Alberto E. Saal

Alberto Saal is Professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. Saal uses high-precision isotope, major, trace and volatile element analysis of geo-materials to understand the formation and evolution of the Earth and the Moon. The main objective of his work is to determine the composition, age, spatial scale, distribution, and formation processes of the different reservoirs that form the Earth and its satellite. He has provided insights into the nature and origin of chemical heterogeneities in the Earth and Moon interiors by pioneering the in-situ analysis of Pb isotopes at a very high spatial resolution ~30 µm in glass inclusions; and by challenging the interpretation of U-series and other chemical tracers.

Saal holds doctorates in geology from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina and in oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s joint program. He was previously Associate Research Scientist at LDEO and Storke-Doherty Lecturer at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Columbia University. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.