Friday 22nd February @ 1:00 pm, Rm 312.222
Abstract:
Ambergris, a rare coprolith produced in the rectum of about one in a hundred the Sperm whales, is also found washed up on beaches worldwide as jetsam. Its scarcity and physical properties as an incense, fixative and perfume, mean it has been valued since the 9th Century. However, it chemical composition was not established until the 1940s and studies of the jetsam material really only began with Rowland’s studies in 2017. Since then he has studied the composition, worldwide distribution, age (by radiocarbon dating) and natural volatiles, of over 50 pieces. Current studies of the biosynthesis of the major constituent are revealing surprising results and show the involvement of the microbiome. Use of the methods developed to study putative fossil ambergris from the Pleistocene in Italy, are also proving fruitful.
Short bio:
Steve Rowland is Professor of Organic Geochemistry at the University of Plymouth UK, where he has worked for 35 years, with occasional sabbaticals at Stanford University where he was awarded a Blaustein Fellowship and at CSIRO Marine in Hobart, Tasmania. He was a NERDDP postdoctoral Fellow at Curtin in 1983 working with Professor Robert (Bob) Alexander. Steve has published over 230 scientific papers and some of them are even correct! Some of his papers have been cited over 1500 times (e.g. Science 2004) and his latest paper in Environmental Science & Technology, on nanoplastics uptake by scallops, was downloaded over 2000 times within days. His H index is 54, whatever that means! His scientific interests are diverse, ranging from pollution chemistry (oil and plastics in particular), natural product chemistry (notably ambergris), chemical fossils, petroleum geochemistry and even insect chemistry. He will be made redundant by the University on 31st March 2019, when he will be 65, but will continue as a consultant to HM Government (he has signed the Official Secrets Act) and to numerous industrial companies and also as an Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal , Organic Geochemistry, to which he was appointed in 2017.
