Curriculum Vitae

Joshua Shea — academic CV

Download as PDF · GitHub · ORCID · Google Scholar

To produce the PDF: render this page in your browser, print → save as PDF. The print stylesheet hides nav/sidebar.

Current position

Postdoctoral Research Associate, with Prof. Oliver Shorttle
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge · Nov 2023 – present

• Jan 2026 – present. Carbon isotope methods on olivine and plagioclase inclusions at MORB to understand volatile behaviour in spreading-ridge cumulates.
• Oct 2025 – present. Leading experimental petrology on hydrothermal vents as prebiotic environments — testing scenarios linking volcanism and deep volatile cycles to the origins of life.
• Nov 2023 – Sep 2025. Developed a high-precision SIMS method for concurrent C concentration and δ¹³C in basaltic glasses; revised the carbon isotope composition of the upper mantle and the deep primordial reservoir using olivine-hosted melt inclusions.

Previous appointments

Postdoctoral Research Associate, with Dr Simon Hunt
Department of Materials, University of Manchester · Sep 2022 – Nov 2023

• High-pressure experiments under stress applicable to convection in the transition zone; machine-learning-enhanced processing of spectral data on experimental charges.
• Characterised the rheology of Co₂SiO₄ at 4 GPa under stress; developed a statistical workflow for processing XRF and EDS spectral mapping on experimental charges.

Engineering Geologist
Pells Sullivan Meynink, Sydney · Mar 2019 – Sep 2019

• Geotechnical site investigation for the Rozelle Interchange (Westconnex tunnel system). Supervised drill rigs; performed ¹⁴C dating of sediments.

Education

• PhD, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University · 2022.
  The role of metasomatism in producing mantle sources for continental mafic melts. With Prof. Stephen Foley.
• MRes, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University · 2018.
• BSc, Geology (major) and Geography (minor), Macquarie University · 2016.

Awards

• A. H. Voisey Medal, NSW Division, Geological Society of Australia · 2024.
  For significant contribution to the Earth Sciences in Australia by an early-career Earth scientist.

Funding

Total secured: ~£540 k (* = in-kind).

Principal Investigator

• Effect of CFSE on 3d-transition-metal partitioning in olivine — direct access to the IMF, NERC scientific support and facilities, 2025. *£10.5 k.
• Pressure treatment of lithium-phosphate olivine cathodes — Enhancing Research Culture EDIA Summer Internship, Wellcome Trust, 2023. £3.8 k.
• Geochronology of the eastern Australian leucitite suite — National Argon Map, AuScope, 2021. *A$15 k.
• Deciphering the potassic magmas of eastern Australia — Victorian Division, Geological Society of Australia, 2020. A$10 k.

Named collaborator

• Volcanic gas chemistry for eruption forecasting (CI: Dr Ery Hughes) — Endeavour Fund Smart Ideas (MBIE, NZ), 2025–2028. NZ$1.15 M.

Teaching

Demonstrator, Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge · 2024 – present.
Part IB Earth Sciences B and Part II Earth Sciences. Classes up to 30 students. Modules: subsurface processes of the lithosphere and asthenosphere; origin and composition of rocky planets; differentiation of the Earth; melting, metamorphism, and convection. Igneous-petrology module on global MORB systematics, mantle heterogeneity, magma storage, and mantle-temperature estimation using data-science techniques in Python.

Undergraduate supervisions, King’s & Jesus Colleges, University of Cambridge · 2024 – present.
Weekly small-group teaching (≤4 students) covering Part IB Earth Sciences B: igneous and metamorphic petrology, phase diagrams.

Demonstrator, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University · 2017 – 2022.
Introduction to Oceanography (1st year), Geology of Australia (2nd year). Practicals, fieldwork, marking.

Supervision and mentoring

• Primary supervisor — Wellcome Trust EDI Summer Intern, High-Pressure Experimental Materials Lab, Manchester, 2023.
• Associate supervisor — Henry Royce Undergraduate Research Intern, High-Pressure Experimental Materials Lab, Manchester, 2023.
• Ongoing mentoring of PhD students at the Universities of Münster and Cambridge — high-pressure experiments, natural-sample data interpretation, thermodynamic modelling, micro-analytical geochemical methods.

Service

• Early Career Geoscientist Advisory Panel (ECGAP), Geological Society of Australia, national division — Jan 2024 – present.
• General Committee Member, NSW Division, Geological Society of Australia — Oct 2023 – present.
• Reviewer — Nature, Journal of Petrology, American Mineralogist, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, Geoscientific Model Development, Open Geoscience, Gondwana Research, Lithos, Geochemical Perspectives Letters, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Chemical Geology, Geology.
• PDRA Forum Committee Member, Department of Materials, University of Manchester — 2022 – 2023.
• Academic Supervisor, High School Science Extension, Narrabeen High School, Sydney — 2021.
• Higher Degree Research Representative, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University — 2020 – 2021.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

• Sutton Trust Lecture — Planetary Science and Mars Research. Delivered to sixth-form students for a widening-participation initiative, University of Cambridge, September 2025.
• Invisible Disabilities Training, Purple Infusion via the School of Natural Sciences, University of Manchester, August 2023.
• Wellcome Trust EDI Summer Internship — designed and led a funded internship for an under-represented penultimate-year undergraduate, Manchester, 2023.

Professional affiliations

• The Geological Society of Australia — General Member, 2019 – present.
• The Geochemical Society — General Member, 2020 – present.
• European Geosciences Union — General Member, 2020 – present.
• The Geological Society of London — Fellow, 2023 – present.

Fieldwork

Total: 30.5 weeks (~7.5 months). * = helped organise.

• Cornish Granites, UK — 1 week, 2023.
• Eastern Australian Potassic Volcanism II, NSW — 2 weeks, 2020.*
• Eastern Australian Potassic Volcanism I, NSW — 2 weeks, 2019.*
• Rozelle Interchange Site Investigation, Rozelle, NSW — 3 months, 2019.*
• Eastern Australian Volcanic Province, NSW — 1.5 weeks, 2018.*
• Undergraduate fieldwork: mapping & volcanology, NSW–SA–NZ — 6 weeks, 2014 – 2016.
• Volcanology Field Course, Hawaiʻi — 3 weeks, 2015.

Technical expertise

• Microscopy: SEM, EPMA, XRF, EBSD, CL.
• Mass spectrometry: SIMS, ToF-SIMS, LA-ICP-MS(/MS), ICP-MS.
• Spectroscopy: Raman, CHNS.
• Experimental apparatus: piston-cylinder, multi-anvil, gas-mixing furnace.
• Programming: Python, R, LaTeX.

Selected talks

See publications.