sinds 1 maart 2010 hoogleraar Moleculaire Palaeontologie aan de Faculteit der Geowetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht -

Echo's van het leven

On Friday 18 March 2011 Angela Pitcher (NIOZ) successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Intact polar lipids of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea: Structural diversity and application in molecular ecology".
Promotores were Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and Stefan Schouten

From Wednesday 26 until Friday 28 January, 2011 we co-organized the Symposium: Climate and Ocean Dynamics of the Cretaceous Greenhouse World
Place: Het Oude Tolhuys, Weg naar Rhijnauwen 13 - 15, Utrecht, The Netherlands
More information: http://cretaceousgreenhouse.geo.uu.nl/

On Monday 24 January 2011 Peter Kraal successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Redox-dependent phosphorus burial in modern and ancient marine sediments".
Promotor was Philippe Van Cappellen, co-promotor was Caroline Slomp

2010

And:
On Friday 5 November 2010 our own Eveline Speelman successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Reconstruction of the Arctic Ocean environment during the Eocene Azolla interval using geochemical proxies and climate modeling".
Promotor was Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, co-promotor was Gert-Jan Reichart

On Friday 29 October 2010 Arjan Boere (NIOZ) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Validation and application of fossil DNA as a recorder of past marine ecosystems and environmental conditions".
Promotor was prof.dr.ir. J.S. Sinninghe Damsté, co-promotor: dr.ir. M.J.L. Coolen

Lennart de Nooijer is given the International Paul Brönnimann Award 2010 by the ‘Fondation Paul Brönnimann’. He is the first Dutch scientist to receive the award and will receive it for his fundamental research on the formation of calciumcarbonate by foraminifers.
Every four years this award and an amount of money are given to a young scientist for the most innovative and original contribution in the field of research on foraminifera.
Lennart will receive the award on 7 September during the ‘FORAMS2010’ congress in Bonn, Germany.

Many congratulations, Lennart!!

On Monday 23 August 2010, Iana Tsandev successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "The Global Marine Phosphorus Cycle: Response to Climate Change and Feedbacks on Ocean Biogeochemistry".
Promotor was Philippe Van Cappellen, co-promotor: Caroline Slomp

Stefan Schouten - research scientist at the Royal NIOZ, Texel - has recently been appointed here as Professor of Molecular Palaeontology.
He takes the chair of Jaap Sinninghe Damsté - as Jaap has been appointed as Professor in Organic Geochemistry, which chair was vacant since Jan de Leeuw's retirement.
Both professors will work part time here, and part time at the NIOZ.

Welcome! Stefan!, and good luck to both of you!

On Friday 21 May 2010, Cornelia Iulia Blaga successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether membrane lipids in lacustrine environments and their application as proxies for paleoclimate reconstructions".
Promotor: Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
Co-promotor: Gert-Jan Reichart

On Wednesday 19 May 2010, Thorsten Bauersachs (NIOZ) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Development and application of proxies for past cyanobacterial N₂ fixation".
Promotor: Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
Co-promotor: Stefan Schouten

On Thursday 1 April 2010, Marjolijn Stam successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Sulfur isotopes as a tracer for biogenic sulfate reduction in natural environments: A link between modern and ancient ecosystems".
Promotores: Bernard de Jong and Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Paul Mason

On Tuesday 30 March 2010, Tom Van Engeland (NIOO) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Dissolved organic nitrogen dynamics in coastal ecosystems".
Promotores: Jack Middelburg and Karline Soetaert

On Thursday 25 March 2010, Adriana Dueñas-Bohórquez successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Geochemical and Biological Impacts on Trace and Minor Element Incorporation in Foraminiferal Test Carbonate".
Promotores: Bert van der Zwaan en Gert de Lange
Co-promotor: Gert-Jan Reichart

2009

On Friday 18 September 2009 Goulven Laruelle successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Quantifying nutrient cycling and retention in coastal waters at the global scale".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Caroline Slomp

Per 1 September 2009 Jack Middelburg officially has started as full time Professor of Geochemistry at the Department of Earth Sciences in Utrecht.
This also means that he is successor of Philippe Van Cappellen as Head of the Geochemistry group. Philippe will retain a part time appointment in Utrecht.

