Classes Currently Offered

Physics and Structure of Minerals (Master’s Course):

In the spring semester of 2020, I began co-teaching a course on the physics and structure of minerals, which is a master’s course led by Prof. Othmar Müntener at the University of Lausanne. The lectures and problem sets I design primarily cover defect structures in minerals and how they relate to thermodynamic properties such as oxygen fugacity and major element activities, thermobarometric techniques, the fundamental physics and mathematics of diffusion and applications of diffusion in Earth sciences.

Introduction to Atom Probe Tomography with Highlights in Geoscience Applications (Doctoral Short Course):

Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is unique in its ability to provide three-dimensional chemical and isotopic information at near-atomic scales. Over the last decade, an increasing variety of mineral phases and multi-phase samples have been analyzed by APT, which has provided an unparalleled insight into the atomic scale chemical structure of geological materials. Although many of the Earth's accessible minerals are silicates, much of the early use of atom probe samples for geomaterials is in the application to non-silicate phases such as oxides, sulphides, sulphates and metals. This short course will provide an introduction to Atom Probe Tomography, with highlights in the field of geology, and the large potential for expanding the use of APT in new fields of Earth science. The course will be presented primarily by Stephan Gerstl as a series of lectures, in addition to live demos of the laboratory at ETH (Zurich) and data visualization. Additional lectures will be presented by Steven Reddy of Curtain University (Perth, Australia), which houses the only geological-focused APT in the world, and by Elias Bloch on APT in diffusion studies.

Past/Sporadically Offered Courses

Ion-Beam Methods (Doctoral short courses & SIMS workshops); January 2015-present (sporadically offered):

Since arriving in Lausanne in January 2015, I have participated regularly in doctoral short courses on microanalytical techniques. My primary contribution to these courses has been on secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling. SIMS depth profiling offers a number of advantages over SIMS spot analyses, but also introduces a number of counterintuitive complications. Although this is a somewhat uncommon technique amongst SIMS users in geology, I have studied SIMS depth profiling in great detail in conjunction with my experimental research and therefore have been able to provide detailed lectures when these courses are offered. These courses are typically taught by 2-4 lecturers, and have been led by Dr. Anne-Sophie Bouvier at the University of Lausanne and Prof. Harry Whitlow at the University of Applied Sciences of La Chaux-de-Fonds. 

Diffusion in Earth Sciences: Theory and Applications (Doctoral short course); March 2019:

Starting in March 2019, I began co-leading a short course offered to doctoral students in Switzerland with Dr. Michael Jollands. This is a one-week course in which the fundamental physics and mathematics of diffusion are covered, along with basic numerical modeling techniques and useful applications of diffusion kinetics in Earth and Planetary sciences (e.g. geospeedometry, diffusion-limited uptake, closure temperatures, etc.). We had hoped to offer this course again in the late Spring of 2020 and expand it into a two-week course, but we were unable to do so in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.