Personal profile
Research overview
My PhD project, conducted on a co-tutelle scheme between University of St Andrews (prof. Adrian Finch) and University of Oslo (prof. Henrik Friis), focuses on fluid activity in alkaline igneous complex in Ivittuut, SW Greenland. Those 1.3 billion years old rocks host world's largest deposit of cryolite (Na3AlF6), mineral of ice-like appearance and ambiguous origin.
To understand cryolite's appearance in the top part of the granite pipe, I am using two approaches. Firstly, I examine various stable isotope systems (principally He, N, Li) to identify the source region of the fluids and its interactions with meteoric or recycled (via subduction) water. Silicates (yellow mica) and sulphides (pyrite) accompanying cryolite are used to provide this information.
As all the elements building the cryolite itself occur in only one isotope variation, this mineral is examined by combination of thermal treatment and spectroscopic methods (predominantly lifetime luminescence). There are three colour varieties of cryolite in Ivittuut (black, purple and white), and I am curious about the petrogenetic information that this diversity can bear.
My way to St Andrews led through AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, where I completed BSc and MSc, ClayLab in IGS PAS, where I used to work with clay minerals, and Geotourism Students Scientific Club, which gave me a passion and urged to take a step forward.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):