News | isotope

Updates/Group logs

2024

2024/03/01, finally, it is published! Our paper, entitled "The evolution of Earth’s surficial Mg cycle over the past 2 billion years", is online in Science Advances on March 1, 2024. In this work, we made a significant breakthrough by successfully reconstructing the history of seawater Mg isotope composition for the past 2 billion years. This represents a remarkable advancement, as previous studies on seawater Mg isotopes were limited to the Cenozoic era, spanning the past 65 million years. Using this new record, the research team reconstructed the history of surface Mg cycles over the last 2 billion years. The study reveals that dolomite exerts a significant climatic influence and contributes to Earth's habitability. This study is a synthesis of ~10 years of work from our group, since its start in 2014 at Nanjing University. The manuscript has been under review in Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, and PNAS since 2022, but did not get through. But finally, we got it published! Do check this out if you are working on Mg isotope geochemistry, or Mg cycle, or dolomite sedimentology.
2024/1/11, our paper entitled "Iron isotope systematics of the Jiajika granitic-pegmatite lithium deposit, Sichuan, China" has been accepted for publication in Ore Geology Reviews. PhD student Xianglong Luo is the lead author, in this work, we performed a systematic Fe isotopic investigation on the pegmatite from the Jiajika lithium deposit, which is a part of the Jiajika Scientific Drilling research project led by Prof. Zhiqin Xu. This is the debut publication of Xianglong Luo, after two years, he finally got this published, congrats to Xianglong!

2023

2023/12/9, We are delighted to announce that our laboratory has been selected by Nanjing University's International Visiting Graduate Student Program, and we will accept short-term international visiting graduate students in 2024. For details, please visit the Opportunities page of this website. Please share this information with your colleagues and friends who may be interested. Thank you!
2023/11/19, Dr. Keke Sun from Hohai University, published a paper entitled "Extreme Sn isotope fractionation in highly evolved granites" in Chemical Geology, the first systematic report of high precision Sn isotope compositions of granites in the world. All the Sn isotope data were measured on the Nu1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS in our lab, with the assistance of Jiaxin She. This is the outcome of a successful collaboration between Prof. Jun Deng's group at CUGB&Hohai, and our group at NJU. We welcome more collaborators on Sn isotope geochemistry.
2023/11/03, our paper "Potassium isotopic signatures of modern offshore detrital sediments from different climatic regimes and the implications" was accepted and published online in Science China Earth Sciences. This marks a come-back of K isotope research of Earth materials by our group, after several years of hiatus due to instrument inaccessibility. More will be coming!
2023/9/18, Jiaxin She's paper, entitled "The reaction kinetics and Sn isotope fractionation of Sn(IV) chloride hydrolysis" has been accepted for publication in Applied Geochemistry. This is our group's first publication in this journal.
2023/9/16, Meili He, PhD student of Prof. Zhiqi Zhao from Chang'an University, arrived to work on K isotopes in granite weathering profile in our lab. Welcome, Meili!
2023/8/12, Jiaxin She defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations to Jiaxin! Note that Jiaxin did his PhD thesis defense together with his buddy Tianhua Wang. Tianhua's advisor is Xiandong Liu, Weiqiang Li's colleague classmate.
2023/6/10, Xiaolan Jia, PhD student from Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE, arrived at our lab to perform Mg isotope analysis on dolostones samples. Welcome, Xiaolan!
2023/5/10, Jun Mu's paper, entitled "Geology, geochemistry and genesis of the world-class Shizhushan wollastonite deposit, Mengshan area, South China" is published in Ore Geology Reviews. This paper is Jun's undergraduate thesis work. In this work, we argue that the world's largest wollastonite deposit was formed by thermal metamorphism, this paper received quite a bit of skepticism during its review in Economic Geology and Minerlium Deposita by those who strongly believed in the hydrothermal replacement origin of wollastonite, and it took several years for us to finally get this work published. We believe we are right about the origin of this giant wollastonite deposit! And congratulations to Jun Mu on his debut publication!
2023/5/5, one and half years after we received the 17.6 mg lunar samples returned from China's Chang'e-5 project, we finally published a paper to report its mineralogy, petrography, and age. This paper, entitled "Compositional variability of 2.0-Ga lunar basalts at the Chang'e-5 landing site", will come out in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets. This is a product of collaboration with Prof. Xiaolei Wang who provided access to the Cameca 1300 SIMS for the in situ Pb-Pb dating analysis, Prof. Zongjun Yin who provided access to the computed X-ray tomography imaging facility, and Prof. Hejiu hui who is an expert on lunar sample studies. Although our paper come out late compared to our colleagues, we are still proud of our work as all the data were generated from a tiny single clast, with ultra-low sample consumption of only a few milligrams. Our lab has proven our capability of performing demanding analyses on very small and precious extraterrestrial samples. Dr. Samuele Boschi spearheaded this study. Congratulations to Sam!
2023/3, our paper entitled "In situ Sn isotope analysis of cassiterite (SnO2) by nanosecond laser ablation MC-ICP-MS" has been accepted for publication in JAAS. Jiaxin She is the first author. This paper marks our success in developing Sn isotope analytical method for cassiterite using laser ablation. Now our lab becomes the only one in the world that has the capability to perform both high-precision Sn isotope analysis for bulk rocks and in situ Sn isotope analysis for cassiterites! We are going to open our analyitical facilities to external users, we welcome collaborations on Sn isotope studies on any interesting project!
2023/2, we published a paper entitled "Significantly Enhanced Robustness of K Isotope Analysis by Collision Cell MC-ICP-MS and Its Application to the Returned Lunar Samples by China’s Chang’e-5 Project" in Analytical Chemistry. We made three achievements in this work: 1) we significantly improved the robustness of K isotope analysis by collision cell MC-ICP-MS by application of D2 as the reaction gas, and make the system almost immune to analytical issues introduced by Ca, 2) we performed ultra-low sample consumption K isotope analyses on the lunar samples returned from China's Chang'e-5 project, we measured K isotope data for 0.3 mg of materials that contained only ~500 ng of K, 3) we revealed that the lunar basalts are highly heterogeneous in K isotopes at a microscopic scale for the first time. Shichao An performed mass spectrometry, Sam Boschi handled the lunar sample and separated the mineral grains, and Jiayang Chen performed chemical procedures. This work is amazing. Congratulations!
2023/1, Jiaxin She's paper, entitled "High-precision double-spike Sn isotope analysis of geological materials by MC-ICP-MS", is published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry. This means that our lab now has the full capacity to measure Sn isotope compositions of rocks with double spike method. Great work, Jiaxin!

