Professor Dorrit Jacob

Contacts

Contact email:director.rses@anu.edu.au
Contact phone:+61 2 6125 2487
Location:Jaeger 8, Level 3
Twitter
Prof. PhD rer. nat.
RSES School Director

Dorrit moved into the geosciences after being inspired by lectures on cosmochemical themes from international celebrities whilst she was working as a chemical laboratory assistant at the Max Planck-Institute for Chemistry (Germany). 

She studied Mineralogy and Geology at Johannes-Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz, and obtained a Dr. rer. nat. from the Georg-August University in Göttingen. Both, Diploma and PhD Thesis were undertaken and supervised at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.

Dorrit was nationally recognised by the award of a Heisenberg Chair in Biomineralisation in 2012. She was the first female scientist in Rhineland-Palatinate to be awarded a DFG-funded Heisenberg Professorship and the first female Heisenberg Professor at JGU. 

In 2013 Dorrit chose to leave Mainz and her full professorship to come to Australia, taking up an ARC Future Fellowship at Macquarie University and was promoted to full Professor in 2016.

In November 2020, Dorrit became the first female School Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences.

Recognised as a leader in her field, Dorrit was elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2021.

Research interests

  • Isotope Geochemistry
  • Spectroscopy
  • Geochemistry
  • Minerals
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Igneous Petrology
  • Petrography
  • Geochronology
  • Geological Processes
  • Materials

Projects

The full list of publications can be found in my Google Scholar profile

2021

Organic biopolymers of venus clams: Collagen-related matrix in the bivalve shells with crossed-lamellar ultrastructure

OBA Agbaje, JG Dominguez, DE Jacob

Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports 26, 100939 https://doi.org/10.1144/M56-2020-8

The formation of TTGs by hydrous partial melting and anatexis from a gabbroic mantle source in Viti Levu, Fiji Islands

H Sommer, A Kröner, DE Jacob, X Che, J Wong, H Xie

Precambrian Research 353, 105971 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2020.105971

GGR Cutting‐Edge Review Nanoscale Chemical Imaging by Photo‐Induced Force Microscopy: Technical Aspects and Application to the Geosciences

LM Otter, MW Förster, E Belousova, P O’Reilly, D Nowak, S Park, S Clark, ...

Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research https://doi.org/10.1111/ggr.12373

2020

Nano-Mechanics Reveal Resilience in Nacre of Mollusk Shells and Pearls

J Gim, N Schnitzer, L Otter, Y Cui, A Koch, S Motreuil, F Marin, S Wolf, ...

Microscopy and Microanalysis 26 (S2), 104-106 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927620013392

Cold avalanche," super subduction", mantle overturn, followed by buoyant subduction of an oceanic plateau and the formation of TTG's during the Eocene in Viti Levu, Fiji islands

H Sommer, A Kröner, DE Jacob, X Che, J Wong, H Xie 

EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, 10410 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020EGUGA..2210410S/abstract

Deep carbon through time: Earth’s diamond record and its implications for carbon cycling and fluid speciation in the mantle

D Howell, T Stachel, RA Stern, DG Pearson, F Nestola, MF Hardman, ...

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 275, 99-122  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.02.011