Catherine McCammon

Catherine Ann McCammon (born August 13, 1957) is a Canadian geoscientist who is employed by the University of Bayreuth. 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 and American Geophysical Union. In 2013, she was awarded the European Geosciences Union Robert Wilhelm Bunsen medal. She is the editor of the journal Physics and Chemistry of Minerals.

Early life and education McCammon attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for her undergraduate studies, where she majored in physics. She joined the American Geophysical Union as a member in 1978. She earned her doctorate at the Australian National University, where she studied the behaviour of iron oxides and sulphides. McCammon was a postdoctoral fellow with Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) at the University of Manitoba.

Research and career In 1985, McCammon moved to the University of British Columbia, first as a postdoctoral scholar and then as an assistant professor. She left Canada for the University of Bayreuth 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, X-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectroscopy. 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.

Awards and honors 2001 Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Lecturer 2002 Elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America 2007 Elected Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry 2007 Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union 2013 European Geosciences Union Robert Wilhelm Bunsen Medal 2023 Harry H. Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union

Selected publications