Jens Zinke

Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
I received my undergraduate degree (BSc) in Geology (1994) as well as his Master degree in Geology and Paleontology (1996) from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). In 2000 I obtained my PhD degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel (Germany). I have worked in four countries as postdoc and Assistant Professor before joining Leicester as Professor in 2018. I have been awarded over five million Euro in funding for research projects in the UK Germany Australia and the Netherlands committed to carrying out cutting-edge research using quantitative field and laboratory methods for sedimentological paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological reconstructions of coral reef and island systems as well as land-ocean coupling mechanisms in the Indian Ocean region the tropical Atlantic and Southeast Asia.

My research involves the geochemical study of marine biological (massive corals) and sedimentary archives from the tropical oceans as recorders of environmental and climate change over the past 300 years and during the Holocene. For most of my career I have worked on Indian Ocean coral and sediment records. This work is motivated by the need to produce reliable long-term baseline data of sea surface temperature ocean currents and the hydrological cycle over the tropical/subtropical oceans and how they shape patterns of biodiversity in our oceans and adjacent coasts. My current aspiration is to establish an international research group focussed on tropical paleoclimate research around flagship research areas where climate variability and change is of global and regional significance with the impetus on gaining more robust research output for the benefit of society. A Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship, a NERC Discovery Grant and a German DFG research grant awarded between 2018 and 2021 support my current Professorship at the University of Leicester.