Colin Stedmon

My current research is centred around chemical oceanography and environmental spectroscopy. Chemical oceanography is the study of the chemical composition of seawater and understanding how both physical and biological processes influence the biogeochemical cycling of elements in the sea. Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction of light with matter. In my research I use it as an approach to study the distribution and turnover (biogeochemistry) of matter in the ocean. This I do in both in the laboratory but also in the field as optical oceanography, which is in essence environmental spectroscopy. 

My research builds on and now revives an earlier world leading position that Denmark had within the field optical oceanography (Jerlov, Copenhagen University) and takes its further by integrating it with modern chemical oceanography and new instrumental and computational capabilities. The organic matter spectroscopy techniques we have developed for oceanography have now spread to a wide range of other fields such as drinking and waste water treatment, recirculated aquaculture and ballast water assessment.