Welcome to the Mineralogy and Petrology group

We are interested in properties and behavior of natural materials – minerals and rocks – during geological processes, interaction with hydrosphere and atmosphere, and their practical utility as resources and construction materials for modern society. Our group hosts a variety of analytical facilities including sample preparation, electron microprobe, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and we share access to additional analytics with the geochemistry group. Our graduates have numerous job opportunities in geology, mineral resources, applied environmental science, geotechnics, as well as inorganic chemistry or material science.

News

• August 2023: Installation start of our new Jeol Electron Microprobe - finally!
• Dr. Dominic Wölki is our new lab manager for EMPA and LA-ICPMS. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen/Nuremberg in 2019. His particular interest lies in igneous petrology and isotope and trace element geochemistry aiming to answer fundamental questions of high-temperature element cycling between earth mantle and crust at convergent and divergent plate boundaries. See his personal profile (01.06.2023)
• 2022: Installation of a new LA-ICPMS (Esi NWR193 & Agilent 7800/7900 ICP-MS)
• Dr. Harri Geiger is our new assistant for mineralogy and petrology. He has received his Ph.D. from the University of Uppsala in 2019 and is interested in the characterization of magmatic systems, from magma generation and source processes to magma transport, evolution, and eruptive behaviour. See his personal profile (01.07.2020)
• Short course Exploration Geology 18.-21.03.2019. In cooperation with Helvetica Exploration Services and supported by the German Mineralogical Society (DMG), we are organizing our annual short course on exploration geology. Follow this link for detailed information (02.11.2018)
• New addition to our experimental petrology laboratory. Piston cylinder apparatus capable of reaching 1400 'C and 3 GPa has arrived from the University of Tübingen. Dr. Lennart Fischer is setting the device up and will soon start his research on crystallization kinetics of silicate melts (10.10.2018)
• Field excursion to the Eastern Alps.. Prof. David Dolejs and Dr. Malte Junge have been organizing petrological and mineral-deposit excursion to the Eastern Alps. Great thanks to many local leaders, check out the video here (25.08.2018)
• Dr. Tao Hong has received the CSC-DAAD postdoctoral fellowship. He is joining our team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and will concentrate on geochemical reworking of crustal rocks leading to the formation of porphyry Cu-Mo deposits (04.05.2018)
• Dr. Katerina Schlöglova has received the Come & Stay postdoctoral fellowship. Arriving from the ETH Zürich, where she obtained her Ph.D. in economic geology in 2017, she will work on the origin of hydrothermal ore-forming systems (01.05.2018)
• Professor Jorge Molina Escobar is visiting our department in 2018. He is permanently based at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin and is interested in geochemical aspects of acid mine drainage and its remediation (20.04.2018)
• 01.04.2018 (until 04.2022): Dr. Lennart Fischer is our new assistant for geochemistry. He has received his Ph.D. from the University of Hannover in 2018 and is interested in dynamics of mafic magmatic systems and their experimental simulation.
• DMG-SGA short course Exploration Geology. For the first time our group organizes a new graduate short course on Exploration Geology. With the support from the Deutsche Mineralogische Gesellschaft and the Society for Geology Applied to Ore Deposits and with help of the Helvetica Exploration Services, we have welcome 27 participants from six different countries (19.03.2018)
• Jonas Kämpf receives the Mineralogical Society of America undergraduate prize 2018. The MSA undergraduate prize recognizes excellent academic achievements of our B.Sc. graduate, Jonas Kämpf. The award will be conferred during the fall faculty convocation. More information on the MSA web site (02.2018)
• Black Forest-Alpine SGA student chapter founded. The Society of Geology Applied to Ore Deposits has founded a new student chapter and will be supporting activities of students in mineral deposits at the universities of Freiburg, Karlsruhe and Bern (11.2017)
• Scandinavian excursion 2017 goes live. Matthias Dörfler has produced a brief video featuring the petrological and ore-deposit excursion to Norway and Sweden. Watch it on youtube (10.2017)