John Curtin Distinguished Professor Pete Kinny is an isotope geochemist and geochronologist based in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences. A former Head of the Department of Applied Geology, Pete is currently Director of The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR) in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, one of Curtin’s flagship research institutes.
Pete joined Curtin in October 1993 to work with Professor John de Laeter and was an inaugural recipient of a Curtin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 1997. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002 and to full Professor in 2014. Pete has taught Foundation Geology, Field Geology, Mineralogy and Geochemistry at Curtin for more than twenty years.
Pete’s research involves the development of innovative techniques for the geochemical and isotopic microanalysis of geological materials. Much of his work focusses on the dating of zircon and other uranium bearing minerals such as monazite, titanite, perovskite, rutile, cassiterite, tantalite and apatite, using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS). He combines isotopic and chemical data from rocks and minerals to investigate the evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle, specialising in studies of the earliest stages of the Earth’s history. Current work includes strontium isotope analysis of apatite. His work is highly cited internationally (more than 12000 citations; H index 64).