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Dr David Fink

David Fink
Dr David Fink
Principal Research Scientist

Role at ANSTO

David Fink is a Principal Research Scientist at ANSTO with 25 years experience in Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.  Prior to arriving at ANSTO in 1990, his previous research at the University of Pennsylvania, USA,  focussed on applications of 10Be, 26Al and 41Ca to study lunar soils, meteorites, solar cosmic rays, and fossil bone dating.  From 1990-1996 he was instrumental in design and construction of the ANTARES AMS Facility at ANSTO based on the 10MV tandem accelerator to provide high-precision measurements of radiocarbon samples.  
 
Today this facility can  deliver high throughput 14C data at world's best precision of 0.3% and for sample sizes less than 50 micrograms for  radiocarbon dating and tracing in the fields of geochronology, paleo-climate change, environmental science and biomedicine. Following these developments he turned his attention to expanding the capabilities of ANTARES AMS to measurement of 10Be and 26Al in the field of in-situ cosmogenic exposure age dating with applications to glacial geochronology, geomorphology  and landscape evolution.
 
He has published over 100 papers, co-authored the first AMS textbook, is a referee for major research bodies (ARC, NSF(USA), and AINSE), and is internationally recognised as an expert on AMS methods and AMS earth science applications. 

Expertise 

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Radiocarbon, paleoclimate isotopic studies,  cosmogenic exposure age dating, landscape geomorphology, glacial climate change and chronologies, meteorites, nuclear physics. 

Qualifications & Achievements

  • M.Sc (Nuclear Physics) 1983
  • Ph.D  (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry : techniques and applications),1987
  • Adjunct Professor, Dept of  Physical Geography, Univ of Macquarie, 2005

Committees, Memberships & Affiliations

  • Honorary Associate, 
  • NWG Macintosh Centre for Radiocarbon Dating, Univ Sydney, 2002-2003
  • Guest Co-editor, 6th Int Conf. on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Proceedings publication: Nuclear Instruments and Methods B, B92: 1-512, 1994,  Elsevier Science,
  • Conf session chairperson: at the 15th and 18th Int Radiocarbon Conf (2000,2003), 8th and 10th Int Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Conf (2000,2005), IAEA Int Conf. on Isotopes Monaco, 2004; AGU- Western Pacific Geophysics Conf   2002.
  • Committee member ; 
  • Archaeology and Geoscience  Advisory Committee,  AINSE (Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering) Grants Scheme (1998-2005)
  • IAEA Cooperative Research Program: Nuclear and Isotopic Studies of ENSO in the Ocean, 2004-2007
  • Australasian INTIMATE: Interaction of ice cores, Marine and Terrestrial Records). INQUA Paleo-climate sub-program 0406
  • Timing and Nature of Mountain Glacier Advances, from 5e to YD. INQUA Paleo-climate sub-program 0407.
  • Invited talks / keynote address; Antarctic Geosciences Forum, Macquarie Uni, Sept 2001
  •  Australasian Quaternary Conference, Westport, New Zealand, Feb 2003
  •  Workshop on Climate Variability in the Ocean, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, April 2004, 
  • INQUA Workshop on Sub-aerial continental shelves since the Middle Pleistocene climatic transition, Univ of Hong Kong, May 2005