Please note: This is version 1.2 of DRAC and is currently under development.

DRAC — Who we are

Julie Durcan

Julie is a Supernumerary Teaching Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford and researcher at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. She is a Quaternary Scientist with interests in palaeoenvironmental change in dryland regions, geoarchaeological applications and the advancement of luminescence dating as a geochronological technique. Her current projects include:

  • Reconstructing Holocene palaeoenvironments in the Indian sub-continent
  • Reconciling dust flux and fluvial activity in the Namib Desert
  • Quantifying late Quaternary fluvial and aeolian activity in Central Australia
  • Optimising the luminescence signal from quartz for dating applications

You can find Julie on her University of Oxford webpage. She can be contacted by email at julie.durcan@ouce.ox.ac.uk.

Georgina King

Georgina is currently head of the Cologne Luminescence Laboratory at the University of Cologne, Germany but will shortly be taking up an Ambizione fellowship in the Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of Bern. She has a background in Quaternary Science and is specifically interested understanding landscape response to climatic changes using geochronology. Her current projects include:

  • Developing optically stimulated luminescence dating as a low-temperature thermochronometer, working on samples from Namche Barwa, Tibet
  • Reconciling the tephro- and luminescence chronologies of the Palouse Loess, Washington State, USA
  • Understanding the interactions between volcanic activity and climatic changes in the Kamchatkan Central Depression

You can find Georgina on Researchgate here. She can be contacted by email at georgina.king@gmail.com.

Geoff Duller

Geoff is a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK. His research is focussed on the development and application of luminescence dating. His recent projects include:

  • Chronology, Adaption and Environment of the Middle Palaeolithic in northern Africa
  • Luminescence dating on the surface of Mars
  • Re-evaluating the environmental controls of the Harappan Civilization collapse using OSL dating of river palaeochannel sediments

You can find Geoff on his Aberystwyth University webpage and can contact him by email at ggd@aber.ac.uk.

Acknowledgements

This project has been funded by an Outreach Award from the Quaternary Research Association (QRA) and the authors gratefully acknowledge this support.