2022

2022/12, it took only a few weeks for the COVID virus to spread everywhere in China. Most of the students and faculty members got infected. Very fortunately, some students in our group were not affected by this wave of infection, they worked hard and kept the instrument running over this difficult period.
2022/12, finally, the zero-COVID policies in mainland China comes to an end. That means field work will be back in track, and academic exchange such as attendance of national and international conference will be resumed. And the completion of installation of our Nu 1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS, longed for three years, will become something reachable.
2022/11, Dehong Du graduated with PhD degree, his PhD work was about petrology but he approached the problem using Fe isotopic tools developed in our group. Congrats to Dehong!
2022/10, a paper entitled "The Cenozoic Seawater Conundrum: New constraints from Mg isotopes in island dolostones" is published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in this work Zhongya Hu, a graduated PhD from our lab, used island dolostone records to reconstruct the Mg isotope history of sewater for the past 23 million years, and gained novel insights into the Mg-Ca and carbon cycles in the late Cenozoic. Congratulations to Zhongya!
2022/10, Xiaoyu Zhang, PhD student of Prof. Lihui Chen, published a paper in Nature Communications, this paper, entitled "inc isotopic evidence for recycled carbonate in the deep mantle", utilized the Zn stable isotope analytical method that was developed in our group. Great to see the cool applications of our tools by petrologists!
2022/10, Chuan Liu started his next chapter of academic adventure in Peking University, with a highly competitive, prestigious Boya Postdoctoral Fellowship. Good luck Chuan!
2022/8/15, Chuan Liu successfully passed his PhD defense. Congratulations to Chuan! Seven years of hard work in Nanjing University finally paid off!
2022/8/10-14, China's 4th Non-traditional Stable Isotope Summer School was successfully held at Nanjing University. Over the course of five days, twenty leading experts on the field of non-traditional Stable Isotope geochemistry delivered their lectures on various topics that covered theory, laboratory practice, and various applications. Over 1400 students enrolled for the summer school for online lectures and 50 students attended the summer school at Nanjing University in person. The number of daily active viewers who watched the online lectures were between 4000 and 6000. This summer school was a big success despite the COVID restrictions. This summer school cannot be made without the supports from the lecturers (special thanks to Prof. Ryan Mathur and Prof. Francs Albarade), the funding agencies, the colleagues from Nanjing Universities who collaborated in organizing the summer school, and students of Weiqiang Li who served as volunteers, thank you all!
2022/04/26, Shugao Zhao's paper, entitled "Skarn classification and element mobility in the Yeshan Iron Deposit, Eastern China: Insight from lithogeochemistry" has been published in Ore Geology Reviews. Congratulations to Shugao! Keep it up!
2022/03/05, our technical paper "Precise measurement of 41K/39K ratios by HR-MC-ICP-MS under a dry and hot plasma setting" has been accepted for publication in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. This is a milestone marking the success of method development for high precision K isotope analysis on our Nu 1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS, although our instrument is not fully functioning. Postdoc Shichao An is the lead author of the paper, he dedicated in this project for years and, despite great analytical challenges and unfavorable instrument conditions, he finally made it. Congratulations to Shichao! This paper is an official announcement that our lab can now perform routine K isotope analysis at an external precision level of better than 0.1 per mil.
2022/02/07, a paper entitled "Isotopic responses of Mg to two types of dissolution-reprecipitation processes for the growth of double-carbonate mineral norsethite" has been accepted for publication in American Mineralogist. This is a second paper by Chuan Liu for his PhD. Congrats to Chuan!
2022/01/03, Weiqiang Li had a field trip with students Zhiguang Xia and Haoran Xu, and Zhongya Hu, postdoc of Tongji University, to collect Neoproterozoic dolostone samples in Xuzhou area of Jiangsu Province.
2022/01/01, Dr. Samuele Boschi, PhD graduated from Lund University, Sweden, will join our group as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Boschi is supported by the fellowship from the China Postdoctoral International Exchange Program and he will be working on metal isotope studies of extraterrestrial samples. Welcome, Sam!

