Professor Kliti Grice and ARC QEII Fellow

BSc (Hons) (Kingston, UK), PhD (Bristol, UK), MRACI, CChem
Field of interest: Professor of organic and isotope geochemistry

Contact Details

Director of Stable Isotope and Molecular (Bio)geochemistry Group
Centre for Applied Organic Geochemistry
Curtin University of Technology
GPO Box U1987
Perth WA 6845
Building 304 - 207
Phone +61 (0) 8 9266 2474
Fax +61 (0) 8 9266 2300
Email K.Grice@curtin.edu.au

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Kliti Grice is Director of the Stable Isotope and Molecular (Bio)geochemistry Group in CAOG. Kliti has 18 years research experience in stable isotope analysis of organic compounds, particularly carbon and hydrogen compound specific isotope analyses. She obtained her PhD in 1995 at University of Bristol (UK). She carried out a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Holland. In 1998 she was appointed as a senior research fellow at Curtin University, in 2002 was awarded an ARC QEII Fellowship and in 2003 was appointed to a tenured position as A/Professor and in 2006 was awarded a personal chair of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry in the Department of Applied Chemistry. She has published widely in leading international journals, has established international/national collaborations, obtained significant ARC funding, won state, national and international awards for her research. Kliti also has a leading role with CRC-for Water Quality and Treatment on Advanced Characterisation of Natural Organic Matter and an associated role with CWQRC within the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre as a consultant for isotope related work. Currently she is supervising 11 PhD students, 2 research assistants and 2 Honours. Kliti and her team focus on all fundamental aspects of stable isotopes in organic geochemistry (petroleum, water, environment and climate).

Stable isotope and Molecular (bio)geochemistry group are also part of the The Insitute of Geoscience Research (TIGeR). This is a new research initiative that comprises researchers from the Tectonics Special Research Centre (TSRC), the John de Laeter Centre of Mass Spectrometry (JdLCMS) and the Western Australian Centre for Geodesy (WACG). TIGeR is one of the university's leading research groups and is a Curtin University Tier 1 research centre.

Top-up scholarships ($5,000 p.a. for 3 years) are available for students pursuing research in stable isotope and organic geochemistry related PhD projects. (http://www.scholarships.curtin.edu.au/scholarship.cfm?id=384)

Research Projects

• Applications of CSIA in the Study of Extant Plants
  • Compound Specific D/H Isotopes of Lipids and Carbohydrates from C3 and C4 Extant Plants
  • 13C/12C Isotopes of Leaf Wax Lipids in Soil Profiles to Establish Vegetation Changes at Strathdarr, Queensland
• Applications of Compound Specific D/H Isotope Analysis to Crude Oils and Sediments
  • Stable Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of Biomarkers in Torbanites from Different Palaeogeographical Locations
  • Effects of Maturation on the Indigenous D/H Signatures of Individual Hydrocarbons in Sediments and Crude Oils from The Vulcan-Sub Basin and Perth Basin ( Western Australia)
• Stable Isotopes of Biomarkers in Permian/Triassic Sediments: Searching for Clues to the Cause of the end-Permian Mass Extinction Event
  • Evidence for Anaerobic Photosynthesis in an Early Triassic Sea
  • A Biomarker Index for the Permian-Triassic Ecological Crisis
  • Biomarker Distributions and their Stable Isotopes in Marine Permian/Triassic Sections from around the Globe
  • Permian/Triassic Sediments from the Perth Basin: Implications for Petroleum Source-Rock Formation
  • Changes in Abundances and Stable Carbon Isotopes of Biomarkers Across the Permian/Triassic Schuchert Dal Section ( Eastern Greenland)
• Establishing Palaeoenvironmental Conditions in the Jurassic Through Changes in Terrestrial Signatures
• Human Influence on Holocene Environmental Change in the Yangtze River Delta: A Combined Biomarker, 13C/12C, D/H, 14C, Pollen And Charcoal Approach
• Applications of CSIA in Forensics
  • Compound Specific Isotope Analysis of Atrazine During Mineralisation
  • 13C/12C Of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS) in Airborne Samples by Thermal Desorption-Gas Chromatography-Isotope-Ratio-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-IRMS)
  • Forensic Analysis of Adhesive Tapes by GC-MS, GC-Ir-MS
• Applications of CSIA in Water
• Molecular and Isotopic Characterisation of Leachates in Water
• Stable Isotopes for the Characterisation of NOM and Investigation of the Different Organic Precursors of Aquatic Systems
• Examples of Petroleum Geochemistry Research Activity within CAOG
• Reactions of Organic Matter in the Sedimentary System
• Subsurface Carbocation Processes Revealed by a Stable Isotopic Study of the Aromatic UCM
• Characterisation of the Source of Sedimentary Organic Matter
• Macrocyclic Alkanes: Markers for the Freshwater Alga Botryococcus braunii
• The Formation of Sedimentary Alkylbiphenyls from Algal Lipid Precursors
• Reconstructing Petroleum Migration Pathways Through Analysis of Polar Compounds

Key Publications

K. Grice , C. Cao, G.D. Love, M.E. Boettcher, R.J. Twitchett, E. Grosjean, R.E. Summons, S.C. Turgeon, W. Dunning, and Y. Jin (2005) Photic Zone Euxinia During the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event Science 307, 706-709.

D. Dawson, K. Grice, R. Alexander (2005) Effects of maturation on the indigenous D/H signatures of individual hydrocarbons in sediments and crude oils from the Perth Basin (Western Australia) Organic Geochemistry 36, 95-104.

Grice, K. (2001) d13C as an indicator of palaeoenvironments: A molecular approach in: 'Application of stable isotope techniques to study biological processes and functioning ecosystems' (edited by Unkovich M, Pate J, McNeill A and Gibbs J).(1): 247-281.

Audino, M., Grice, K., Alexander, R., Kagi, R.I. and Boreham, C. (2001) Unusual Distribution of Monomethylalkanes in Botryococcus braunii-rich Samples: Origin and Significance. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 65, 1995-2006.

Grice, K., Klein Breteler, W.C.M., Schouten, S., Grossi, V., de Leeuw, J.W. and Sinninghe Damste, J. S. (1998) The effects of zooplankton herbivory on biomarker proxy records. Paleoceanography 13, 686-693.