Biographical notes

In 2005, Joel returned to NZ to take up a Senior Lectureship at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). He has acted as head of VUW's Earth Science programme and has established a new analytical facility in Wellington including an ICP-MS, MC-ICPMS, electron microprobe, laser ablation system and ultraclean laboratory. Joel and his VUW and GNS Science collaborators lead research teams comprising more than 25 post-doctoral and postgraduate students working on research projects as diverse as cosmochemistry and the origins of our Solar System, in situ chemical and isotopic forensic geochemistry of volcanic rocks to constrain what happens beneath volcanoes just before they erupt, through to studies of past climate change using the chemistry of ice cores, foraminifera and chemical sediments.

Joel has supervised more than 50 postgraduate and post-doctoral scientists who have been part of his research teams and he has published more than 70 journal articles on a wide range of topics. Joel currently serves as Deputy Dean of Science (Research) at Victoria University (2007-2012) and Editor for the AGU journal Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems (2010-2013).

Some publications

Igneous Petrology and Planetary Geochemistry
A. McCoy-West, J.A. Baker, K. Faure & R. Wysoczanski, accepted for publication with revisions. Petrogenesis and origins of mid-Cretaceous HIMU continental volcanism in Zealandia during the break-up of Gondwana. J. Petrol.
A.S.R. Allan, J.A. Baker, L. Carter & R Wysoczanski, 2008. Reconstructing the Quaternary evolution of the world's most active silicic volcanic system: insights from a 1.65 Ma deep ocean tephra record sourced from Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Quat. Sci. Rev. 27, 2341-2360.
I. Ukstins-Peate, A.J.R. Kent, J.A. Baker et al., 2008. Extreme geochemical heterogeneity in Afro-Arabian Oligocene tephras: Preserving fractional crystallization and mafic recharge processes in silicic magma chambers. Lithos 102, 260-278.
J.E. Shaw, J.A. Baker, A.J.R. Kent, K.M. Ibrahim & M.A. Menzies, 2007. The geochemistry of the Arabian lithospheric mantle - a source for intraplate volcanism? J. Petrol. 48, 1495-1512.
A. Barker, J.A. Baker & D.W. Peate, 2006. Interaction of the rifting East Greenland margin with a zoned ancestral Iceland plume. Geology 34, 481-484.
N. Wittig, J.A. Baker & H. Downes, 2006. Dating the mantle roots of young continental crust. Geology 34, 237-240.
J.A. Baker & K.K. Jensen, 2004. Coupled 186Os-187Os enrichments in the Earth's mantle - core-mantle interaction or recycling of ferromanganese crusts and nodules? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 220, 277-286.
M. Bizzarro, J.A. Baker, H. Haack, D. Ulfbeck & M. Rosing, 2003. Early history of Earth's crust-mantle system inferred from hafnium isotopes in chondrites. Nature 421, 931-933.
J.E. Shaw, J.A. Baker, M.A. Menzies, M.F. Thirlwall & K.M. Ibrahim, 2003. Petrogenesis of the largest intraplate volcanic field on the Arabian plate (Jordan): a mixed lithosphere-asthenosphere source activated by lithospheric extension. J. Petrol. 44, 1657-1679.
J.A. Baker, C.G. MacPherson, M.A. Menzies, M.F. Thirlwall, M. Al-Kadasi & D.P. Mattey, 2000. Resolving crustal and mantle contributions to continental flood volcanism, Yemen; constraints from mineral oxygen isotope data. J. Petrol. 41, 1805-1820.
J. Baker, G. Chazot, M. Menzies & M. Thirlwall, 1998. Metasomatism of the shallow mantle beneath Yemen by the Afar plume - Implications for mantle plumes, flood volcanism and intraplate volcanism. Geology 26, 431-434.
J.A. Baker, M.A. Menzies, M.F. Thirlwall & C.G. Macpherson, 1997. Petrogenesis of Quaternary intraplate volcanism, Sana'a, Yemen: Implications for plume-lithosphere interaction and polybaric melt hybridization. J. Petrol. 38, 1359-1390.
J.A. Baker, M.F. Thirlwall & M.A. Menzies, 1996. Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic and trace element evidence for crustal contamination of plume-derived flood basalts: Oligocene flood volcanism in western Yemen. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 60, 2559-2581.
J. Baker, L. Snee & M. Menzies, 1996. A brief Oligocene period of flood volcanism in Yemen: Implications for the duration and rate of continental flood volcanism at the Afro-Arabian triple junction. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 138, 39-55.
J.A. Baker, J.A. Gamble & I. Graham, 1994. The age, geology, and geochemistry of the Tapuaenuku Igneous Complex, Marlborough, New Zealand. NZ Jour. Geol. Geophys. 37, 249-268.

Paleoclimatology
J. Creech, J.A. Baker, C.J. Hollis, H. Morgans & E.M. Crouch, in review. Extracting reliable Mg/Ca paleo-ocean temperatures from foraminfera in New Zealand's Paleocene-Eocene greenhouse world. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.
J.P. Marr, J.A. Baker, L. Carter, G.B. Dunbar & A.S.R. Allan, in review 2009. Ecological, temperature and oceanographic controls on the incorporation of trace elements into Globigerina bulloides in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. Paleoceanography.
A. Bolton, J.A. Baker, L. Carter, G. Dunbar, H Neil, in review. Ecological, temperature and oceanographic controls on the incorporation of trace elements into G. ruber at southern mid-latitudes. Paleoceanography.
C.J. Hollis, L. Handley, E.M. Crouch, H. Morgan, J. Baker et al., 2009. Tropical sea temperatures in the high-latitude South Pacific during the Eocene. Geology 37, 99-102.
R. Rhodes, N. Bertler, J.A. Baker, S. Sneed & H. Oertler, 2009. A methylsulphonate snow pit record controlled by sea ice extent and primary productivity of the Ross Sea. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L10704, doi:10.1029/2009GL037311.