On Thursday 11 June 2009 Sebastiaan Rampen (NIOZ) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Molecular fossils of diatoms: applications in petroleum geochemistry and palaeoenvironmental studies".
Promotor: Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
Co-promotor: Stefan Schouten

On Tuesday 12 May 2009, Andreas Hofmann (NIOO) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Quantifying the influences of biogeochemical processes on pH of natural waters".
Promotores: Jack Middelburg and Carlo Heip
Co-promotores: Karline Soetaert en Filip Meysman

Per 1 April 2009, Simon Vriend has returned to the Geochemistry group.
WELCOME BACK, Simon!!

On Tuesday 17 March 2009, Socratis Loucaides successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Dissolution of biogenic silica: Roles of pH, salinity, pressure, electrical charging and reverse weathering".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Thilo Behrends

On Friday 6 February 2009, Andrea Jaeschke (NIOZ) successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Present and past contribution of anaerobic ammonium oxidation to nitrogen cycling as revealed by ladderane lipids".
Promotor: Jaap Sinninghe Damsté
Co-promotor: Stefan Schouten (NIOZ)

Per 1 January 2009, Jack Middelburg, Professor of Biogeochemistry in our group, succeeded Bert van der Zwaan as Scientific Director of the Darwin Center.
Jack intends to continue developing the Darwin Center for Biogeology into a leading, internationally renowned center for biogeological research, where all aspects of the present, past and future of the biosphere and system earth are studied in an integrated manner.
We wish you good luck, Jack!

2008

On Thursday 11 December 2008, Tom Jilbert succesfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Laminated sediments as archives of short timescale climate change and palaeoceanography of the Mediterranean".
Promotor: Gert de Lange
Co-promotor: Gert-Jan Reichart

On Thursday 27 November 2008, Jack Middelburg received the EUR-OCEANS 2008 Roland Wollast Award for his contributions to Oceanography.
Many congratulations, Jack!

August 2008, Jaap Sinninghe Damsté , Professor of Molecular Palaeontology in our group, has been awarded an ‘ERC Advanced Grant' from the European Union of 2,5 million Euros. He receives this grant from the European Research Council for research on the evolution of global continental climate.
Many congratulations, Jaap!
More information: see here

On Friday 4 July 2008, Pierre Regnier, Associate Professor in our group, has been appointed Visiting/Adjunct Professor (0.1 fte) at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.

On Wednesday 18 June 2008, Sandra Arndt successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Biogeochemical transformations and fluxes in redox-stratified environments: from the shallow coastal ocean to the deep subsurface".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Pierre Regnier

Jack Middelburg (see his Homepage at the NIOO), Professor of Biogeochemistry in our group, has been elected a new member of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Each year the members of this Academy choose new members via recommendations based on their scientific achiefments. Jack' s main appointment is Head of the Department Ecosystems at Netherlands Institute of Ecology.
Congratulations, Jack!

On Monday 20 May 2008, Jayne Rattray (NIOZ) successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Ladderane Lipids in Anammox Bacteria: Occurrence, Biosynthesis and Application as Environmental Markers".
Promotores: Jaap Sinninghe Damste (UU) and Mike Jetten (Universiteit Nijmegen)
Co-promotores: Stefan Schouten (NIOZ) and Marc Strous (Universiteit Nijmegen)

Sandra Arndt , who is scheduled to defend her PhD thesis this coming June, has been awarded a Rubicon postdoctoral grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The grant will enable Sandra to spend two years at the Université Paul-Sabatier in Toulouse as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Sandra's Rubicon project is entitled: "Cooling the Greenhouse" and deals with the role played by carbon burial in marine sediments on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the geological past. Sandra is currently finalizing her PhD thesis under the supervision of Dr. Pierre Regnier.

