A warm welcome to Prof. Dr. Daniel Herwartz

The Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics (IGMG) of Ruhr University Bochum is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Daniel Herwartz to the Chair of Sedimentary Geochemistry. Professor Herwartz brings a broad scientific profile with expertise in fossil bones, high-pressure rocks, early Earth, cosmochemistry, and climate. In recent years, his research has increasingly focused on the oxygen cycle, specifically using isotope systematics.

His emphasis lies in utilizing triple oxygen isotope systematics, providing a second dimension to the classic oxygen isotope system. This allows the reconstruction of water cycles, including paleo-relative humidity, using the isotopic composition of mineral-bound water, for example, in gypsum. Professor Herwartz's goal is to fully understand the underlying processes to use chemical sediments as faithful archives for reconstructing Earth's history.

His quantitative approach is applicable to trace any oxygen-bearing compound in nature, making it suitable for a broad variety of topics, including triple oxygen isotope variations in silicate rocks, meteoric water, chemical precipitates (sulfates, phosphates, carbonates, fossil bones). In his current research Daniel Herwartz studies vital effects in carbonates, metabolic water in insects, the phosphate cycle in soils and paleoclimate.

For his outstanding contributions, Professor Herwartz was awarded the Victor Moritz Goldschmid Preis (DMG) in 2021 and the Bernd Rendel-Preis (DFG) in 2011.

Starting this year, Daniel Herwartz has been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant named "The kinetic oxygen cycle in chemical sediments" (KinO), and a Heisenberg Fellowship in the previous year. 

The IGMG warmly congratulates Professor Herwartz on his appointment and looks forward to the groundbreaking contributions he will make in the field of sedimentary geochemistry and to working closely with him in the future.