2021

2021/12/15, a paper entitled "Reconstruct hydrological history of terrestrial saline lakes using Mg isotopes in halite: A case study of the Quaternary Dalangtan playa in Qaidam Basin, NW China" has been accepted for publication in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. This is the first attempt of the application of Mg isotopes in evaporite for paleoclimate studies. Zhiguang Xia spearheaded this study. Congrats to Zhiguang!
2021/9, woohoo~ despite the new outbreak of the delta variant of the COVID in Nanjing that led to the lockdown of Nanjing in August, the new semester began this month and students will return to campus next week. This group log also needs an update. During this summer, three graduate students (Qingyu Huang, Weihao Yan, and Hui Ye) defended their thesis and moved on to their next stage of life. We wish them the best in their new job and new life! Two undergraduate members of our group, Zhihan Ji and Jiayang Chen, also graduated with their bachelor's degrees this summer, and they will continue their journey in geosciences as graduate students at Nanjing University.
2021/5/3-5, eleven people of our group went to Jixian of Hebei province to do fieldwork on Mesoproterozoic carbonates. Prof. Xuelei Chu and Dr. Linzhi Gao guided us in the field. We saw beautiful stromatolite and molar tooth carbonates, we collected a lot of samples, and we had a lot of fun!
2021/4/22-26, two papers were accepted for publication. One is a Fe isotope study on the Marathon PGE-Ni deposit by former postdoc Matt Brzozowski, the other is a Mg isotope study on dolostones from Edwards formation by former PhD student Zhongya Hu. The two papers will appear in Chemical Geology and Sedimentary geology later this year. Congratulations to Matt and Zhongya!
2021/3/8, Weiqiang Li joined the editorial board of the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and started to serve as an associated editor for GCA.
2021/2/18, a paper entitled "Sn(II) chloride speciation and equilibrium Sn isotope fractionation under hydrothermal conditions: a first principles study" has been accepted for publication in GCA. This is the second Sn isotope paper from our group, and a result of close collaboration between PhD students Tianhua Wang and Jiaxin She, who are co-first authors under the supervision of Xiandong Liu and Weiqiang Li, respectively. Congrats to Tianhua and Jiaxin.
2021/1/14, PhD student Yang Zhang's paper, "Experimental investigation of the reactions between pyrite and aqueous Cu(I) chloride solution at 100–250 °C" has finally been accepted for publication in GCA. The writing of this paper started in 2017, and the first version was submitted to GCA in 2018. Over the past four years, this paper experienced four rounds of reviews by at least six reviewers, one rejection, and numerous rounds of major revisions. This paper witnessed the true struggle of Yang in his way fighting for his PhD degree. But all the sweat and tears will pay off, congratulations to Yang!

