Ros Rickaby facts for kids

Rosalind Emily Majors Rickaby, often called Ros Rickaby, is a leading scientist who studies how living things and the Earth's chemistry interact in the oceans. This field is called biogeochemistry. She is a professor at the University of Oxford in the Department of Earth Sciences. She also works as a special fellow at University College, Oxford.

Education and Early Career

Ros Rickaby went to school at Berkhamsted School for Girls and Haileybury College. She then studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. She earned her first degree in 1995. Later, in 1999, she completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD research was guided by Professor Harry Elderfield.

After finishing her PhD, Dr. Rickaby spent two years doing advanced research at Harvard University in the United States. There, she worked with another famous scientist, Daniel P. Schrag.

Research on Oceans and Climate

After her time at Harvard, Dr. Rickaby joined the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. Her main research focuses on paleoceanography. This is the study of oceans from long, long ago in Earth's history. She also studies how chemicals move through the oceans over time, which is part of biogeochemical cycling.

Dr. Rickaby's team uses tiny fossil shells from ocean creatures. These shells act like natural records. By studying them, scientists can figure out what the climate was like in the past. This helps us understand how Earth's climate has changed over millions of years.

Her research group uses special methods to analyze these shells. They look at tiny amounts of different elements and their isotopic ratios. This helps them understand how ancient ocean conditions affected creatures like coccolithophores, which are tiny marine plants. Dr. Rickaby also co-wrote a book called Evolution's Destiny: Co-evolving Chemistry of the Environment and Life. The book explores how life and the environment have changed together throughout Earth's history.

Awards and Recognitions

Dr. Rickaby has received many important awards for her scientific work:

• 2008: She was given the Philip Leverhulme Prize by the European Geosciences Union. This award recognizes outstanding young scientists.
• 2009: She received the 36th Rosenstiel Award from the University of Miami.
• 2010: She was awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal. This medal is for young scientists who have made big contributions to understanding the Earth's physical processes.
• 2012: She gave the Gast lectureship for her excellent work in geochemistry.
• 2016: The Royal Society gave her the Wolfson Research Merit Award. This award supported her research from 2016 to 2021.
• 2017: She received the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London. This medal is for important contributions to the study of rocks and Earth's history.
• 2022: She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom.
• 2023: She received the Science Innovation Award - Nicholas Shackleton Medal from the European Association of Geochemistry.
• 2025: She was awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year Honours. This honor was given for her important services to biogeochemistry.