Kliti Grice

Kliti Grice is an Australian chemist and geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events. Her research integrates geological information with data on molecular fossils and their stable carbon, hydrogen and sulfur isotopic compositions to reconstruct details of microbial, fungal and floral inhabitants of modern and ancient aquatic environments and biodiversity hot spots. This information expands our understanding of both the Earth's history and its current physical state, with implications ranging from energy and mineral resource exploration strategies to environmental sustainability encompassing climate dynamics and expected rates, durations and scale of our future planet's health. As one of the youngest women professors in Earth Sciences, she is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia.

Early life and education Kliti Grice obtained her PhD in 1995 at the University of Bristol (UK).

Grice is a member of the Australian National Committee of Earth Sciences (NCES).

Her research has shown that some major biological extinction events can be traced to factors intrinsic to the Earth's systems, rather than external factors such as asteroid impacts.

Awards and honours 2001: International Pieter Schenck Award for Outstanding Contributions in Organic Geochemistry 2002: The Premier's Inaugural Science Award for Early Career Achievement in Science, Western Australia 2014: Australian Organic Geochemistry (AOGC) Medal 2016: Gibb Maitland Medal from the Australian Geological Society for Outstanding Contributions to the Resources sector WA 2017: Morrison Medal, The Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry 2018: ANZAAS Medal 2018: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) 2021: Australian Laureate Fellowship