2020

2020/12/1, a paper entitled "Mg isotope evidence for restriction events within the Paleotethys ocean around the Permian-Triassic transition" has been accepted for publication in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. This is a part of the PhD work of Zhongya Hu, finally this is to be published! Congratulations to Zhongya!
2020/11/27, Hongbin Li, a geologist from 902 Geological Prospecting Company, Jiangxi Province, submitted his thesis for Master's degree today. On Sep 9, he sucessfully defended his thesis entitled "Geological characteristics and ore-controlling factors of theHuxi wollastonite deposit in southern Mengshan". Congratulations to Hongbin and wish him a successful career in geology!
2020/11/2, Dr. Matt Brzozowski finished his postdoc job and returned back to Canada today. He has made great contribution to our group during the past two-years. We appreciate the excellent work he has done at Nanjing University and we wish a great future for him!
2020/8/31, the new semester starts today! With all students allowed to be returned to campus, our life restores normality. Our group also experiences metabolism: Prof. Changzhi Wu has left Nanjing University to join Chang'an University as a titled professor; Dr. Jilin Duan will also leave for another academic job. Earlier this year, Chong He, Haoran Xu, and Yuqi Li successfully defended their thesis for Bachelor's degree, Chong is going to pursue a Ph.D. degree at the University of Leeds, whereas Haoran and Yuqi are continuing with graduate study at Nanjing University, still in our group.
2020/7/21, Weiqiang Li joined the editorial board of Elsevier journal "Geochemistry" (formerly CHEMIE de ERDE; impact factor in 2019: 2.87) and started to serve as an associate editor for the journal.
2020/6/24, a manuscript entitled "Extracting Mg isotope signatures of ancient seawater from marine halite: a reconnaissance" has been accepted for publication in Chemical Geology. This paper is first-authored by Zhiguang Xia and co-authored by many evaporite experts in the world. Zhiguang worked very hard in the lab for one year and established a method to analyze Mg isotopes in halite, his hard work finally paid off. Now we are the first in the world to have such capability, congratulations to Zhiguang!
2020/6/4, finally, our manuscript entitled "Termination of Cryogenian ironstone deposition by deep ocean euxinia" is accepted by Geochemical Perspectives Letters. Our project on Neoproterozoic banded iron formations in south China, which started back in the spring of 2016 by fieldwork in Xinyu, reached a milestone. This project was done through collaboration between Prof. Changzhi Wu (field geology), Prof. Tao Yang (S isotope), and Prof. Weiqiang Li (Fe isotope), a very successful combination of different expertise!
2020/5/19, a manuscript entitled "Cu isotope systematics of conduit-type Cu–PGE mineralization in the Eastern Gabbro, Coldwell Complex, Canada" has been accepted by Mineralium Deposita for publication. This work is done by Matt Brzozowski at Nanjing University. This is also the first Cu isotope paper in our group. Congrats to Matt!
2020/5/14, the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the world, our lab not an exception. The British engineers cannot come to finish the rest of the Nu1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS installation in the near foreseeable future. We have decided to start using the mass spectrometer with its current, limited capabilities. An agreement has been made between Nanjing University and Nu Instruments company, that the warranty for the Nu1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS starts from May 14, 2020, and we can start using it for Mg and Fe isotope analyses!
2020/2/28, a manuscript entitled "An isobaric spike method for absolute isotopic ratio determination by MC-ICP-MS" has been accepted for publication in Analytical Chemistry. Kang Shuai is the first author, congrats to Kang!
2020/1/21-1/28，engineers from Nu Instruments came to our lab to install the Nu 1700 Sapphire MC-ICP-MS. First stage installation was successful, the ICP ignited and a beam was found.

