Annual Stable Light Isotope Course

 

Principles of stable light isotope mass spectrometry and applications in the natural environment.

Dates: 26 - 30 May 2025

Costs: R3 000 for participants from outside UCT, and R600 for UCT students and staff. Fees cover course materials and teas (morning and afternoon). Meals and accommodation are not included.

Convener: Professor Judith Sealy

A course on the principles of stable light isotope mass spectrometry and applications in the natural sciences will be offered from 26 - 30 May 2025, based at Stable Light Isotope Laboratory at the University of Cape Town. 

The course format consists of an intensive series of daily lectures, tutorials and lab and instrument demonstrations over the course of one week.  We aim to cover the theory and principles of stable light isotope research in general, and then to discuss applications in the life and earth sciences in particular. 

The course will be of interest to scientists in these disciplines who wish to use stable light isotopes as a tool in their particular fields.  It is intended especially for post-graduate students intending to use these approaches in their thesis research.  At the end of the course, certificates of attendance are issued to those whose attendance and participation has been satisfactory.

Course content

Lectures progress from general principles through more detailed attention to individual light isotopes (C, N, O, H) in various kinds of materials, and their use as research tools.

Topics covered include the following:

  • Theory of fractionation, isotope effects, equilibria and kinetic effects

  • History of the field

  • Carbon isotopes and the carbon cycle, emphasising (i) photosynthesis, water use efficiency studies, plants and climate change in plant sciences, and (ii) animal and human foodwebs, and applications in ecology and archaeology

  • Nitrogen isotopes in marine and terrestrial foodwebs, nutrient cycling

  • Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in hydrology

  • Oxygen isotopes in carbonates and other minerals, applied to oxygen isotope stratigraphy, palaeothermometry and environmental reconstruction

  • Brief discussion of isotopic tools applied in forensics, pollution studies, and quality control (commercial applications)

Course Schedule

The 2025 Course Schedule will be released soon.
For information purposes, please view the 2024 Course Schedule.

Registration

Please use this Registration link to sign up.