Niklas Stausberg was awarded the prestigious Grant for Student Research In Mineralogy And Petrology from the Mineralogical Society of America. Each year, two students are selected to receive up to $5000 each based on the applicant's qualifications, the proposed research's quality, innovativeness, and scientific significance, and the project's likelihood of success. You can read more about the award here.

Under the project title "Determination of Fe isotope fractionation factors between immiscible silicate melts under controlled laboratory conditions", Niklas has proposed to investigate liquid immiscibility by exploiting iron (Fe) isotopes as a new tool, making use of the potentially strong effect of melt structure on Fe isotopic fractionation between conjugate liquids. He will experimentally constrain equilibrium liquid-liquid fractionation factors in simplified silicate systems at high temperature and under controlled atmosphere. The project's expected experimentally determined fractionation factors can not only be applied to natural systems, but will also contribute to our theoretical understanding of melt structure and its evolution within the tholeiitic magma series. Niklas will integrate them into his Fe isotope study of Bushveld.

Congratulations Niklas!