Professor Vadim (Dima) Kamenetsky
New Star Professor in Earth Sciences
Contact Details
| Contact Campus |
Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building |
Physics, L1 |
| Room Reference |
146 |
| Telephone |
+61 3 6226 7649 |
| Fax |
+61 3 6226 2547 (Earth Sciences) +61 3 6226 7662 (CODES) |
| Email |
dima.kamenetsky@utas.edu.au |
Career Summary
Professor Dima Kamenetsky is a 'New Star' Professor in Earth Sciences, School of Earth Sciences and CODES (2010-2014). He received his BSc (Hons) from the Moscow State University in 1983, and PhD from the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (Russian Academy of Sciences) in 1991. He was an ARC Australian Research Fellow (1999-2003) and ARC Professorial Research Fellow (2005-2009). In 2003 the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) awarded Dima the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award and he was a Visiting Professor in the Max Planck Institute für Chemie (Mainz, Germany) in 2003-2004. The Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, University of Tasmania, awarded him the Dean's Research Excellence Award in 2008.
Research Activity
Dima has wide expertise in melt and fluid inclusion experimental and analytical studies, as well as in the interpretation of conventional petrological and geochemical data. Dima has become internationally recognised for his research and publications on the petrology and geochemistry of mantle-derived, primitive magmas in different geodynamic settings, application of melt inclusion studies to altered rocks from ophiolites, ancient volcanic belts and volcanogenic sediments, and origin and evolution of metal-bearing fluid phases during crystallisation of primitive to felsic magmas.
His research to date has resulted in:
- First application of in-situ LA-ICPMS analysis of trace elements in melt and fluid inclusions;
- First application of experimental melt inclusion studies to spinel group minerals from volcanic and sedimentary rocks accepted for the ARC funding of the Australian Research Fellowship and Grant (Novel applications of melt inclusion studies: Insights into the magmatic history of porphyry Cu-Au deposits and provenance of volcaniclastic sediments) in 1999-2003;
- New discrimination method to distinguish between tectonic settings of basaltic magmatism using chemistry of magmatic spinel and spinel-hosted melt inclusions;
- Discovery of immiscible metal-rich fluids and "salt" melts associated with evolving basaltic to felsic magmas in a number of effusive and intrusive complexes accepted for the ARC funding of the Australian Professorial Fellowship and Discovery Grant (Unmixing in magmas: Melt and fluid Inclusion constraints on identity, timing, and evolution of immiscible fluids, salt and sulphide melts) in 2005-2009;
- First application of experimental melt inclusion studies to Precambrian rocks;
- Discovery of primary mantle-derived melts in a variety of geodynamic settings, including mid-ocean ridges, back-arc basins, island arcs, ocean islands and continents;
- First direct evidence for remnants of Precambrian continental (Gondwanan) lithosphere in the mantle source of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge basalts and occurrence of Pt-Pd-Au bearing Fe-Ni magmatic sulphide liquids in the melts derived from such source;
- First interpretation of kimberlite magmas as essentially non-silicate, 'dry' carbonate-chloride melts and assessment of their potential to entrap diamond-bearing xenoliths and rapidly carry them to the surface;
- Discovery of residual silica-gels at the point of solidification of magmas forming mineralised porphyries and evaluation of their role in forming quartz and concentrating economic elements.
2012 PhD Supervision
Publications
Research Project/s
