Dorrit E. Jacob

Dorrit E. Jacob is a German-born Australian geochemist. She is the first woman to serve as Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU) where she is a full professor.

Jacob completed her undergraduate studies in mineralogy and geology at the University of Mainz, Germany. She moved to the Georg-August University in University of Göttingen from which she received a Dr. rer. nat., while her PhD thesis work was performed at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry.

Her areas of research include biomineralisation, and diamond formation. On that last point, Jacob and other researchers closely examined minuscule “melts” enveloped within a diamond and found oxidation of sulfide mineral pyrrhotite can trigger the gem’s growth.

As of 2020 she leads the Biominerals as Environment Archives project at the ANU, where she also is a full Professor.

In May 2021 Jacob was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Publications

Redox-freezing and nucleation of diamond via magnetite formation in the Earth’s mantle, 2016 Element substitution by living organisms: the case of manganese in mollusc shell aragonite, 2016 Planktic foraminifera form their shells via metastable carbonate phases, 2017 The mesoscale order of nacreous pearls, 2021