WEBINAR: Particle size characterization by laser diffraction analysis in geoscience and soil science - Background, analyses, application, and interpretation

Björn Machalett obtained his PhD in Geosciences at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany, in 2011. His doctoral thesis utilized high-resolution particle size analysis and amino acid geochronology to investigate aeolian dust dynamics in Eurasian loess deposits. Applying fine scale particle-size measurements on the Beckman-Coulter LS13330 Laser Particle Size analyzer, Björn has developed novel sedimentological proxies as a tool to reconstruct past climate change and pioneered the use of detailed, high resolution, particle size analyses in studies of aeolian dust sedimentary records. Björn has been awarded a great number of fellowships and research grants, including a PhD fellowship of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), a binational doctoral research fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for research at the Department of Geology, University of South Florida and the Department of Natural & Applied Sciences, Bentley University, and a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellowship to continue post-graduate studies at the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences (Quaternary Environmental Change Research Group), Aberystwyth University, Wales, U.K. He is currently holding a research fellowship by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and continues his work on changing atmospheric circulation patterns during the Pleistocene across Eurasia at various short and intermediate temporal scales and regional to hemispheric spatial scales. Bjoern has also applied his expertise in state-of-the-art particle size analyses to various research foci, such as high resolution analyses of marine, limnic sedimentary records and soils.