Colin Stedmon is appointed professor at DTU in the chemical composition of the oceans.
DTU has appointed Colin A. Stedmon professor as of 1 October 2019. His research focuses on studying the biogeochemistry of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the oceans, in particular in the Arctic, and on using the chemical composition of seawater as a “forensic” tool to decipher ocean circulation. The research contributes to our understanding of the unprecedented rapid changes in the Artic due to a warmer global climate.
Colin Stedmon’s research achievements include the development of a technique for characterizing and tracing organic matter in aquatic systems using fluorescence spectroscopy. Traditionally ocean circulation is studied using observations of physical parameters such as temperature, salinity, surface height and current velocities. Now these observations can be supplemented with a chemical method incorporating organic matter spectroscopy from autonomous profiling instruments. In addition to tracing mixing of Arctic waters the method can also collect data for estimates on the fluxes of organic carbon from land to sea and exchanged between the Arctic and Atlantic.
In May 2019 Colin Stedmon received a grant of 6m Danish kroner from Independent Research Fund Denmark for a project that will investigate ocean circulation and the fate of organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean. The four-year project includes partners from DTU Nutech, Norwegian Polar Institute, North Carolina State University and Aarhus University.
Furthermore, Colin Stedmon teaches in chemical oceanography and climate change at DTU’s master’s programme Aquatic Science and Technology.
Background
Colin Stedmon has a master’s degree from Center for Oceanography, Southampton University, UK from 1997. In 2004 he obtained his PhD from the University of Copenhagen, carried out in a collaboration between the then National Environmental Research Institute (NERI). After four years as a research scientist, he attained a senior scientist position in 2009 at NERI, which had by then been fused with Aarhus University. In 2011, he obtained an associate professorship at DTU Aqua. In 2018, Colin was awarded the Statoil/Equinor prize of 100,000 Danish kroner for his research achievements.
Colin Stedmon is also Centre Leader for the Danish Centre for Marine Research, which is a virtual centre owned by all marine research institutes in Denmark. The Centre funds oceanographic ship time and coordinates collaboration with the Royal Danish Navy.