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Tim Eglinton

Professor Timothy Eglinton FRS.jpg
Timothy Eglinton at the Royal Society admissions day in London, 2014
Born
Timothy Ian Eglinton
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields Geology
Carbon cycle
Sedimentology
Institutions
Thesis An investigation of kerogens using pyrolysis methods (1988)

Timothy Ian Eglinton FRS is a professor of biogeoscience at the Geological Institute, ETH Zürich.

Education

Eglinton was educated at Plymouth Polytechnic where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science in 1982. He went on to study at Newcastle University, where he was awarded a Master of Science degree and a PhD in 1988 for research investigating kerogens using pyrolysis.

Research and career

Eglinton's research is:

focussed on understanding of the processes that govern the Earth's carbon cycle from the molecular level to the global scale, and on the legacy of past biological activity and environmental conditions contained in organic signatures preserved in the geologic record.

Eglinton has revolutionised studies of Earth's carbon cycle. By developing an entirely new means of tracing the pathways of organic carbon in surface environments, ranging from eroding landforms to rivers, floodplains, the oceanic water column, microbial communities and marine sediments, he has replaced countless estimates and assumptions with accurately known transport times and carbon budgets. His findings have illuminated and reconciled formerly discrepant paleoclimatic records, revealed new forms of microbial life, demonstrated that microorganisms can attack and remobilise billion-year-old organic material, and traced the pathways of petroleum-derived carbon in surface environments.

Awards and honours

Eglinton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014.

Personal life

Eglinton is the son of the organic chemist Geoffrey Eglinton. He is married to Lorraine Eglinton, and has two daughters and one son.

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