Jeffrey Hawkes

Jeff is a researcher from the UK working on the characterisation of dissolved organic matter in natural systems. His research involves fieldwork, method development and laboratory analysis of samples from diverse systems around the world.

Most of the recent work in the Hawkes group has focused on coupling various types of liquid chromatography to electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry in order to gain understanding about the chemical diversity of natural dissolved organic matter.

Jeff studied chemistry at the Univerisity of Bristol (UK) before starting a Ph.D. in Ocean & Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (UK). There, he worked on trace metal speciation in hydrothermal plumes. This involved participating in several cruises to oceanic spreading centres to find and sample hydrothermal vent sites with remotely operated submarines.

After finishing his Ph.D. thesis in 2013, he was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oldenburg (Germany). There, he worked on the characterisation of dissolved organic matter in hydrothermal systems, using experimental and natural samples. Jeff's current research at Uppsala University involves more characterisation of complex dissolved organic matter, but this time from lakes and forests in Sweden.

The majority of his work now involved method development and designing studies that test the reactivity of natural dissolved organic matter so that better models can be designed that simulate how carbon is processed in the environment.