Professor Kliti Grice
Director of WA-OIGC
ARC QEII Fellow, ARC College Expert
Qualifications:
BSc (Hons) (Kingston, UK), PhD (Bristol, UK), MRACI, CChem
Field of interest
Organic and Isotope Geochemistry; Molecular Biogeochemistry; Biomarker; Mass Extinction Events.
Chemistry Department
Building.Room: 500.2116
Phone: +61(0) 8 9266-2474
Email: K.Grice@curtin.edu.au
Kliti Grice is Director of WA-OIGC and an ARC QEII Research Fellow. Kliti has 19 years research experience in stable isotope analysis of organic compounds (biomarkers), particularly carbon and hydrogen compound specific isotope analyses. She obtained her PhD in 1995 at University of Bristol (UK) under the guidance of Professor James Maxwell. 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 Chemistry. Her research interests are understanding the biogeochemistry of extant organisms (e.g., from land plants, bacteria, algae to stromatolites etc.) and using molecular fossils and their stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic signals in order to reconstruct ancient environments and understand how life evolved. She is currently investigating the 5 largest mass extinction events of the geological record. 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. Currently she is advising 11 PhD students, 3 research fellows, 2 research assistants, 1 Masters and 2 Honours. The WA-OIGC team focus on all fundamental aspects of stable isotopes in organic geochemistry (petroleum, water, environment and climate).
Current Research Projects
* QEII related
- Organic geochemistry of East Sirte Basin, Lybia
- Stable carbon isotope compositions and distributions of age-diagnostic molecular fossils in Indonesian oils and source rocks for oil-source correlation
- Stable hydrogen isotopes of petroleum hydrocarbons in biodegraded oils
- Molecular and isotope chronostratigraphy of Tertiary source rocks and crude oils
- Elaboration of a kinetic model in order to predict the molecular and isotopic composition for natural gases generated during hydrocarbon cracking
- 4-Dimensional reservoir geochemistry – Interaction of oil and water in petroleum reservoirs
- Community dynamics of anaerobic bacteria in deep petroleum reservoirs from analysis of phospholipid fatty acids
- Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic relationships of individual saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons petroleum
- Factors determining the stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes ratios of saturate and aromatic and hydrocarbons in petroleum and source-rocks
- The origin and significance of crocetane in Devonian source rocks and crude oils from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin
- Stable Hydrogen Isotopes for Assessing Thermal History of Sediments through Geologic Time
- Hydrocarbon reaction mechanisms in the formation of petroleum
- The effect of hydrothermal alteration on the molecular and isotopic composition of lipid biomarkers in the McArthur River (HYC) Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit, Northern Territory, Australia
- *Characteristics of organic matter formed in toxic, sulfide-rich modern and ancient environments (F/F, G/F and P/Tr mass extinctions)
- *Evidence for Anaerobic Photosynthesis in ancient seas
- *Perylene: A Potential Marker for Lignin Degradation and the Evolution of Vascular Plants
- *Chemostat experiments to mimic toxic environments associated with mass extinction events
- Molecular signature of the Neoproterozoic Acraman impact event
- *Synchronous disturbance in oceanic and atmospheric conditions during the end-Permian mass extinction event and its protracted recovery
- *Significance of global isotopic trends (C, H, S) across the Permian/Triassic Boundary
- Biogeochemistry of the Triassic/Jurassic boundary
- Molecular and isotopic composition of termites and wood-rotting fungi
- *Biosynthetic effects on the stable carbon isotopic compositions of the anteiso- (3-methyl) and iso- (2-methyl) alkanes in tobacco leaves
- *Compound specific D/H isotopes of lipids and carbohydrates from C3 and C4 extant plants
- *Synthesis and identification of novel biomarkers in Permian/Triassic sediments
- Biogeochemistry of the Coroong Lagoon using a biomarker and compound specific isotope approach
- Molecular and stable isotopic composition of organic matter preserved in coral skeletal material
- Molecular and stable isotopic composition of biomarkers in stromatolites
- Establishing the origin of explosives and smokeless powders by isotope and trace element analysis
- Application of GC-IRMS to the profiling of accelerants and synthetically prepared substances of forensic interest
- The application of trace element and stable isotope signatures to the provenance establishment of plant derived products of forensic significance
- The use of stable isotopes for the characterisation of Natural Organic Matter (NOM)
- Stable isotopes for the characterisation of NOM and investigation of the different organic precursors of aquatic systems
- Sourcing volatile organics in industrial emissions by compound specific isotope analysis
- Establishing the source of natural gas from NW Shelf (Australia)
- The significance of perylenequinones and their diagenetic alteration products in Devonian reefs (Canning Basin, WA)
- The Origin of perylene
- Biogeochemistry of Australian hypersaline lakes and toxic sulfidic-rich environments
Teaching Activities
- Contemporary science on biomarkers as indicators of mass extinction events to 1st year students
- Applications of stable organic isotope techniques in petroleum, water geochemistry and forensic science in Chemistry and Technology (3rd year)
- Petroleum Geochemistry (Honours)
- Stable organic isotope techniques, in 4th year Analytical Chemistry and 3rd year Forensic Science
- Honours course coordinator – Chemistry 401
University Duties
- Board of Science and Engineering, Research and Development Committee
- Board of the University Research and Development Committee
- Board of the Australian Sustainability Development Institute (ASDI)
Research Awards
- 2001 International Pieter Schenck Award for Outstanding Contributions in Organic Geochemistry
- 2001 ARC QEII fellowship
- 2002 WA Premier’s Inaugural Science Award for Emerging Research
- 2002 Dorothy Hill Award, Australian Academy of Science for QEII research
- 2002 Curtin University Dean’s Medallion for Emerging Research
- 2007 The young research of the year award (under 40), Curtin University of Technology, Division of Engineering, Science and Computing
- 2008 ARC QEII fellowship
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) δ13Cas 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.