Rachel Wood (geologist) facts for kids

Rachel Wood is a brilliant scientist who studies ancient life and rocks. She is a palaeobiologist and a geologist. A palaeobiologist studies fossils and how life has changed over millions of years. A geologist studies the Earth's rocks and its history.

Rachel Wood is also a Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She teaches and researches about rocks made of carbonate, like limestone. These rocks are often formed from the shells and skeletons of ancient sea creatures.

About Rachel Wood

Rachel Wood studied Geology and Zoology at the University of Bristol. After that, she earned her PhD from the Open University.

Her research focuses on very old times in Earth's history. She studies the period when life on Earth changed a lot, called the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. She also looks at how living things started to make hard parts, like shells. This process is called biomineralisation.

Reefs and Ancient Life

Rachel Wood is very interested in how coral reefs have grown and changed over millions of years. She also studies how carbonate rocks have formed throughout Earth's history. She wrote a book called Reef Evolution in 1999.

She has traveled to places like Siberia and Namibia to study very old fossils. These fossils are from the Ediacaran period, which was before the Cambrian period.

Awards and Recognition

Rachel Wood is an editor for the science journal Science Advances. She has received several important awards for her work.

In 2018, she was given the Johannes Walther Medal. This award is from a group of scientists who study sediments and rocks. In 2020, she received the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London. This is a very special award for geologists.

In 2022, Rachel Wood was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a huge honor for top scientists in the United Kingdom. She also became a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2022. She also helps people from Namibia in Scotland as an Honorary Consul.