Pieter Bots received the award for the best MSc thesis by the section of Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Toxicology of the Royal Dutch Chemical Society (KNCV). The title of his thesis is "Uranium mobility in subsurface aqueous systems determine by flow-through experiments: The influence of different redox conditions".
Pieter Bots received the award during the Spring meeting of the KNCV at Thursday 17 April 2008 - see http://www.kncv.nl/
The MSc project was performed under the supervision of Dr. Thilo Behrends and was part of the research performed within the 6th framework EU Integrated Project FUNMIG at the Geochemistry group at Utrecht University.

2007

On Monday 15 October 2007, Parisa Jourabchi successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "New Developments in Early Diagenetic Modeling: pH Distributions, Calcite Dissolution and Compaction".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
On Friday 14 September 2007, Claudette Spiteri successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Reactive transport modeling of biogeochemical dynamics in subterranean estuaries: Implications for submarine groundwater discharge of nutrients".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen, co-promotores: Caroline Slomp and Pierre Regnier
On Monday 27 August 2007, Victor Evrard (NIOO) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Assessing the fate of organic matter in subtidal sandy sediments using C and N stable isotopes as deliberate tracers".
Promotores: Jack Middelburg and Carlo Heip, co-promotor: Karline Soetaert
Prof. Laurent Charlet (University of Grenoble, France) has been awarded the CNRS Silver Medal for 2007. The award recognizes the originality, quality and importance of Prof. Charlet's work in the field of environmental chemistry.
Prof. Charlet was a Visiting Professor in Utrecht in 2001. He currently collaborates with P. Van Cappellen in the framework of the EU-Research Training Network AquaTRAIN.
Vasso Alexandratos was the recipient of the Certificate of Merit Award from the Division of Environmental Chemistry during the last American Chemical Society meeting that took place in Chicago (March 25-29, 2007). A Certificate of Merit Award is given for a notable first appearance before the Environmental Division. The presentation was entitled "Reduction of uranium under abiotic reducing conditions: A macroscopic and spectroscopic study" by authors V. Alexandratos, T. Behrends and P. Van Cappellen.
On Thursday 10 May 2007, Johan Weijers (NIOZ) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Soil-derived branched tetraether membrane lipids in marine sediments: reconstruction of past continental climate and soil organic matter fluxes to the ocean".
Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. J.S. Sinninghe Damsté, Co-promotor: Dr. ir. S. Schouten
His thesis was conferred with CUM LAUDE!
Prof. Philippe Van Cappellen was awarded the 2007 André Dumont Medal at the general assembly of Geologica Belgica, the Belgian Geological Society, on March 27 in Brussels. On this occasion, he gave a presentation entitled “Global Biogeochemical Cycles: Time Scales, Evolution and Regulation”. André Dumont (1809-1857) is considered the father of the geological map of Belgium, on which he worked for more than twenty years. Many of the names given by him to subdivisions of Cretaceous and Tertiary ages are still used worldwide. He was professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Liège from 1835 until 1857.
Dr. Martin Thullner, until September 2005 postdoc at our Biogeochemistry group, has been awarded a grant for a Helmholtz-University Young Investigators Group.
Through this grant, Martin will establish a new research group in a collaboration between the "Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ" and our faculty. Research will focus on the development and application of new concepts for the simulation of geomicrobial processes in subsurface environments. This German grant can to some extend be compared to the Dutch VIDI-grant, but it targets collaborations between Helmholtz research centers and universities. The new group started in April 2007.
More info: http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=10931
On Monday 29 January 2007, Gernot Nehrke successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled"Calcite precipitation from aqueous solution: transformation from vaterite and role of solution stoichiometry".
Promotor: prof.dr. Philippe Van Cappellen
On Monday 22 January 2007, Alina Stadnitskaia (NIOZ) successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Bio- and petroleum geochemistry of mud volcanoes in the Sorokin Through (NE Black Sea) and Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic): From fluid sources to microbial oxidation and carbonate crust formation".
Promotores: Prof.dr. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, prof.dr. Tjeerd van Weering, prof. Mikhail Ivanov.

