Details for: Michael Weber

Michael is a post-doctoral researcher at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, in the working group of Applied and Analytical Palaeontology. He is currently investigating the fractionation of stable Sr and Ca isotopes along trophic levels in vertebrates using MC-ICP-MS techniques. Michael first came in contact with isotope geochemistry during his work as a student assistant, where he applied 230Th/U dating to speleothem samples and performed the chemical separation as well as the mass spectrometric analyses. During his PhD, he started to work intensively on the application of Sr isotope ratios to different kind of geological materials and reference materials, especially in situ analysis using LA-MC-ICP-MS. This finally led to a publication on the development of NanoSr, a new synthetic carbonate reference material, especially designed for carbonate samples with low Sr contents. As well as the geoanalytical work, he is also involved in the reconstruction of past climate variability using speleothem, by applying a wide range of techniques and isotope systems, such as 230Th/U dating, stable carbon and oxygen isotopes, in addition to Sr isotopes. He is currently working with a Neptune Plus at the Institute of Geosciences, performing Sr and Ca isotope determinations of different kinds of biological hard and soft tissues.