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Professor David Chew

Professor In (Geology)
MUSEUM BUILDING

 chewd@tcd.ie

 3531896 3481


Biography

I teach in the field of tectonics, and my research involves applying geochronology and isotope geochemistry to various problems in the geosciences. These research interests include 'sedimentary provenance' - applying isotopic analyses to sand grains to characterise ancient drainage systems in the geological record and the erosional history of mountain belts, and applying novel geochronological approaches to minerals that are challenging to date by the U-Pb method (e.g. carbonates, apatite) to quantifying the timing and rates of tectonic processes such as orogenesis (mountain building) and exhumation. Education and Academic Career: 1996 B.Sc. Geology (First Class Hons), University College Dublin. 2001 Ph.D. Geology, University College Dublin. 2001-2003 Temporary Lecturer, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin. 2003-2005 Post-doctoral researcher, University of Geneva, Switzerland. 2005-2014 Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin. 2012 Elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. 2014-2019 Associate Professor, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin. 2019-present Professor in Geology, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin. Significant academic roles: 2022-present Deputy Director of the SFI Research Centre in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG). 2017-2021 Head of Geology, Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin.

Research Tags

  Earth Science   Geochemistry   Geochronology   Geology   Low temperature thermochronology   Plate Tectonics   Structural Geology

Representations

Details Date
Keynote conference talks: 'U-Pb calcite and zircon dating by LA-ICPMS image mapping', 33rd Nordic Geological Winter Meeting, Copenhagen, January 10-12, 2018. 'Detrital U-Pb geochronology of common-Pb bearing accessory minerals', workshop of the Working Group on Sediment Generation (WGSG), June 25-27, Göttingen, 2014. 'Measuring time in Palaeozoic sedimentary sequences by geochronology', VIII South American Symposium on Isotope Geology, Medellin, Colombia, July 2012.
Invited conference talks: Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in 2019 (Barcelona), 2020 (online) and 2022 (Hawaii). 7th Asia-Pacific Workshop on Laser-Ablation and Micro-Analysis, Beijing, October 2018. 16th International Conference on Thermochronology, September 2018, Quedlinburg, Germany. 14th International Conference on Thermochronology, Chamonix, France, 8-12 September 2014. Mineralogical Association of Canada conference on Quantitative Mineralogy and Microanalysis of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. St John's, Newfoundland, May 2012. American Geophysical Union, Acapulco, May 2007.
Senior Editor (Inorganic geochemistry and geochronology) of the new Taylor & Francis journal Critical Insights in Geochemistry and Geophysics, which launched in summer 2024. Editorial boards: Chemical Geology (current), Geology (current and 2014-2016) and Minerals (2016-2019). Book / special issue editor: 'New perspectives on the Caledonides of Scandinavia and related areas' (Geological Society of London, 2014), 'Analysis of sediment properties: Tools for paleo-environmental reconstruction' (Sedimentary Geology, 2018) and 'Sediment generation and sediment routing systems' (Earth-Science Reviews, 2020).