2006

The section Biogeosciences of the EGU has awarded the Vladimir Vernadsky Medal 2007 to Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, Professor of Molecular Palaeontology at the Organic Geochemistry group, and head of the Department Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology at NIOZ, Texel.
He receives the medal for his scientific work on the development of molecular biomarkers.
More info: see http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_6V3LVT_Eng?Opendocument

Recently we were informed that our former postdoc Martin Thullner, now at UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Dept of Environmental Microbiology, was awarded an AGU 2004 Editors' Citation for Excellence in Refereeing, based on the recommendation of Water Resources Research Editor Kenneth E. Bencala.

From their Laudatio: "The conscientious reviewing of submitted papers is one of the most important services performed for AGU. Because of the nature of the reviewing process, this service is also one of the least recognized. The purpose of this citation is to express publicly the gratitude of AGU to those whose reviews have been particularly commendable. Your contributions to the journals program have been invaluable in maintaining a high-quality standard."
On Tuesday 24 October 2006, Bart Veuger successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "A new method for tracing flows of nitrogen and carbon through bacteria and algae in aquatic microbial communities: Analysis of ¹⁵N- and ¹³C-incorporation into D-alanine and other hydrolysable amino acids".
Promotors: Jack Middelburg and Carlo Heip
On Tuesday 17 October 2006, Rick Canavan successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Biogeochemical Cycling of Nutrients and Trace Metals in the Sediment of Haringvliet Lake: Response to Salinization".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Caroline Slomp
On Wednesday 11 October 2006, Grishja van der Veer successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Geochemical soil survey of the Netherlands. Atlas of major and trace elements in topsoil and parent material; assessment of natural and anthropogenic enrichment factors".
Promotor: Prof. Dr. P.A. Burrough
Co-promotor: Dr. P.F.M. van Gaans and Dr. S.P. Vriend
On Monday 10 April 2006 Jacqueline Claessens successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Surface chemistry and acid-base activity of Shewanella putrefaciens: Cell wall charging and metal binding to bacterial cell walls".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Anniet Laverman
New seminar format
From Thursday 2 February until Thursday 22 June 2006, the regular seminar series of the Landscape Ecology and Geochemistry groups at Utrecht University will be merged.

Title of the series: Advances in Biogeochemistry
A joint seminar series of the Landscape Ecology and Geochemistry groups at Utrecht University

The seminar series will be devoted to recent progress in our understanding of element fluxes and transformations in natural environments. Special emphasis will be placed on new concepts and advances in studying nutrient dynamics and their effects on the biogeochemical functioning of (semi-) aquatic environments. The presentations will comprise process-oriented studies as well as system-oriented research particularly related to wetlands, lakes, rivers, and aquifers.
The seminar series aims at stimulating the scientific dialogue between geoscientists and biologists. Another aim is to encourage the collaboration between the two participating groups and the development of common research projects. Presentations of staff members of the two groups will alternate with presentations given by external speakers.
For more information on the Landscape Ecology group, see http://www.bio.uu.nl/LandscapeEcology/index.html
Twee Oraties bij Geo - Aardwetenschappen !!
Op vrijdag 13 januari 2006 zijn
- Jack Middelburg - sinds 1 april 2005 hoogleraar Biogeochemie
- en Jaap Sinninghe Damsté - sinds 1 december 2003 hoogleraar Moleculaire Palaeontologie aan de Faculteit der Geowetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht
voornemens hun ambt te aanvaarden met het houden van hun oratie, getiteld:
Middelburg: Tussen leven en aarde
Sinninghe Damsté: Moleculen uit een ver verleden.

Deze plechtigheid vindt plaats op vrijdag 13 januari vanaf 16.15, in de Aula van het Academiegebouw, Domplein 29, Utrecht.
Na afloop receptie in de Senaatszaal aldaar.

