Frank M. Richter Sewel L. Avery Distinguished Service Professor, Department of the Geophysical Sciences and the College Department of the Geophysical Sciences 5734 S. Ellis Ave. HGS 549 Chicago, IL 60637 USA Phone: 773/702-8118 E-mail: richter@geosci.uchicago.edu Publications and CV Solid Earth and Planetary Sciences

A common feature of my research has been the effort to combine theory and experiments to develop quantitative geophysical and geochemical models that are rich enough to shed some light on actual geological phenomena yet simple enough that causal relationships can be understood in generalizable terms. Geophysical topics that I have worked on include mantle convection, the driving mechanism of plate tectonics, and the thermal evolution of the Earth. Those with a more geochemical flavor include melt segregation, sedimentary pore-water chemistry, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronometry, and chemical diffusion in molten silicates systems.

My most recent research focuses on kinetic stable isotope fractionations as “fingerprints” of mass transport process. Laboratory experiments are used to demonstrate isotope fractionations during chemical diffusion between natural melts. High-temperature vacuum experiments in which silicon and magnesium are evaporated from molten silicates are being used to calibrate the relationship between mass loss and the resulting isotopic fractionation of the residue. The rates and isotopic “fingerprint” of evaporation are then used to determine the thermal history of particular types of isotopically fractionated meteorite inclusions that were processed during the earliest stages of evolution of our solar system.

Education:

• Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1972