Session Convener: European Mineralogical Conference 2024, Dublin.18th International Conference on Thermochronology (Thermo2023). Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022. International Association of Sedimentologists Meeting of Sedimentology, 2019, Rome.
Invited talks at geoscience institutes: Geological Society of Peru (June 2005), University College Dublin, (February 2006), British Antarctic Survey (June 2007), Edinburgh Geological Society (October 2010), Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (March 2011), University of Portsmouth (May 2011), Open University Geological Society (August 2011), University of Geneva (August 2011), Glasgow Geological Society (January 2012), the Irish Geological Association (November 2013), the annual Irish Geological Research Meeting (2014), the University of Rennes (2014), the University of Portsmouth (November 2017), the University of the Sorbonne, Paris (May 2018), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018), the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (2018), the University of St. Andrews (2018), Montpelier (2019), Erlangen (2019), Khalifa University (2021), Chinese Academy of Sciences (2022), China University of Geosciences (2023).
Conference Organising and Scientific Committees: European Mineralogical Conference 2024, TCD: Organizer, Scientific Committee. European Workshop on Laser Ablation 2024, Ghent: Scientific Committee. 18th International Conference on Thermochronology (Thermo2023): Scientific Committee. Working Group on Sediment Generation 2018, TCD: Organizer, Scientific Committee. Irish Geological Research Meeting 2009, TCD: Organizer.
External Ph.D. examiner for the University of Johannesburg, the University of Adelaide, Lund University, University of Geneva (three times), the University of Oslo and the University of Stavanger, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), the University of the Sorbonne (Paris) and as an external M.Sc. examiner for the Queensland University of Technology. Internal reviewer of 16 PhD theses.
Grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation (US) (twice), European Science Foundation, German Research Foundation (DFG), the Italian Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, the Romanian National Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), SNSF infrastructure, Czech Science Foundation (twice), the SYNTHESES panel (European Union-funded Integrated Activities grant) (twice), National Research Foundation (South Africa), the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). I sit on the NERC (UK) National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF) Peer Review Panel from 2020-2024.
External reviewer for an Assistant Professorship in Structural Geology at University College Dublin 2015
Reviewer of >200 articles, including American Mineralogist; CJES; Chemical Geology; CTMP; EPSL; Economic Geology; Elements; G3; GCA; Geochronology; GSA Bulletin; GSA Special Papers; Geology; Geoscience Frontiers; GGR; Gondwana Research; JAAS; Journal of Geology; JGR - Earth Surface; JMPG; Journal of Metamorphic Geology; Journal of Petrology; Journal of Structural Geology; JGSL; Lithos; Lithosphere; Nature Comms. Earth & Environment, Ore Geology Reviews, Precambrian Research; Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry; Science Advances, Scientific Reports, Sedimentary Geology; Sedimentology; Tectonics, Tectonophysics, Terra Nova and the Treatise on Geochemistry.
Working Group on Sediment Generation (co-leader and co-editor of journal Special Issues) 2018-2020
Short courses on applying isotope geochemistry to sedimentary rocks (Colombia, July 2012; Switzerland, March 2014)