2019

2019/12/22, a manuscript entitled "Transformation of amorphous precursor to crystalline carbonate: insights from Mg isotopes in the dolomite-analogue mineral norsethite [BaMg(CO3)2]" has been accepted for publication in GCA., this is the first paper by Chuan Liu, after four years of hard work, his experimental work is finally published, congrats to Chuan!
2019/12/12, a manuscript entitled "Calibrating equilibrium Fe isotope fractionation factors between magnetite, garnet, amphibole, and biotite" has been accepted in GCA, this is the second Fe isotope paper by Hui Ye, congrats to Hui!
2019/11/13-22, Dr. Maxwell Lechte from McGill University visited Nanjing University. He joined Weiqiang Li, Changzhi Wu, Qingyu Huang, and Kai Gan and did fieldwork in Sanjiang county of Guangxi province and Tongdao county of Hunan province.
2019/10/28, a manuscript entitled "Fe isotopic fractionation during magmatic– hydrothermal stage of granitic magmatism" has been accepted in Lithos, this is the second Fe isotope paper by Dehong Du, congrats to Dehong!
2019/10/23, a manuscript entitled "Sn isotope fractionation during volatilization of Sn(IV) chloride: laboratory experiments and quantum mechanical calculations" has been accepted in GCA, this is the debut of the Sn isotope geochemistry study at Nanjing University. Jiaxin She and Tianhua Huang co-first authored this manucript. This is a product of the fruitful collaboration between the isotope geochemistry group led by Weiqiang Li and the computational geochemistry group led by Xiandong Liu. We look forward to more to come!
2019/10/19, a manuscript entitled "Reactive Iron isotope signatures of the East Asian dust particles: implications for iron cycling in the deep North Pacific" has been accepted in Chemimcal Geology. This is the first paper produced through collaboration between the isotope geochemistry group led by Weiqiang Li and the marine geochemistry group lead by Tianyu Chen.
2019/09/01, Jun Mu and Xianglong Luo officially joined our group as masters students, welcome, Jun and Xianglong!
2019/8/18-23, Weiqiang Li and Chuan Liu presented their research at the Goldschmidt Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
2019/5-2019/8, in this graduation season, Zhongya Hu and Wenxian Gou have successfully defended their PhD theses and earned their PhD degrees. Congratulations to Dr. Hu and Dr. Gou! We wish the best for your career and life after education at Nanjing University!
2019/6/26, a mini-review paper entitled "Environmental applications of metal stable isotopes: Silver, mercury and zinc" has been published in Environmental Sciences.
2019/6/20, a paper entitled "Fingerprinting hydrothermal fluids in porphyry Cu deposits using K and Mg isotopes" has been accepted for publication in Science China: Earth Sciences. This paper will be published in both English and Chinese.
2019/6/10-15, Weiqiang Li, Changzhi Wu, Muhtar made a field trip to south Xinjiang Province, China
2019/5/14-18, Weiqiang Li and Changzhi Wu led a field trip with their mentor Prof. Lianxing Gu, and students and postdocs, and visited four salt lakes on Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province.
2019/5/10, a paper entitled "Geological cycling of potassium and the K isotopic response: insights from loess and shales" has been published in Acta Geochimica.
2019/5/7-8, Weiqiang Li attended the 651th "Xiangshan Science Forum" on Planetary Sciences and Deep Space Exploration.
2019/4/19-22, Weiqiang Li, Jiaxin She, Chuan Liu, Zhiguang Xia, and Jun Mu attened the "17th Assembly of the Chinese Society for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry" in Hangzhou, Jiaxin, Chuan, and Zhiguang each gave a presentation in the session of isotope geochemistry.
2019/3/22, a paper entitled "K isotopes as a tracer for continental weathering and geological K cycling" has been accepted in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Shilei Li, a student co-supervised by Weiqiang Li, is the first author. Congrats to Shilei!
2019/3/13, a flame photospectrometer is installed. This simple and reliable instrument has excellent analytical capability for K, Na, Li, and Ca concentrations in solutions, and will complement the ICP-OES for analyses of K, Na, and Li.
2019/3/1, Jilin Duan, PhD from China University of Geosciences, Beijing, officially joined the metal isotope geochemistry group, she will be working on Fe-Cu-K-Mg isotopes in porphyry Cu deposits in Tibet. Welcome, Jilin!.
2019/1/15, a paper entitled "Effects of early diagenesis on Mg isotopes in dolomite: the roles of Mn(IV)-reduction and recrystallization" has been accepted in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acat. This is the second paper out of the collaboration between Nanjing University and the University of Haifa on Cretaceous dolomite.
2019/1/7, a paper entitled "The Neoproterozoic “Blood falls” in Tarim Craton and their possible connection with Snowball Earth" has been published in JGR-Earth Surface, this paper was first-aurthored by Bingfei Gao, a former group member, congrats to Bingfei!
2019/1/1, Matthew Brzozowski, PhD from University of Windsor, Canada, officially joined the metal isotope geochemistry group, he will be working on Fe and Cu isotopes in magmatic Cu-Ni sulfide deposits. Welcome, Matt!

