Professor Caroline Peacock

Profile

Awards

• Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award 2018-2024. 

• Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Distinguished Lecturer 2020.

• Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Lecturer 2019.

• University of Leeds Women of Achievement Award 2016, for outstanding research achievement.

• European Association of Geochemistry Houtermans Award 2015, awarded to an early career researcher for exceptional contributions to geochemistry.

Recent Major Funding

• Leverhulme Research Fellowship 2023 – 2025: Bottom-up controls on ocean micronutrients (PI)
• NERC Large Grant 2019 - 2024: Locked Up: The role of biotic and abiotic interactions in the stabilisation and persistence of soil organic carbon (Leeds PI)
• European Research Council Consolidator Grant 2017 - 2023: MinOrg: The role of minerals in the oceanic carbon cycle (PI)
• Royal Society Newton Advance Fellowship 2019 - 2023: MicroOrg: Stability and persistence of microbial exudates with soil and sediment minerals (PI)

Responsibilities

• Cohen Geochemistry Labs, Academic Lead
• Aqueous Analysis Facility, Academic Lead

Research interests

I am an experimental biogeochemist who uses fundamental chemical principles to understand Earth system processes. I focus on the reactivity and cycling of elements in both marine and terrestrial environments, and how element mobility and fate are controlled through interactions with sediment and soil minerals. 

My group combines laboratory experiments, cutting-edge synchrotron techniques, and advanced computational and biogeochemical modelling, to provide detailed information on the interactions between carbon, macro- and micro-nutrients and contaminants in sediments and soils, and how these interactions work to regulate the Earth system over past, present and future timescales.

Broadly I am interested in:

• carbon, macro- and micro-nutrient cycles 
• interactions of carbon, macro- and micro-nutrients with minerals 
• interplay between mineralogical and microbiological processes 
• mineralogical controls on the Earth system 
• geochemical palaeoproxies 

• Bottom-up controls on ocean chemistry
• Coordination of international research cooperation on soil carbon sequestration in agriculture (CIRCASA)
• European Research Council Consolidator Grant: MINORG (The Role of Minerals in the Oceanic Carbon Cycle)
• Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award: Controls on the preservation of organic carbon in the marine environment

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Environmental Geoscience, University of Bristol
• PhD Geochemistry, University of Bristol

Professional memberships

• European Association of Geochemistry, Vice President
• Natural Environment Research Council, Advisory Network
• Natural Environment Research Council, Peer Review College
• Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Editorial Board
• Geochemical Perspectives, Editorial Board
• Geochemical Transactions, Editorial Board
• Geochemical Society, Member
• Mineralogical Society of Great Britain & Ireland, Member
• Higher Education Academy, Fellow

Student education

I teach material related to biogeochemistry and Earth system science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 

Research groups and institutes

• Earth Surface Science Institute
• Cohen Geochemistry
• water@leeds
• Palaeo@Leeds