Languages

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
French Medium Medium Medium

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
Fellow of the Geological Society of London 1998 present
Member of the Geosciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy 2022 present
Member of the Geological Society of America 2019 presnr
Member of the European Association of Geochemistry 2020 present
Member of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2004 present
Member of the Geochemical Society 2007 present
Xiang, D., Mao, Q., Xiao, W., Wei, J., Chew, D., He, Z., Zhao, H., Ma, G., Zhang, M., Wu, L., Wang, N., Guo, C., Ma, X., Zhang, Z., Exhumation and preservation of the Baixintan magmatic Ni-Cu sulphide deposit: Insights from (U-Th)/He and fission track thermochronology, Ore Geology Reviews, 176, 2025, p106411 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Gaweda, A., Munteanu, M., Siliauskas, L., Kupczak, K., Chew, D., Waskowska, A., Szopa, K., Belskyy, V., Pantia, A.I., Marciniak-Maliszewska, B., Jokubauskas, P., Connecting East with West: constraining polygenetic Variscan- to post-Variscan metamorphism in the Marmarosh/Maramuresh Massif, Ukraine/Romania, Geological Magazine, 162, 2025, pe4 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
U-Th-Pb phosphate geochronology by LA-ICP-MS in, editor(s)Shellnutt, J.G., Denyszyn, S.W., Suga, K. , Methods and Applications for Geochronology, Elsevier, 2024, pp169 - 209, [Chew D.], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI
Bastias-Silva J., Chew D., Poblete F., Castillo P., Guenthner W., Grunow A., Dalziel I.W.D., Dias A.N.C., Ramirez De Arellano C., Fernandez R., Uplift and denudation history of the Ellsworth Mountains: insights from low-temperature thermochronology, Solid Earth, 15, (4), 2024, p555 - 566, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Guo R., Sun X., Li C., Chew D., Drakou F., Zhang Z., Li Y., Wei C., Zeng T., Homnan J., Klotzli U., Rutile and zircon U-Pb dating as a constraint on sedimentary provenance of the Jianchuan Basin: Implications for paleo-drainage evolution, Geomorphology, 456, 2024, p109208 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Gumsley A., Slaby E., Dey S., Chew D., Gmochowska W., Wudarska A., Gumsley A., Szopa K., Krzykawski T., Marciniak-Maliszewska B., Drakou F., The evolution of Archean crust undisturbed for three billion years: A case study from the Bahalda Pluton, Singhbhum Craton, eastern India, Precambrian Research, 406, 2024, p107385 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Bastias-Silva J., Burton-Johnson A., Chew D., Riley T., Jara W., Chiaradia M., A temporal control on the isotopic compositions of the Antarctic Peninsula arc, Communications Earth and Environment, 5, (1), 2024, p157 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Perez Frasette M.J., Navarrete C., Bastias-Silva J., Valle M., Chew D., Iglesias M., Suarez M., Marquez M., Drakou F., Folguera A., The Bajo Grande Basin: Late Jurassic(?)-Early Cretaceous syn-orogenic depocenters in southwestern Gondwana, Tectonophysics, 874, 2024, p230241 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Qiu K.-F., Zhou T., Chew D., Hou Z.-L., Muller A., Yu H.-C., Lee R.G., Chen H., Deng J., Apatite trace element composition as an indicator of ore deposit types: A machine learning approach, American Mineralogist, 109, (2), 2024, p303 - 314, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Deng T., Ma A., Chew D., Hu X., Wang P., Jibu Y., Revisiting the stratigraphical, sedimentological and provenance evolution of Lingshan Island, offshore of east China: Implications for the destruction of the north China craton, Marine and Petroleum Geology, 161, 2024, p106701 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
Distinguished Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Science - President's International Fellowship Initiative 2024
Notable reviewer, Journal of the Geological Society of London 2020
Reviewer of the year, Journal of the Geological Society of London 2017
Fellow, Trinity College Dublin 2012
Metamorphic Studies Group research in progress meeting, award for best student lecture 2000
UCD Open Postgraduate Scholarship 2000
Cunningham Award for best Irish undergraduate mapping project 1996

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

My research involves applying geochronology and isotope geochemistry to a diverse series of questions in the geosciences. It is based mainly around novel method development and applications of laser-ablation (LA) ICP-MS techniques to various geoscience problems, including isotopic dating of sedimentation, sedimentary provenance studies and quantifying the timing and rates of tectonic processes such as mountain building and exhumation. My research group has pioneered U-Pb dating of apatite by the LA-ICP-MS method, and integrating it with both apatite fission-track analysis and apatite trace-element geochemistry to yield protolith compositions in provenance studies. This work was developed in an SFI Investigators Programme grant on applying detrital apatite as a provenance indicator in systems. We have extended our LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating approaches to undertaking rapid and routine geochronology of U-bearing minerals with appreciable common Pb. We now routinely undertake multi-proxy provenance studies based on U-Pb dating of accessory heavy minerals (e.g. apatite, rutile, titanite, zircon and monazite), in collaboration with leading international research groups and also in Ireland within the SFI iCRAG research centre. Recent research has focussed on developing LA-ICPMS mapping. A key novel development is our U-Pb age mapping approach to dating calcite and zircon. This method is based on selection and pooling of pixels from 2-D elemental and isotopic ratio maps, and is a particularly powerful technique for targeting subdomains in samples with complex geological histories. The U-Pb calcite dating work is funded by an SFI Investigators Program award and has important and novel applications. These include constraining the timing of mineralization in the world-class Irish Zn-Pb mineral province, dating of syn-tectonic carbonate veins in carbonate sequences in orogenic belts, or direct dating of carbonates for key time intervals in Earth history such as Neoproterozoic 'Snowball Earth' glacial episodes.