Professor Rachael James

Rachael James is Professor of Geochemistry within the School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton. She obtained her PhD in 1996 from the University of Cambridge, and subsequently held a NERC/BRIDGE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Bristol. She was appointed Lecturer in Oceanography at the Open University in 2000 and moved to the National Oceanography Centre Southampton in 2008 to take up the role of Principal Geochemist. She joined the University of Southampton in 2013.

Rachael specialises in the development and application of chemical and isotopic techniques for addressing critical environmental and societal challenges. A key focus of her current work is on developing methods to measure and verify carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere via enhanced rock weathering, mineral carbonation and sub-seafloor storage. Rachael will be leading UK ERW GGR investigations into quantifying the effects of basalt fertilization on weathering rates and CO₂ drawdown in UK field trials.

 Rachael is associate editor for Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, she is a member of the Science Advisory Committee of GFZ Potsdam and she was awarded a 2006 Philip Leverhulme Prize for her contributions to her research field.