Department of Chemistry
Seminar Announcement
Date/Time/Venue
Title/Speaker
8 Mar (Tues)
2pm – 3pm
Applications of strontium isotopes for
provenance, tracing and migration studies
@ S8 Level 3
Executive
Classroom
Professor Thomas Prohaska
University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
Host : Assoc Prof Thomas R Walczyk
About the Speaker
Professor Thomas Prohaska is analytical chemist at the Austrian
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences involved in research
and teaching. The major focus lies on elemental and isotopic analysis by
using mass spectrometric techniques for applications in analytical
ecogeochemistry. The major areas of research cover the fields of food
provenance and quality, environmental biomonitoring, migration studies
and forensic science.
Born in 1968, he studied Chemistry at the Vienna University of
Technology. He received his PhD with summa cum laude in 1995 and
became scientific researcher at the BOKU Vienna to built up a laboratory
for elemental trace analysis. From 1998 to 2000 he was working as researcher at the
European Commission joint research center IRMM in Belgium. Afterwards, he returned to
Vienna with a new focus on stable isotope research and became Associate Professor at
the Department of Chemistry in 2002. A research award from the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF) enabled the setup of a new isotope research laboratory (VIRIS laboratory) in 2006.
Abstract
The isotopic composition of strontium (Sr) makes this element so interesting for various
scientific disciplines. The natural composition of the four naturally occurring isotopes (84Sr,
86Sr 87Sr and 88Sr) varies in nature due to the radioactive decay of 87Rb to 87Sr. Natural
variations of the 87Sr abundance is mainly determined by the geological age and the
original composition of the rock and can be used therefore as fingerprint of the local
geology.
The Sr system is used in various fields of application including anthropology, archaeology,
nutritional and food science, chemical technology, forensic science, medicine and biology.
The Sr isotope system will be presented along with multiple collector inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) as the technique for high precision isotope ratio
measurements. Selected examples that make use of natural Sr isotopic variations will be
reported: Proof of geographical provenance of food, forensic applications as well as
migration studies on prehistoric cultures and in biological systems. In addition, the
application of enriched Sr isotope spikes will be presented to investigate Sr turnover as a
proxy for calcium in biomedical studies, marking of tissues for tracing and migration
experiments and investigation of environmental processes. Laser ablation (LA) analysis in
combination with ICP-MS will be presented as analytical technique for spatially resolved
analysis for mapping surfaces and producing chemical images elucidating elemental and
isotopic distribution on the surface of solid materials.
All are Welcome