Rachael Rhodes

Dr Rachael Rhodes

MGeol PhD

  • Position Governing Body Fellow
  • School Physical Sciences
  • Department Earth Sciences
  • Department link Earth Sciences

Rachael is a Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences and specialises in researching past climates using polar ice cores.

Rachael Rhodes

Rachael completed her doctoral degree at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, with a focus on trace element geochemistry of coastal Antarctic ice cores. Rachael then moved to Oregon State University, USA for postdoctoral research developing ultra-high resolution records of atmospheric methane variability in the past. A Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at University of Cambridge brought Rachael back to the UK in 2015. She was subsequently awarded her first academic position at Northumbria University.

In 2019, Rachael returned to Cambridge as a University Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences and now teaches at all levels of the Earth Sciences course within the Natural Sciences Tripos. She particularly enjoys introducing students to the curiosity-driven nature of geological fieldwork.

Rachael is a member of the European Geosciences Union, American Geophysical Society and collaborates with many international colleagues through Past Global Changes (PAGES) working groups. Thanks to a secondment at the journal Nature Geoscience in 2018, Rachael is now an Editorial Board Member at Communications Earth and Environment.

Rachael uses polar ice cores to reconstruct past changes in the Earth’s climate and biogeochemical cycles, with the goal that such palaeo-constraints may improve predictions of future climate change in our warming world. Her work combines geochemical analysis of ice and the ancient air bubbles trapped inside with numerical modelling. Current interests include the drivers of multi-decadal scale methane variability and the development of chemical tracers of past sea ice conditions.

Rachael is collaborating on a number of other projects, including one that aims to reconstruct the atmospheric history of carbon monoxide and another that is using fully-coupled global climate models to examine the different drivers of abrupt methane increase during the last ice age. Looking ahead, Rachael is excited to be involved in the upcoming Antarctic deep drilling project EPICA Oldest Ice and the associated Marie Curie Innovative Training Network DEEPICE, which aim to retrieve ice older than 1.4 million years.

What's on

Two people walking away on a brick pathway lined with wisteria.

Poetry Trail

13/05/2024 at 12.00

Explore our new trail featuring extracts of poetry written by Wolfson staff and students for the forthcoming WolfWords Anthology Wild.

Family pose for photograph on graduation day

Graduation Ceremony

17/05/2024 at 09.00

Graduation ceremonies are the culmination of students’ hard work and commitment, and a moment to celebrate the completion of their Cambridge degree.

A student speaker wearing a red top presenting on stage.

Postgraduate Research Soirée

17/05/2024 at 17.45

Join Wolfson postgraduate students as they talk about their research in an informal evening of interesting presentations and friendly discussion – complete with wine and cheese! 

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Art Exhibition: Ceramics in the Bernard Leach Tradition

18/05/2024 at 10.00

A display of works from the Bradshaw-Bubier studio pottery collection.

Student musician playing piano.

Lunchtime Concert: Student Musicians

18/05/2024 at 13.30

Wolfson College Music Society invites you to a concert given by some of our talented student performers.

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