Analytical Technique Development
K. Dideriksen, J.A. Baker & S.L.S. Stipp, 2006. Iron isotopes in natural carbonate minerals determined by MC-ICP-MS with a 58Fe-54Fe double spike. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 118-132.
J. Baker, D. Peate, T. Waight# & C. Meyzen#, 2004. Pb isotopic analysis of standards and samples using a 207Pb-204Pb double spike and thallium to correct for mass bias with a double-focusing MC-ICP-MS. Chem. Geol. 211, 275-303.
M. Bizzarro, J.A. Baker & D. Ulfbeck, 2003. A new digestion and chemical separation technique for rapid and highly reproducible determination of Lu/Hf and Hf isotope ratios in geological materials by MC-ICP-MS. Geostandards Newsletter - The Journal of Geostandards and Geoanalysis 27, 133-145.
J. Baker, T. Waight & D. Ulfbeck, 2002. Rapid and highly reproducible analysis of rare earth elements by multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, 3635-3646.
T. Waight, J. Baker & D. Peate, 2002. Sr isotope ratio measurements by double-focusing MC-ICPMS: techniques, observations and pitfalls. Int. Jour. Mass Spec. 221, 229-244.
B.J.A. Willigers, J.A. Baker, E.J. Krogstad & D.W. Peate, 2002. Precise and accurate in situ Pb-Pb dating of apatite, monazite and sphene by laser ablation multiple-collector ICP-MS. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, 1051-1066.

Others
K. Dideriksen, J.A. Baker & S.L.S. Stipp, 2008. Equilibrium Fe isotope fractionation between inorganic aqueous Fe(III) and the siderophore complex, Fe(III)-desferrioxamine B. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 269, 280-290.
K. Dideriksen, B.C. Christiansen, J.A. Baker, C. Frandsen, T. Balic-Zunic, E. Tullborg, S. Mørup & S.L.S. Stipp, 2007. Fe-oxide fracture fillings as a palæo-redox indicator: Structure, crystal form and Fe isotope composition. Chem. Geol. 244, 330-343.
J. Vry & J.A. Baker, 2006. LA-MC-ICPMS Pb-Pb dating of rutile from slowly cooled granulites: Confirmation of the high closure temperature for Pb diffusion in rutile. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 1807-1820.
J. Baker, S. Stos, & T. Waight, 2006. Lead isotope analysis of archaeological metals by multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Archaeometry 48, 45-56.
S. Nielsen, J.H. Andersen, J.A. Baker, C. Christensen, J.G. Lastrup, P.M. Grootes, M. Hüls, A. Jouttijärvi, E. Benner Larsen, H.B. Madsen, K. Müller, M.-J. Nadeau, S. Röhrs, H. Stege, Z.A. Stos, T.E. Waight, 2005. THE GUNDESTRUP CAULDRON: New Scientific and Technical Investigations. Acta Archaeologica 76, 1-58.
J.K. Vry, J. Baker, R. Maas, T.A. Little, R. Grapes, & M. Dixon, 2004. Zoned (Cretaceous and Cenozoic) garnet and the timing of high grade metamorphism, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Jour. Met. Geol. 22, 137-157.
G.H. Barfod, F. Albarède, A.H. Knoll, S.H. Xiao, P. Telouk, R. Frei & J. Baker, 2002. New Lu-Hf and Pb-Pb age constraints on the earliest animal fossils. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 201, 203-212.

Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829-1884)

Hochstetter was born in Esslingen in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg and joined the Austrian Geological Survey in 1853. Four years later he was appointed geologist on the Austrian frigate Novara that undertook a global scientific cruise. The Novara berthed in Auckland, then the capital of New Zealand, on 22 December 1858. At the request of the New Zealand Government and supported by the Auckland Provincial Council, Hochstetter, accompanied by Julius Haast and others, surveyed the Drury Coal Field to the south of the capital.

This was accomplished so successfully that the provincial council persuaded the commander of the Novara to allow Hochstetter to remain in New Zealand so that he could undertake further work in the province. Over the next five months Hochstetter and Haast, and a support team, visited much of southern part of Auckland Province, including the volcanic region and the gold diggings at Coromandel Harbour.

On completion of his Auckland mapping, Hochstetter was commissioned by the Nelson Provincial Council to report on the mineral wealth of the province. Hochstetter, accompanied by Haast, arrived in Nelson, after brief stops at New Plymouth and Wellington, on 4 August 1859. In Nelson, they examined Dun Mountain, and from which he collected and subsequently named dunite, the Aorere Gold Field and other places of interest. While Hochstetter visited the Wangapeka Gold Field in the west and Lake Roto-it, Haast geologically examined the eastern part of the province . Hochstetter left Nelson for Sydney on 1 October 1859, on the first leg of his return voyage to Europe.

His geological maps of Auckland and Nelson were the first of their kind in New Zealand.

A list of previous Hochstetter Lecturers can be found on the Awards page

Website editor's note: the "o" in Hochstetter definitely does not carry an umlaut (ö)