Kliti Grice


Professor Kliti Grice is an organic and isotope geochemist known for her work in identifying geological and environmental causes for mass extinction events.
She is the founding director of the Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre and is a Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. She has published 180 international peer reviewed articles, in addition some 400 book chapters, plenaries and conference abstracts.
Grice obtained her PhD in 1995 at the University of Bristol. She subsequently undertook postdoctoral work as a research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The Netherlands.
Grice was appointed as a senior research fellow at Curtin University in 1998 and became Professor of Organic and Isotope Geochemistry in 2007. She was awarded the J G Russell Award by the Australian Academy of Science for her research on stable carbon and hydrogen isotope signatures of chemical fossils.
Grice is a member of the Australian National Committee of Earth Sciences.

Research interest

Grice uses biomarkers and stable isotopes derived from natural products of ancient microbes, algae, flora and fauna retained in rocks to reconstruct the environments of modern to ancient past extinction events including those associated with petroleum and mineral reserves.
Her research has shown that some major biological extinction events can be traced to factors intrinsic to the Earth's systems, rather than external factors such as asteroid impacts.

Awards and honours