Brad Peters
Senior Scientific Assistant & Lecturer
Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology
ETH Zürich
Sunrise over Piton des Neiges, La Réunion
I'm a native Virginian with my Earth science roots at the College of William and Mary in "Historic Williamsburg." I attended Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego for graduate school and received my MS in 2013 and my Ph.D. in 2016. After that, I moved back east for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Science. Now I'm a researcher at ETH Zürich in the Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry group. I work around people with a lot of different research interests here, which is a great way to learn more about our Earth and solar system!
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Professional appointments
2020-present Senior Scientific Assistant, Lecturer, ETH Zürich
2019-2020 ETH Postdoctoral Fellow
2016-2018 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science
Education
2016 Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography
2013 M.S., Scripps Institution of Oceanography
2011 B.S. with Honors, College of William & Mary
Invited lectures
06/2020 Goldschmidt2020 Meeting Session 05f: Mantle Structure and Composition: The View from Intraplate Volcanism
03/2019 Institute for Geochemistry and Petrology, ETH Zürich
02/2018 Department of Geology, College of William & Mary
01/2018 Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History
03/2017 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science
03/2017 Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University
02/2017 Department of Geology, University of Maryland
09/2015 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
Selected awards & Funding (total ca. $1.4M)
2020-2024 SNF Ambizione Grant
2019-2021 ETH Zürich Postdoctoral Fellowship
2016-2018 Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellowship
2015-2016 Devendra & Aruna Lal Fellowship
2011-2012 University of California Regents Fellowship
2011 Naval Research Enterprise Internship
2007-2011 James Monroe Scholarship
Instructional Activity
Teaching Development
2019 Foundations of teaching & learning, ETH Zürich
2017 Flipping a geochemistry classroom using team-based learning, Goldschmidt Conference
Age groups 5-18
2010 "Be a Scientist" (course program assistant)
2009 "Volcanoes: Hawaii" (course teaching assistant)
Upper-division undergraduate
2014 Introduction to Petrology (teaching assistant)
2012-2014 Introduction to geological field methods (teaching assistant)
2012 Introduction to geochemistry (teaching assistant)
Graduate
2019 Concepts and quantitative methods in geochemistry (lecturer)
Peer-reviewed publications (*indicates student author)
16. *Herret, M.-T., Mundl-Petermeier, A. Peters, B.J., Castillo, P., Kim, D. A spatially variable link between Hadean-aged geochemical signatures and geophysically-detected mantle domains: In preparation, 2022.
15. Fitzpayne, A., Giuliani, A., Howarth, G.H., Peters, B.J., Fehr, M.A., and Maas, R., Major-, trace-element and Sr-Nd-Hf isotope geochemistry of diamondiferous dykes from Tonguma and Koidu, Sierra Leone: Highly micaceous kimberlites formed by assimilation of metasomatized lithospheric mantle rocks. In review at Chemical Geology, 2023.
14. Peters, B.J., Mundl-Petermeier, A., Finlayson, V.A., A multi-siderophile connection between volcanic hotspots and Earth’s core. In review at Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2023. Preprint available on EarthArXiv: https://doi.org/10.31223/X5N36M
13. *Halfar, M.C., Peters, B.J., Day, J.M.D., Schönbächler, M. An isotopically enriched mantle component in the source of Rodrigues, Réunion volcanic hotspot. In review at Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2023.
12. *Aktağ, A., Sayit, K., Peters, B.J., Furman, T., Rickli, J. (2022) Interaction of C-like aesthenospheric melts and sub-continental lithosphere beneath eastern Turkey. Lithos, 430, 106849, doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2022.106849
11. Day, J.M.D., *Reed, K.R., Pringle, E.A., *Mendenhall, B., Peters, B.J. (2021) Temporally variable crustal contributions to primitive mantle-derived Columbia River Basalt Group magmas. Chemical Geology, 572, 120197, doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120197
10. Peters, B.J., Mundl-Petermeier, A., Carlson, R.W., Walker, R.J., Day, J.M.D. (2021) The relationship between Hadean Nd and W isotopic signatures in the Réunion hotspot and other global hotspots. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 22(3), doi: 10.1029/2020BC009479
9. Peters, B.J., Mundl, A., Horan, M.F., Carlson, R.W., Walker, R.J. (2019) Chemical separation of tungsten and other trace elements for TIMS isotope ratio measurements using organic acids. Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, 43, 245-259. doi: 10.1111/ggr.12259
8. Peters, B.J., Shahar, A., Carlson, R.W., Day, J.M.D. and Mock, T.D. (2019) A sulfide perspective on iron isotope fractionation in ocean island basalt petrogenesis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 245, 59-78. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2018.10.015
7. Peters, B.J., Carlson, R.W., Day, J.M.D. and Horan, M.F. (2018) Hadean silicate differentiation preserved by anomalous 142Nd in the Réunion hotspot source. Nature, 555, 89-93. doi: 10.1038/nature25754
6. Owens, B.E. and Peters, B.J. (2018) Ferruginous quartzites in the Chopawamsic Terrane, Piedmont Province, Virginia: Evidence for an ancient back-arc hydrothermal system. Economic Geology, 113(2), 421-438. doi: 10.5382/econgeo.2018.4556
5. Peters, B.J. and Day, J.M.D. (2017) A geochemical link between plume head and plume tail volcanism. Geochemical Perspectives Letters, 5, doi: 10.7185/geochemlet.1742
4. Peters, B.J., Day, J.M.D., Hilton, D.R., Greenwood, R.C., Gibson, J. and Franchi, I. (2017) Helium-oxygen-osmium isotopic and elemental constraints on the mantle sources of the Deccan Traps. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 478, 245-257. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.08.042
3. Peters, B.J., Day, J.M.D. and Taylor, L.A. (2016) Early mantle heterogeneities in the Réunion hotspot source inferred from highly siderophile elements in cumulate xenoliths. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 448, 150-160. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.05.015
2. Peters, B.J. and Day, J.M.D. (2014) Assessment of relative Ti, Ta and Nb (TITAN) enrichments in ocean island basalts. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 15, doi:10.1002/2014GC005506.
1. Day, J.M.D., Peters, B.J. and Janney, P.E. (2014) Oxygen isotope systematics of South African olivine melilitites and implications for HIMU mantle reservoirs. Lithos, 202-203, 76-84. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2014.05.009