Former NSF Postdoctoral Associate Maria Schonbachler, now a Research Associate in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College, London, has been awarded the Paul Niggli medal. The award is given to junior scientists of Swiss nationality with strong Ph.D. theses and continued excellence during their postdoctoral research years in the fields of mineralogy, petrology, geology, or geochemistry.

Schonbachler’s research focuses on the formation and evolution of the solar system, including the study of dating and tracing events in the early solar system by means of extinct radionuclides; differentiation of planetary bodies; stable isotope fractionation of volatile elements in the early solar system; nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies to study the formation of the elements and how stellar components were mixed in the nebula and early solar system; and the development of new techniques for isotopic analyses of geologic materials.