David J Lowe Email & Phone Number

I am a specialist in tephrochronology, especially in distal settings, and also in pedology, especially relating to soils and paleosols formed in tephra deposits. I retired from the University of Waikato (after 18 June 2024) and am now an honorary professor. Most recently, I helped lead a project called 'tephra seismites' (see https://tephra-seismites.com/) that was funded by Marsden Fund, MBIE’s Endeavour Fund, Natural Hazards Commission (EQC), and Waikato Regional Council. We have used liquefied lacustrine tephra ( volcanic ash) layers to work out the central Waikato region's past earthquake history (since c. 17,600 years ago). With ( the late) Dr Allan Hewitt and Dr Megan Balks, David co-authored a textbook in 2021 entitled “The soils of Aotearoa New Zealand” (published by Springer). The book was awarded two prizes as 'best publication in soil science' in the previous two or three years by both the NZ Society of Soil Science (ML Leamy Award 2022) and Soil Science Australia (JK Taylor MBE Gold Medal Award 2022). David is currently co-writing a textbook on tephrochronology.