Tianyu Chen is a professor at the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Nanjing University in 2007 and obtained his Ph.D. from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany, in 2013. He received summa cum laude for his Ph.D.degree and the Peterson Foundation Award for outstanding doctoral dissertation during his doctoral studies. From 2014 to 2017, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. His research primarily focuses on the use of isotopes to investigate deep ocean ventilation and biogeochemical cycle, as well as to explore the mechanisms of Quaternary oceanic carbon cycling. As the first or corresponding author, he has published over 20 papers in journals such as Science, Nature Geoscience, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. In recent years, he has been the principal investigator for projects including the Excellent Young Scholar Fund of NSFC, subproject of Strategic Priority Research Program B of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the International Cooperation Research Project of NSFC, the Integration Project of NSFC Major Research Plan, and the National Key Research and Development Program project. In 2023, he was awarded the Liu Tungsheng Prize.
Email: tianyuchen@nju.edu.cn
Research Direction
I'm a geochemist working on the application of various kinds of isotopes (radioactive: U-Th, 14C, radiogenic Nd-Sr-Pb-Hf and stable isotopes such as Fe, Re isotopes) in understanding the carbon and trace element cycling of the ocean from orbital time scale to abrupt climate events. My research fields include (1) the reconstruction of Quaternary paleoceanography and global climate change based on deep sea corals and marine sediments; (2) the geochemistry and geochronology of U-Th-Ra-Pb decay chains of carbonates and detrital zircons; (3) trace metal cycling in the marine system.
Please contact me if you are looking for a PhD or postdoc position and are interested in joining my research group.
Educational Background
2010 – 2013, PhD in Earth Sciences (Marine Geology/Paleoceanography), awarded With Distinction (summa cum laude, 1 in 22), GEOMAR, University of Kiel, Germany.
2007 – 2010, Master-PhD joint program in Isotope Geochemistry, Nanjing University, China.
2003 – 2007, Undergraduate in Geochemistry, Nanjing University, China.
Work Experience
2017– School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Professor of Geochemistry
2014 – 2017 School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Senior Research Associate
Selected Publications
10. Hong, Q., Cheng, Y., Qu, Y., Wei, L., Liu, Y., Gao, J., Cai, P., Chen, T.*, 2024. Overlooked shelf sediment reductive sinks of dissolved rhenium and uranium in the modern ocean. Nature Communications. 15, 3966 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48297-y8.
9. Yuan, Y., Chen, T.*, Zhang, F., Liu, Y., Xiong, G., Wei, G., Dahl, T.W., Yan, W., Ling, H.-F., Cheng, H., Shen, S.-Z., 2023. Substantial incorporation of isotopically heavy reduced U species into marine carbonate sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.07.023
8. Chen, T.*, Robinson, L.F., Li, T., Burke, A., Zhang, X., Stewart, J.A., White, N.J., Knowles, T.D.J., 2023. Radiocarbon evidence for the stability of polar ocean overturning during the Holocene. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01214-2
7. Chen, T.*, Zheng, J., Li, T., Shi, X., Robinson, L.F., Wang, M., Li, G., Ling, H., Ren, X. and Ji, J., 2023. Thorium isotope evidence for glacial–interglacial dust storminess and productivity in the North Pacific gyre. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.01.007
6. Zheng, J., Chen, T.*, Ng, H.C., Robinson, L.F., Zheng, X.Y., Shi, X.F., Huang, M., 2022, Determination of picogram-per-gram concentrations of 231Pa and 230Th in sediments by melt-quenching and laser ablation mass spectrometry. Analytical Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c00438.
5. Wang, M., Chen, T.*, Feng, D., Zhang, X., Li, T., Robinson, L.F., Liang, Q., Bialik, O.M., Liu, Y. and Makovsky, Y., 2022. Uranium-thorium isotope systematics of cold-seep carbonate and their constraints on geological methane leakage activities. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 320, pp. 105-121.
4. Chen, T.*, Robinson, L.F., Burke, A., Claxton, L., Hain, M.P., Li, T., Rae, J.W.B., Stewart, J., Knowles, T.D.J., Fornari, D.J., Harpp, K.S., 2020. Persistently well-ventilated intermediate-depth ocean through the last deglaciation. Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0638-6
3. Chen, T.*, Robinson L.F., Beasley M., Claxton L., Andersen M., Gregoire L.J., Wadham J., Fornari D.J., Harpp K., 2016. Ocean mixing and ice-sheet control of seawater 234U/238U during the last deglaciation, Science, 354, 626-629.
2. Chen, T.*, Robinson L.F., Burke A., Southon J., Spooner P., Morris P.J., Ng H. C., 2015. Synchronous Centennial Abrupt Events in the Ocean and Atmosphere during the Last Deglaciation, Science, 349,1537-1541.
1.Chen, T.*, Frank, M., Haley, B.A., Gutjahr, M. and Spielhagen, R.F., 2012. Variations of North Atlantic inflow to the central Arctic Ocean over the last 14 million years inferred from hafnium and neodymium isotopes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 353, pp.82-92.