Zoltan Zajacz
Professor of Mineral Resources
Zoltan’s research focuses on understanding what controls the fertility of magmas for magmatic-hydrothermal ore genesis. He combines high pressure-temperature laboratory experiments with field-based studies and computational modeling in his research. Experimental studies focus on the speciation, solubility and partitioning behavior of ore metals and their ligands from the slab-mantle interface to shallow hydrothermal systems, as well as on developing new methodologies to constrain intensive thermodynamic variables during magma differentiation. Field based studies heavily rely on silicate melt and fluid inclusions in minerals to reconstruct the fate of volatiles and ore metals in magmatic-hydrothermal systems. He is also passionate about the development of new experimental and microanalytical tools and methodologies.
Zoltan received his PhD degree from ETH Zürich in 2007 and spent several years as postdoctoral researcher and senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and ETH Zürich, followed by a faculty appointment at the University of Toronto, from where he moved to the University of Geneva in 2019.
Alexandra Tsay
Senior Researcher
Alexandra Tsay is a senior researcher with interests in igneous petrology and the geochemistry of subducted slab-derived fluids. She completed her MSc degree in volcanology at Moscow State University and obtained her PhD in experimental petrology at ETH Zürich in 2014. Subsequently, she worked at the University of Toronto as SNSF Early Mobility postdoctoral researcher and later as laboratory manager. She has additional interests in the development of new micro-analytical and experimental methodologies, and she is the manager of the LA-ICP-MS and high-pressure laboratories at UNIGE.
Stefan Farsang
Postdoctoral Researcher
Stefan Farsang is a postdoctoral researcher investigating the speciation of sulphur in magmatic fluids as a function of fO2 at various pressure/temperature conditions using Raman spectroscopy on synthetic fluid inclusions. Stefan received his BSc (Hons) from the University of St Andrews (2012-2016) and PhD from the University of Cambridge (2016-2020), where he looked at carbonate mineral formation and behaviour in a wide range of environments, including subduction zones and asteroids.
Weikai Li
Postdoctoral Researcher
Weikai Li is a postdoctoral researcher who is currently investigating how various slab-derived fluids may control the redox state of the mantle wedge at subduction zones. He received his BSc from China University of Geosciences (Beijing), MSc from Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and PhD from Peking University. His doctoral research focused on the interplay between the redox state of magmas and their fertility for porphyry-type ore genesis.
Michael Schirra
Postdoctoral Researcher
Michael Schirra is a postdoctoral researcher studying the controls on ore fertility of calc-alkaline and alkaline magmatic systems associated with porphyry-style and epithermal Au deposits. His research is based on detailed petrography and micro-analysis of silicate melt inclusions in combination with mineral geochemistry and geochronology. Michael received his BSc and MSc from the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz (Germany) and his PhD from ETH Zürich (Switzerland), where he investigated the relative and absolute timing of sulfide precipitation in porphyry Cu-Au systems using fluid-inclusion micro-analysis, cathodoluminescence imaging, rutile U-Pb geochronology and thermodynamic modelling.
Enzo-Enrico Cacciatore
PhD Student
Enzo-Enrico Cacciatore is a PhD student investigating the interplay between magma redox and magma differentiation in arc settings by experimentally studying phase equilibrium and developing new oxybarometers. Enzo received his BSc from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (2011-2015) and MSc from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg (2015-2020), where he worked on the microchemistry and microthermometry of hydrothermal sphalerite in cooperation with the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology.
Iván Mateo Espinel Pachon
PhD Student
Iván Mateo Espinel Pachon is a PhD student investigating the redox evolution of arc magmas during differentiation in the crust at continental margins. Mateo received his BSc from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Bogotá (2014-2019) and his MSc from University of Geneva (2019-2021). In his previous research, he used fluid inclusions in gangue and ore minerals to understand ore metal transport and precipitation in magmatic-hydrothermal systems in Colombia and Peru.
Ivano Gennaro
PhD Student
Ivano Gennaro is a PhD student studying the exchange of major elements and ore metals between chlorine-bearing magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and silicate melts as a function of fluid salinity, melt composition and pressure with the ultimate goal of producing a model that can predict element partitioning in P-T-X space. Ivano received his Hon. BSc and MSc from the University of Toronto (2015–2019 and 2019–2020 respectively). In his previous research, he used Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous material to uncover the thermal and metamorphic structure of the Northern Range, Trinidad, helping to shed light on the tectonic processes behind exhumation in the south Caribbean Plate boundary zone.
Mara Miranda
PhD Student
Mara Miranda is a PhD student developing new methods that will allow tracking magma degassing and fluid fluxing in transcrustal magmatic systems so that we can better constrain the source of mineralizing fluids in magmatic-hydrothermal systems. For this purpose, she studies the partitioning of Br, I, Se and Te between silicate melts and fluids as a function of pressure, temperature, melt composition and oxygen fugacity. Mara received her BSc from the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (2014-2017) and her MSc in georesources from the University of Toulouse Paul Sabatier (2018-2020). During her internship, she studied the genesis of Archean alkaline magmatic systems and associated gold mineralization in the Abitibi sub-province.
Zsófia Pálos
PhD Student
Zsófia Pálos is a PhD student investigating the role dissolved sulfur and iron species in subduction zone fluids play in the oxidation of the sub-arc mantle. She conducts experiments with piston cylinder apparatus capturing high-pressure fluids in the form of synthetic fluid inclusions. Zsófi received her BSc and MSc degree in the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary in (2013-2016 and 2016-2018 respectively). Her previous research focused on metasomatic reactions in the upper mantle traced by mineralogy and fluid inclusions in mantle xenoliths.