Student Wins Postgraduate Research Excellence Award
John Creech was recently awarded a Postgraduate Research Excellence Award for work done as part of MSc thesis. The
research was presented in a paper entitled ‘Eocene sea temperatures for the mid-latitude southwest Pacific from Mg/Ca
ratios in planktonic and benthic foraminifera’, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the third highest
ranking journal in this field internationally.
John’s work was a combination of geochemistry and paleoclimate research, and used a laser to sample microscopic marine
fossils and measure their chemistry. From these measurements, a temperature record was reconstructed from around New
Zealand for the period 51 – 46 million years ago. The record showed sea surface temperatures in the Canterbury Basin
varied between 25 - 30C, and bottom waters between 15 - 20C - temperatures around 20C warmer than would be found at the
same latitude today.
John has also recently been awarded a Victoria PhD scholarship, and will be studying with Professor Joel Baker and Dr
Monica Handler using isotopes of platinum to investigate processes in the early Solar System, including the formation of
the Earth.
ENDS