Max Bouwmeester (M.Sc.)
Bio
Before joining the SIope5 project, I was trained in the Comparative Sedimentology group at Utrecht University, where I enjoyed the close link between field geology and process sedimentology. My further interests are in numerical modelling, basin analysis, and any process that is poorly understood.
I was drawn to field geology early on. It was during my second year’s fieldwork in the Tremp Basin that I appreciated finding the right balance between attention to detail and taking a step back to see the bigger picture. I decided to dedicate my master’s to sedimentology. Before long, I was invited to join the teaching and research team of sedimentology. I instructed in several bachelor’s courses’ practicals, a highlight being the fieldwork to the Pyrenees as an instructor. For my graduation project, which resulted in the final chapter of the PhD thesis of my adviser, I set up and executed a field campaign in the paleo-Kura basin and helped revise protocols for the XRD analyses of clay minerals. I then applied principles established for marine records to continental settings, something that was not done extensively before. My final research project involved scientific ocean drilling data-mining and core-analysis, to establish a new model for organic matter preservation in the Cretaceous Pacific Ocean. This manuscript is in preparation and set to be submitted for peer-review in the summer of 2020.
M.Sc. graduation and research projects
- The Pliocene-Pleistocene transition in the Kura Basin: Environmental and climate reconstruction of basin margin sediments;
- Cretaceous oceanic anoxia in the Pacific: Preservation of organic matter during equatorial crossings of seamounts (in prep.)