Biography
I have a background both geochemistry and environmental analysis where I spent my postgraduate years developing technical methods for the accurate and precise analysis of geological (rocks, fossils, waters) and environmental (waters, plant, animal) materials using mass spectrometry. I specialise in looking at the isotopic signature of materials using Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometer (TIMS).
Isotopic signatures of materials can be used for a variety of purposes, from determining the age of the rocks, to tracing the source of a water or crop, to monitoring nutrient uptake in plants, to tracing the migration of people and animals. The Hutton has an Isotopx Phoenix TIMS instrument and I have many years experience preparing and analysing rocks, muds, drill cuttings, waters, plants, soil extracts for isotopes of elements such as Strontium, Samarium, Neodymium, Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium.
I am also the Technical and Quality Manager for our UKAS 17025 accreditation. This is an international lab based technical standard which ensures that all of the accredited methods in our laboratories are controlled and produce data of the highest quality. Our accreditation schedule can be found on the UKAS website under laboratory 7541.
I am also the Quality Assurance Manager for the GxP system in the Mylnefield Lipids unit assisting the head of the unit in providing the best service to all our customers and stakeholders.
Research
I have analysed waters from all over Scotland for their Strontium isotope signature as part of the National Waters Inventory for Scotland (NWIS) which is funded by the Scottish Government.
In the past I developed Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium isotope methods for looking at plant and soil materials and I hope to use these methods again soon. I also aim to analyse soils from the Institute’s National Soil Archive collection for Sr isotopes to produce more robust dataset for the Scottish Sr soil isoscape and investigating the possibility of provenancing crops grown in vertical farms.
Some of my current commercial work involves the analysis of rock cores for Samarium and Neodymium isotope analysis to determine their provenance. I also regularly analyse the Strontium isotope ratios of the salts in pore spaces of rock cores and some production waters, to aid a better understanding of their stratigraphy and connectivity.
Publications
The following Publications have not yet been migrated to the James Hutton Institute's Pure service and relate to the research outputs from the two legacy organisations: The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and The Scottish Crop Research Institute.
Journals
Prior to appointment
- Seth, B.; Thirlwall, M.F.; Houghton, S.L.; Craig, C-A. (2003) Accurate measurements of Th-U isotope ratios for carbonate geochronology using MC-ICP-MS., Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 18, 1323-1330.
- Craig, C-A.; Jarvis, K.E.; Clarke, L.J. (2000) An assessment of calibration strategies for the quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis of calcium carbonate matrices by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)., Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 15, 1001-1008.
Conference papers
- McCartney, R.; McBride, J.; Singleton, M.; Craig, C.A.; Bourne, H. (2010) Laboratory investigation of the elemental residual salt analysis (ERSA) technique and implications for scale management., International Oil Field Chemistry Symposium, 21st, Geilo, Norway, 15-17 March 2010.