2018

2018/12/22-24, Weiqiang Li, Prof. Qin Wang, and three students went to Qianshan County, Anhui province to sample eclogite from the ultra-pressure metamorphic zone.
2018/12/1-6, Weiqiang Li visited the Nu Instruments factory and had an on-site inspection for the collision-cell Nu 1700 MC-ICP-MS
2018/11/26-30, Weiqiang Li visited University of Leeds, University College London, and University of Bristol. He gave a talk entitled: "Using dolomite record to reconstruct seawater δ26Mg in geological history" in each of the institutions
2018/11/17, a manuscript entitled: "Conservative behavior of Mg isotopes in massive dolostones: From diagenesis to hydrothermal reworking" has been accepted for publication in Sedimentary Geology. Congrats to the first author, Zhongya Hu!
2018/11/17, Weiqiang Li gave a talk entitled "Using metal stable isotopes to study base metal mineralization" in China University of Geosciences, Wuhan.
2018/11/2-5, Weiqiang Li, Shugao Zhao, and Jun Mu (a future Masters student to Nanjing University) took a field trip to Xinyu, Jiangxi Province, where they visited and sampled the newly discovered Giant Wollastonite new Xinyu, with help from people from the Geological Prospecting Team 902.
2018/10/20-23, China Geophysical Union was held in International Conference Center, Beijing, China. Weiqiang Li attended this conference and gave two talks, entitled "Progresses in Mg isotope geochemistry of dolomite" and "Extracting Mg isotope signatures for ancient seawater from halite inclusions", respectively.
2018/9/24-27, invited by Prof. Adrian Immenhauser at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Weiqiang Li visited GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany and attended the CHARON meeting on Carbonate geochemistry. Weiqiang Li gave a talk on "Using dolomite record to reconstruct seawater δ26Mg in geological history"
2018/9/12, International Symposium on ore forming fluids and metallogenic mechanisms was held in Nanjing University. Weiqiang Li was invited to give a talk on "Using metal stable isotopes to study hydrothermal mineralization"
2018/9/1, Qingyu Huang and Weihao Yan are joining our research group as new Masters students, Welcome! Qingyu and Weihao!
2018/9/1, Dr. Shichao An, PhD student of Prof. Shuguang Li from University of Science and Technology of China, is officially joining our research group as a postdoctral research associate. Welcome! Shichao!
2018/8/21-24, Dr. Kideok Kwon from Kangwon National University of Korea visited Nanjing University, and gave a talk on his resent progresses in computational geochemistry.
2018/8/6, A micro X-ray Fluorescence spectrometer is installed, the research group gains new analytical capability!
2018/07/15-19, the second summer school on "Non-traditional Stable Isotope Geochemistry" was held at University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei. On July 18, Weiqiang Li gave a three-hour lecture to some 400-attendants of the summer school, on the topic of "Applications of metal stable isotopes in mineral deposit research"
2018/07/16, a manuscript entitled: "Zinc isotope fractionation during sorption onto Al oxide: atomic level understanding from EXAFS. Environmental Science and Technology" by Wenxian Gou has published in EST. Congratulations to Wenxian!
2018/06/29, Weiqiang Li gave a talk entitled "Recent progresses in high precision K isotope analysis by MC-ICP-MS" at the National Institute of Metrology in Beijing
2018/06/03, the second Symposium on Multi-collector mass spectrmetry was held at University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei. Weiqiang Li gave a talk on "Precision, accuracy, and related issues" in this symposium
2018/06/03, a manuscript entitled: "Mg isotope response to dolomitization in hinterland-attached carbonate platforms: Outlook of δ26Mg as a tracer of basin restriction and seawater Mg/Ca ratio" has been accepted for publication and is now online in GCA. This is a result of fruitful collaboration between Nanjing University of University of Haifa in Israel!
2018/05/29-30, Dr. Nicolas Waldmann from Univeristy of Haifa visited Nanjing University and gave a talk entitled "Insights into ~2 Ma of climate reconstruction in the Levantine Corridor: a tectonic bridge for latitudinal migration of fauna and flora Out of Africa"
2018/05/28 Xiaomin Wang passed his thesis defense for Masters degree! Congratulations to Xiaomin!
2018/03/17-25, Weiqiang Li, Yukun Shi, and Chuan Liu spent a week in Israel and sampled dolomite in the early Triassic and Jurassic, as well as halite samples from the Deadsea
2018/01, a manuscript entitled: "Oxidation and deposition of iron-rich saline water below glacier cap: Genesis of Neoproterozoic Quruqsay iron deposit on northern margin of Tarim craton" by Bingfei Gao has been published in Mineral Deposits (in Chinese with English abstract), congrats to Bingfei!
2018/01/04-07. Weiqiang Li visited Dr. Kideok Kwon's lab at Kangwon National University in Korea for academic exchange and gave a seminar on banded iron formation

