NESSC researcher Stefan Schouten (NIOZ/Utrecht University) has been granted the 2018 Alfred Treibs Award, a prestigious prize of the Geochemical Society. Schouten is given the award for his ‘unique contributions to organic geochemistry, paleoclimatology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and microbiology, including particularly the development and application of new organic proxies’.

Schouten will receive the award this summer in Boston on the annual Goldschmidt Conference on geochemistry, which is jointly organized by the American Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. It is the second time that a NESSC-researcher is awarded the prize. NESSC-director Jaap Sinninghe Damsté was granted the Alfred Treibs Award in 2005.

Paleoclimate
Prof. dr. ir. Stefan Schouten is senior researcher at NIOZ at the department of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry and part time professor at Utrecht University. His work on the development of organic geochemical proxies, which can be used particularly to determine ancient sea water temperatures, also play an important role within NESSC by the reconstructions of the paleoclimate.

The award, consisting of an engraved silver medal and an honorarium of US$ 1500 amongst others, is named in tribute of the German chemist, Alfred Treibs, who has been credited with founding the area of organic geochemistry.