Catherine McCammon

Catherine Ann McCammon is an American geologist who is a Professor of Geochemistry at the University of Bayreuth. Her research considers mantle processes and geochemistry, as well as the crystal properties 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 made a full Professor in 2015. McCammon studies deep Earth materials using advanced spectroscopic techniques. In particular, McCammon makes use of X-ray emission, X-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectroscopy. She invented the Mössbauer milliprobe, which allowed measurements of the Mössbauer spectra of objects with diameters below 500 μm. The milliprobe allowed the characterisation of minerals in high-pressure environments as well as the characterisation of minerals at various interfaces.
McCammon has investigated the characteristics of iron in high-pressure materials, measuring their oxidation states and spin transitions. Better understanding of the oxidation states of iron in deep regions of the interior not only allows for accurate modelling of the formation of the core, but also provides insight into the planet's geochemical evolution. High pressure experimentation has helped McCammon to understand the cycling of oxygen on planet Earth and the effect of iron on mantle discontinuities and the conductivity of minerals. She is the editor of the journal "Physics and Chemistry of Minerals".