2017

2017/12/09-12. the group member attended the 8th Congress of Economic Geology and Mineral Exploration of China in Nanchang, and gave 5 oral presentations. Weiqiang Li gave a plenary talk on banded iron formations in front of 1000+ audience.
2017/11/16-19, the group members attended the 11th Conference of Isotope Geochronology and Isotope Geochemistry of China in Hefei, and gave seven oral presentations.
2017/10/14-21, Dr. Or Bialik from University of Haifa, Israel visited Nanjing, he gave a talk and advanced the collaborative research between Nanjing and Haifa.
2017-08-29, a manuscript entitled: "Origin of heavy Fe isotope compositions in high-silica igneous rocks: a rhyolite perspective" has been accepted for publication in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Atca, graduate student Dehong Du is the first author. Congrats, Dehong!
2017-08-28, Weiqiang Li attended the Sino-EU workshop on Lunar Science and gave a talk on "Development of high precision K isotope analytical method for extraterrestrial samples".
2017-08-16, a manuscript entitled: "Updating the Geologic Barcodes for South China: Discovery of Late Archean Banded Iron Formations in the Yangtze Craton" has been accepted for publication by Scientific Reports, graduate student Hui Ye is the first author. Congrats, Hui!
2017-08, Jiaxin She and Zhiguang Xia joined the metal stable isotope research group, welcome Jiaxin and Zhiguang!
2017-8-13, Weiqiang Li attended the Goldschmidt conference in Paris and gave an oral presentation entitled: "Tracing hydrothermal fluids in porphyry systems using K and Mg isotopes". He also gave an oral presentation entitled: "Mg isotope variation of dolomitization of limestone: A case study of the carbonate profile of Middle Triassic age, Southeastern China" on behalf of Prof. Wenxuan Hu.
2017-7-20, a manuscript titled "Potassium isotope fractionation between K-salts and saturated aqueous solutions at room temperature: laboratory experiments and theoretical calculations" has been accepted for publication in GCA.
2017-6-12, Weiqiang Li attended the 11th International Symposium on Geochemistry of the Earth's Surface in Guiyang and presented the most recent work on K isotope geochemistry at low temperature systems.
2017-6, In this graduation season, graduate students Bingfei Gao defended his Masters thesis, and undergraduate students Hengdi Liang, Yizhou Lu, and Muhtar defended their Bachelor's theses. Congratulations to them for their graduations and wish them a bright future!
2017-4, Weiqiang Li, Changzhi Wu, Hui Ye and Shugao Zhao went to Hanzhong to conduct field work on the Archean Yudongzi banded iron formation.
2017-4-19, Weiqiang Li attended the 16th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry, and presented a talk entitled "Isotopic fractionation of K and Mg in porphyry Cu deposits".
2017-4-7, a manuscript titled "Vital effects of K isotope fractionation in organisms: observations and a hypothesis" by Weiqiang Li, has been accepted for publication in Acta Geochimica.
2017-3-21, a manuscript titled "Resetting of Mg isotopes between calcite and dolomite during burial metamorphism: Outlook of Mg isotopes as geothermometer and seawater proxy" that is first-authored by Zhongya Hu, has been accepted for publication in GCA. Congratulations to Zhongya and the co-authors!
2017-3-8, a Skyray ICP-3000 type ICP-OES is installed.
2017-2-20, the high precision micro-drill system is installed.
2017-1-19, attended the Annual Workshop on Isotope Geochemistry in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and gave a speech entitled "Progresses in low temperature K isotope geochemistry"