2005

On Monday 19 December 2005 Steeve Bonneville successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Kinetics of microbial Fe (III) oxyhydroxide reduction: the role of mineral properties."
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor Thilo Behrends
Twee VIDI's bij Aardwetenschappen - Geochemie !! (dd 12 juli 2005)
De Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) heeft 79 jonge, excellente wetenschappers een zogeheten VIDI-subsidie toegekend. Elke onderzoeker krijgt in totaal maximaal 600.000 euro. Hiermee kan de wetenschapper vijf jaar lang een eigen onderzoekslijn ontwikkelen. Wij feliciteren Pierre Regnier en Caroline Slomp VAN HARTE met de aan hen toegekende subsidie voor de volgende projecten:

Methaanflux en klimaatveranderingen - Dr. Pierre Regnier Methaan is een van de belangrijkste broeikasgassen. De zeebodem bevat het grootste methaanreservaat. Gekeken wordt of te voorspellen is hoe en hoeveel methaan uit de zeebodem vrijkomt in de atmosfeer.

Oceaan-fosfaat en klimaatverandering - Dr.ir. Caroline Slomp Chemische analyses van diepzeesedimenten wijzen op sterke variaties in de hoeveelheid oceaan-fosfaat in het geologisch verleden. Dit onderzoek richt zich op het kwantificeren van deze variaties en de consequenties voor de algengroei, de opname van atmosferisch CO2 door de oceaan en klimaatverandering.

On Friday 10 June 2005 Anja Reitz successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Diagenetic and Paleoceanographic variations in sedimentary Mn, Ba, and CaCO₃, with emphasis on the eastern Mediterranean sapropel S1".
Promotor: Gert de Lange

On Monday 30 May 2005 Katja Heister successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Coupled transport in clayey materials with emphasis on induced electrokinetic phenomena".
Promotor: Philippe Van Cappellen
Co-promotor: Guus Loch

A new professor!
Per 1 April 2005 Jack Middelburg has been appointed as Professor of Biogeochemistry.
Congratulations Jack!!

Per 1 February 2005, Dr Gert-Jan Reichart has been appointed Assistant Professor in the Geochemistry group. Good Luck, Gert-Jan!!

On 14 December 2004 the new Darwin Center was officially opened.
The Darwin Center for Biogeology aims at performing cutting-edge science in the field of Biogeology where Biology and Earth Sciences meet.
The selected research themes are
a) Biogeochemical cycling and functional biodiversity, and
b) Paleoenvironmental reconstructions and the biological validation of proxies.
See for more information: http://www.darwincenter.nl

Per 1 September 2004, Dr Caroline Slomp has been appointed Assistant Professor in the Geochemistry group.
- Research
  Dr Slomp's main research interests are the biogeochemical cycling of bioactive elements (most importantly N, P, Si, Fe, Mn, C and trace metals) in marine and terrestrial environments. Her main goal for the coming years is to establish a research group within the field of global change modeling. This group should contribute to improving the quantitative understanding of element cycles at different scales (local, regional, global) and their response to human and natural perturbations.
- Teaching
  Starting this year, Dr Slomp is responsible for the second-year Bachelors course “Geochemical Processes and Cycles” and she will be contributing to several other courses (including Systeem Aarde 2 and Biogeochemistry). She is also the Geochemistry-coordinator for the Bachelor programme.

On Friday 1 October 2004 Diana Menzel successfully defended her PhD thesis, entitled "Organic geochemcial reconstruction of palaeo-environmental conditions during the deposition of Pliocene sapropels in the eastern Mediterranean Sea".
Promotores were: Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté and Jan W. de Leeuw
Co-promotor: Pim F. van Bergen
.

Prof. dr. Jan W. de Leeuw heeft op 14 juli 2004 officieel afscheid genomen als directeur van het Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee. Tijdens een feestelijke bijeenkomst op Texel werd De Leeuw benoemd tot Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw. De scheidend directeur van het aan de NWO gelieerde instituut blijft actief in de wetenschap. Hij is als o.a. deeltijdhoogleraar verbonden aan het departement Aardwetenschappen (Organische Geochemie) van de faculteit Geowetenschappen, en aan de faculteit Biologie.

