Brandon Mahan

Dr Brandon Mahan is a trace element and isotope geochemist, with a focus on trace metals and their isotope systematics in Earth Systems and in Life Sciences. He is an internationally recognized researcher across numerous fields, including aqueous geochemistry, cosmochemistry, experimental petrology and isotope metallomics. Additionally, he conducts methods development research for scalable/commercializable trace metal isotope geochemistry and its environmental applications, applications to human health and disease, and to critical minerals research and exploration. As an advocate for the use of metals and their isotopes in understanding and diagnosing human disease, and in the transition to green energy, Dr Mahan actively seeks R&D projects with external academic, government and industry stakeholders towards aligned methods development and projects.

Dr Mahan is the founding member of the IsoTropics Geochemistry Lab at JCU, and enthusiastically involved in the development of laboratory and analytical capability/capacity at JCU (such as that in the Advanced Analytical Centre, or AAC), as well as being very active in outreach/engagement in education, academic, government and industry sectors. In this role and as part of the Earth and Environmental Science (EES) at JCU, Dr Mahan applies his skillset to drive novel research agendas, while continuously building depth and breadth within the Geosciences by cultivating relationships with complementary research teams across Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Archaeology and Marine Science.

As a strong advocate for scaffolded teaching/learning, and in knowledge foundations through experience, Dr Mahan actively engages within and outside JCU to promote experiential student activities, work-integrated learning, and career guidance/placement in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Dr Mahan completed his PhD in 2018 at l’Institut de Physique du Globe du Paris on Fellowship from La Sorbonne (Paris). From there, Dr Mahan moved to Australia to take up a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Isotope Metallomics at Macquarie University, in a split role between geo- and biomedical sciences. He joined JCU Geoscience in 2020.

If you want to keep up with goings-on with Dr Mahan and team in the IsoTropics Geochemistry Lab, follow them on Twitter! @GeoChemTropics