Catherine Ann McCammon is a Canadian geoscientist who is employed by the

University of Bayreuth A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. Her research focuses on surface and mantle processes, as well as the physics and chemistry of minerals. She is a Fellow of the

European Association of Geochemistry The European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) is a pan-European organization founded to promotes geochemical research. The EAG organizes conferences, meetings and educational courses for geochemists in Europe, including the Goldschmidt Conference w ...

and

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

. In 2013, she was awarded the

European Geosciences Union The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet." The organisation has headq ...

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Buns ...

medal. She is the editor of the journal ''

Physics and Chemistry of Minerals ''Physics and Chemistry of Minerals'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published monthly by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes articles and short communications on minerals or solids related to minerals and covers applicati ...

''.

Early life and education

McCammon attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) for her undergraduate studies, where she majored in physics. She joined the

as a member in 1978. She earned her doctorate at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

, where she studied the behaviour of iron oxides and sulphides. McCammon was a postdoctoral fellow with

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...

(NSERC) at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

, first as a postdoctoral scholar and then as an assistant professor. She left

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

for the

in 1990, where she was appointed to a permanent position in 1996. McCammon studies Earth materials using advanced spectroscopic techniques. In particular, McCammon makes use of

X-ray emission Astrophysical X-ray sources are astronomical objects with physical properties which result in the emission of X-rays. Several types of astrophysical objects emit X-rays. They include galaxy clusters, black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN), ...

, X-ray absorption and

Mössbauer spectroscopy Mössbauer spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique based on the Mössbauer effect. This effect, discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer (sometimes written "Moessbauer", German: "Mößbauer") in 1958, consists of the nearly recoil-free emission and abso ...

. She developed the Mössbauer milliprobe, which allows measurements of the Mössbauer spectra of objects with diameters below 500 μm. The milliprobe allows the characterisation of minerals in high-pressure environments as well as at various interfaces. McCammon has investigated the characteristics of iron in high-pressure materials, measuring their oxidation states and spin transitions. Better understanding of the oxidation states of iron in deep regions of Earth's interior not only allows for accurate modelling of the formation of the core, but also provides insight into the planet's geochemical evolution. High pressure experimentation has helped McCammon to understand the cycling of oxygen on planet Earth and the effect of iron on mantle discontinuities and the conductivity of minerals. She is the editor of the journal ''

''.

Awards and honors

* 2001

Mineralogical Society of America The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) is a scientific membership organization. MSA was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry, ...

Distinguished Lecturer * 2002 Elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America * 2007 Elected Fellow of the

* 2007 Elected Fellow of the

* 2013

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Medal * 2017 International Board on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (IBAME) Science Award * 2023 Harry H. Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCammon, Catherine Ann American women geologists Academic staff of the University of Bayreuth Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Academic journal editors Australian National University alumni American geochemists Women inventors Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women academics 21st-century American women Fellows of the Mineralogical Society of America