"High Potentials" bij Geowetenschappen (juli 2004)
Maar liefst twee projectvoorstellen van de faculteit Geowetenschappen zijn gehonoreerd voor het High Potentials programma van de Universiteit Utrecht. Dr.ir. C.P. Slomp en dr. H. Middelkoop (Aardwetenschappen/Fysische Geografie) en dr. W. Krijgsman en dr. W.M. Kuerschner (Aardwetenschappen/Biologie) krijgen voor vijf jaar programmasubsidie. De subsidies bedragen tot 300.000 per jaar, totaal circa 2,75 miljoen Euro.
Met het High Potentials programma geeft de Universiteit Utrecht de nieuwe generatie onderzoeks-leiders een kans om hun talenten te tonen. Kenmerk van het programma is dat duo's van onderzoekers uit verschillende onderzoeksgebieden subsidie kunnen krijgen. Zo ontstaan nieuwe ontwikkelingsrichtingen in het onderzoek. Alleen onderzoekers met 5-10 jaar onderzoekservaring konden deelnemen.

NWO Spinoza prize
On 7 June, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) announced which four researchers will receive the NWO Spinoza prize for 2004. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, professor at the Department of Earth Sciences - Geochemistry in Utrecht, is among these four. The prize is the biggest Dutch award in science. Each researcher receives one-and-a-half million euros to freely devote to his or her research. The NWO Spinoza prize, also viewed as the 'Dutch Nobel Prize', is awarded to Dutch researchers who rank among the world's top scientists.
Jaap Sinninghe Damsté graduated with a distinction in analytical environmental chemistry from Delft University of Technology in 1984 and he gained his doctorate in organic geochemistry with a distinction from there in 1988. In 1993 Sinninghe Damsté received a NWO Pioneer subsidy. He left Delft and set up his own research group at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research on Texel. Sinninghe Damsté has also held a position at Utrecht University since 1993. Since 2003 he is professor of Molecular Palaeontology at Utrecht University.
The official presentation of the money and the Spinoza statuette will take place on 3 November 2004.

From 4 May till the end of June 2004 the Geochemistry group is honoured by the visit of Prof. Marc J. Alperin, Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, email: alperin@email.unc.edu

And on 17 May 2004 our Canadian guest arrived: Prof. Ivan L'Heureux , Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Ottawa Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5 , e-mail: ilheureu@physics.uottawa.ca. He will stay till 19 June 2004, with a one week break for the Goldschmidt conference in Copenhagen.

On Monday 22 March 2004 Patrick van Santvoort successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Fluxes, diagenesis, and the variation of proxies in eastern Mediterranean sediments".
Promotores were Gert de Lange and Kees van der Weijden

On Thursday 4 March 2004 Dennis Naafs successfully defended his PhD thesis , entitled "What are humic substances? A molecular approach to the study of organic matter in acid soils".
Promotor was J. de Leeuw

On Friday 6 February 2004 Jérôme Bonnin (Royal NIOZ at Texel) successfully defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Short-term sediment resuspension on the continental slope and geochemical implications".
Promotor was P. Van Cappellen

Escher Prijs for Inge Folmer!
The 2003 Escher Prijs for the best Master' s thesis in (Applied) Earth Sciences has been awarded to one of our former Geochemistry students, Inge Folmer!
Her work, entitled "A nested grid reactive-transport model for land ocean interactions studies", was performed under Pierre Regnier's supervision.
The prize was awarded on Friday November 14, 2003 after the traditional Staring Lezing, held at the Budapestlaan 4.
Inge is currently a research associate at the Free University of Brussels.

Two new professors!
Per 1 September 2003 Gert de Lange has been appointed as Professor of Marine Geochemistry and Chemical Oceanography.
Per 1 December 2003 Jaap Sinninghe Damsté has been appointed as Professor of Molecular Palaeontology.
Congratulations for both of you, Gert and Jaap!!