2016

2016-11, Shugao Zhao and Hui Ye passed their qualify for PhD and became PhD candidates. Congrats!
2016-11, Weiqiang Li attended the 6th Asia-Pacific Workshop on Laser-Ablation and Micro-analyses in Wuhan, Hubei province, and gave a talk entitled: High precision in situ analysis of Sn stable isotopes
2016-09-26, Weiqiang Li and PhD candidate Shilei Li visited University of Wisconsin - Madison and did a three-weak campaign on K isotope analysis
2016-9-22, Weiqiang Li, Chuan Liu, and Tianyi Huang attended the 14th National conference on Paleogeography and Sedimentology in Jiaozuo, Henan province, and gave three talks in the dolomite session
2016-9, Two graduate students, Chuan Liu and and Tianyi Huang, joined the metal isotope geochemistry group. Welcome, Chuan and Tianyi!
2016-8-23, Weiqiang Li visited National Institute of Metrology to for a second trial of K isotope analysis using their IsoProbe MC-ICP-MS
2016-8, the Hitachi SU 1510 SEM was installed
2016-7-20, Weiqiang Li passed the defense for "CAREER Award for early career scientist" by NSFC
2016-7-8, Weiqiang Li gave a lecture for the workshop in the Union of Key Laboratories on Solid Earth in China, entitle: Stable Isotope Geochemistry of K
2016-6-26, Weiqiang Li attended Goldschmidt Conference in Yokohama, Japan, where he chaired a session and gave a talk entitled Potassium isotope fractionation between K-salts and saturated aqueous solutions
2016-6-21, Dr. Xiaobin Cao from Louisiana State University visited Nanjing University and gave a talk entitled: Equilibrium H and O isotope fractionation between ice and water vapor
2016-5-24, Dr. Xinyuan Zheng from University of Wisconsin - Madison visited Nanjing University and gave a talk entitled: Si isotope fractionations in simulated Precambrian seawater–towards a better informed interpretation on Si isotope records from Precambrian sedimentary rocks
2016-5-16, Weiqiang Li gave a talk on K isotope geochemistry and cosmochemistry in the Founding Ceremony of Lunar and Planetary Science Institute, Nanjing University
2016-4-25, Weiqiang Li joined Prof. Changzhi Wu to do fieldwork for Au and Fe deposits in Liangning province, China
2016-3-17, Weiqiang Li visited National Institute of Metrology to use their IsoProbe MC-ICP-MS for K isotope analysis
2016-3-25, Prof. Clark Johnson from the University of Wisconsin - Madison visited Nanjing University for two weeks. He taught a short course on Isotope Geochemistry for the graduate students
2016-2-16, a K isotope paper is published: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2014/JA/C5JA00487J#! divAbstract
2016-1-17, Weiqiang Li attended the Workshop on Isotope Geochemistry in Guangzhou, and gave a speech entitled "Mg isotope fractionation between dolomite-group minerals and aqueous solutions"
2016-1, Weiqiang Li joined Prof. Changzhi Wu's field trip to Xinyu, Jiangxi Province to sample Neoproterozoic banded iron formations

2015

2015-12-23, Weiqiang Li gave a invited talk in the "Geoscience Salons" organized by the Graduate students union of the School of Earth Sciences
2015-12-14, Weiqiang Li attended AGU and gave a talk entitled: Identification of biologically recycled continental materials in banded iron formations
2015-12-6, Weiqiang Li gave a keynote speech in the Union of Key Laboratories on Solid Earth in China, entitle: New perspectives on the genesis of banded iron formations
2015-11, Dr. Leah Morgan from USGS and Dr. Brett Davidhaiser-Kroll from University of Colorado - Boulder visited Nanjing University for exchange in K isotope geochemistry
2015-10, A project jointly funded by NSFC and ISF was approved, Weiqiang Li will investigate Mg isotope geochemistry of dolomite with collaborators Dr. Nicolas Waldmann and Dr. Or Bialik from University of Haifa, Israel
2015-11-21 Weiqiang Li and students joined Prof. Changzhi Wu's group to conduct fieldwork in Chaohu, Anhui Province
2015-10 Two undergraduate students, Qichen Zeng and Qinyu Huang, started their undergraduate innovation project with Weiqiang Li. The research topic is diffusion of elements in aqueous solutions
2015-09 Two graduate students, Xiaomin Wang and Shugao Zhao, joined the metal isotope geochemistry group. Welcome, Xiaomin and Shugao!
2015-09 The Rigaku Rapid II XRD was installed
2015-08-15 Weiqiang Li returned to University of Wisconsin - Madison to perform more K isotope measurements
2015-08 Weiqiang Li and students joined Prof. Changzhi Wu to do field work in Xinjiang Province
2015-06 Weiqiang Li visited University of Wisconsin - Madison and tested K isotope measurement using their IsoProbe MC-ICP-MS
2015-06 Weiqiang Li attended AbSciCon and gave a talk entitled: Isotopic Records of Thriving Dissimilatory Iron Reduction Microbes in the Late Archean Ocean
2015-06-25 A paper on Fe iostopes in BIF is published in PNAS:
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/27/8193.abstract
2015-03-01 A paper on Mg isotopes is published in GCA: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703715001076
2015-01-01 Weiqiang Li's NSFC-funded project started.

2014

2014-12-05 Weiqiang Li physically returned to China and started his job at Nanjing University
2014-07-01 Weiqiang Li officially joined Nanjing University