Dr. Richard Gaschnig
Associate Professor
Graduate Coordinator

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.  I specialize in geochemistry, geochronology, and petrology. At UMass Lowell, we have a Q-ICP-MS, laser ablation unit, and ICP-OES, along with a wet lab for sample digestion and column chromatography.  With LA-ICP-MS, we regularly perform combined U-Pb and trace element analysis of zircon, monazite, rutile, and titanite and are working on expanding to other minerals.  

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Recent news:

• In the summer of 2022, I ran a field geology course in Glacier National Park and eastern Idaho; this was supported by an NSF grant.  Read about it here.​

• I was fortunate to see the 2021 eruption in Iceland.  Videos

• Congratulations to Cass Stegner, Sam Marshall, Ericka Boudreau, and Dina Mato for successful MS defenses

• Recent papers on nontraditional stable isotopes in OIBs: here and here

• Recent paper co-authored with former postdoc Shelby Rader (now assistant prof at Indiana University) on thallium isotopes in HPLT rocks here

• Recent paper on detrital zircons in ancient glacial diamictites here

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