Dr Barbara Kunz

I am a LA-ICP-MS specialist with a focus on trace element and isotope analysis in geological material and a research background in metamorphic petrology and geochemistry. I have a particular interest in pushing analytical boundaries while maintaining the highest data quality. Since 2020 I'm managing the LA-ICP-MS lab in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at The Open University.

Since 2023 I am the Technician Commitment lead at the OU, helping to increase and improve the visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of technicians. For more information on the OU Technician Commitment visit https://stem.open.ac.uk/research/technician-commitment.

From 2017–2020 I was a project officer on the NERC project 'From Arc Magmas to Ores (FAMOS)' (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/our-work/sustainability/from-arc-magmas-to-ores.html). My role in this project was sample preparation, geochemical analysis (ICP-MS & EMPA) and data processing of melt inclusion, volcanic glass and minerals for samples from the collaborators of the FAMOS project.

I obtained my PhD in May 2017 (title: Analysis of zircon from deep basement units: Correlation across orogenic cycles in the Southern and Western Alps) at the University of Bern (Switzerland) under the supervision of Martin Engi.

I did my undergraduate at the University of Mainz (Germany) in 2011 where I received my diploma in Geology, which is entitled ‘A mid-crustal metamorphic field gradient in Val Strona di Omenga, Ivrea Zone, Italy: constraints from metabasic rocks’ and was supervised by Richard White and Tim Johnson.

My current research focuses on crustal melting processes and the chemical signatures these processes imprint on the resulting magmas and “leftover, non-melted” rocks and minerals. One particular focus is influence metamorphic processes might have on concentrating and/or releasing critical raw materials (e.g. Li, Be, Sc, V, Co, Cu, Ga, In, Sn & W). I combine classical metamorphic techniques (fieldwork, petrographic and textural analysis) with state-of-the-art micro-analytical techniques (trace element mapping by laser-ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry - LA-ICP-MS) and thermodynamic modelling.

Furthermore, I am interested in the P–T–t, mineral assemblage, melt and melt loss evolution as well as the behaviour of accessory minerals of high-grade rocks during metamorphism, in order to determine what information, stored in these rocks tell us about the metamorphic evolution of a terrane.

Due to my work in the LA-ICP-MS lab I relish opportunities to collaborate on projects with other people to solve analytical challenges from a broad range of Earth Science disciplines. In recent years this has been mostly on advancing methods such as online interference correction via ICP-QQQ or element mapping by LA-ICP-MS to enhance our knowledge of element mobility and transport in magmatic and metamorphic systems.