Evelyn Frères

PhD student
University of British Columbia

I am a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada under the supervision of Dr. Dominique Weis and Dr. Karla Newman.

I obtained my B.Sc. with a major in Chemistry at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2014. From my first year in university until I graduated, I worked as an undergraduate-level Research Assistant at the Centre for Mineral Technology (CETEM). That experience allowed me to collaborate in several research projects aiming to develop analytical methods for the analysis of major, minor and trace components of a variety of geological matrices.

My background in geochemical analyses led me to pursue a PhD in geochemistry, targeting instrumental mass bias sources in Multi Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. MC-ICP-MS instruments are able to produce high-precision, high-accuracy ratio measurements for several isotopic systems. Scientists from different areas use these measurements for a wide range of applications, such as fingerprinting geologic samples, tracing natural/anthropogenic processes that cause mass fractionation, and for cosmo- and geochronology. Each of these applications requires various degrees of precision, making the constant and dynamic improvement of isotopic measurements paramount to several fields of science. The focus of my research is to constrain and characterise different sources of mass fractionation that are introduced by MC-ICP-MS instruments, and that cannot be corrected for using traditional calibration methods. As the outcome of this research, I intend to develop a set of analytical methods to correct, minimise, or overcome the impact of these phenomena on MC-ICP-MS measurements.

Being a part of MAGNET not only allowed me to lead this first-of-its-kind research, but also introduced me to the nearly limitless applications of geochemistry through a series of courses, workshops and seminars taught by leading scientists in academia and industry. As a part of the program, I completed an internship at the Nu Instruments factory in Wrexham, Wales, UK. The internship gave me better insight into how research is conducted in the industry, and resulted in collaborative abstracts I presented at international conferences, and in papers we will submit to scientific journals. Additionally, MAGNET gave me the opportunity to gain experience in fieldwork techniques through our bi-annual workshops. Overall, MAGNET has been an incredibly constructive experience for me, both personally and professionally.

Last updated May 2018