Dr Janaina Avila

Research Fellow

School of the Environment
Faculty of Science

Overview

Dr Ávila has a PhD in Earth Sciences (2011) from the Australian National University (ANU). She held postdoctoral appointments at the University of São Paulo from 2011 to 2013 and ANU from 2013 to 2014. Between 2013 and 2014, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow under a Research in Business grant from the Australia Department of Innovation. During that period, she worked in partnership with the RSES SHRIMP team and the Australian Scientific Instruments (ASI) scientists in a range of subjects related to improvements in performance of measurements of stable isotopes in the SHRIMP ion microprobe instruments (SHRIMP-II and SHRIMP-SI). As a Postdoctoral Fellow (from March 2013 to May 2014) and as a Research Fellow (from June 2014 to February 2021) at RSES, Dr Ávila provided strategic advice and support to a wide range of multidisciplinary research projects, from application of stable isotopes to constrain the evolution of the early solar system, atmospheric conditions in the Archean and Paleoproterozoic, and continental weathering. In 2021, Dr Ávila was a Research Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR) at Griffith University. She provided technical expertise in the acquisition and interpretation of in situ measurements of oxygen isotopes obtained in primate teeth. Dr Ávila is currently a Research Fellow at School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at University of Queensland helping the setup of the new ion microprobe laboratory at SEES.

Research Interests

  • Research Interests
    Dr Ávila research centres around the application of ion microprobes to the understanding of the isotopic nature of terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials at the microscale. In particular, she is interested in new analytical developments and applications that extend the use of in situ isotopic measurements in earth sciences, planetary sciences, and biological anthropology. Current areas of interest include: (1) environmental and biological evolutions on early Earth, and their influences on the chemical evolution of the atmosphere and oceans, (2) factors influencing isotopic fractionation (mass-dependent and mass-independent fractionation) associated to sulfur and oxygen isotopes in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials, (3) sulfur and oxygen isotopic signatures of biological processes, and (4) application of in situ stable isotopes and trace elements analyses in the study of climate seasonality, dietary patterns, and human mobility within the field of biological anthropology.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy of Isotope Geochemistry, Australian National University

Publications

  • George, Freya R., Viete, Daniel R., Ávila, Janaína, Seward, Gareth G.E., Guice, George L., Allen, Mark B. and Harrower, Michael J. (2024). Garnet zoning patterns record multiple processes of chemical transfer during subduction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 631 118634, 118634. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118634

  • Smith, Tanya M, Arora, Manish, Austin, Christine, Nunes Ávila, Janaína, Duval, Mathieu, Lim, Tze Tshen, Piper, Philip J, Vaiglova, Petra, de Vos, John, Williams, Ian S, Zhao, Jian-xin and Green, Daniel R (2024). Oxygen isotopes in orangutan teeth reveal recent and ancient climate variation. eLife, 12 ARTN RP90217. doi: 10.7554/elife.90217.3

  • Vaiglova, Petra, Ávila, Janaína N., Buckley, Hallie, Galipaud, Jean Christophe, Green, Daniel R., Halcrow, Siân, James, Hannah F., Kinaston, Rebecca, Oxenham, Marc, Paz, Victor, Simanjuntak, Truman, Snoeck, Christophe, Trinh, Hiep Hoang, Williams, Ian S. and Smith, Tanya M. (2024). Past rainfall patterns in Southeast Asia revealed by microanalysis of δ18O values in human teeth. Journal of Archaeological Science, 162 105922, 105922. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2023.105922

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