Prof. Dr. Daniel Weidendorfer
Professor of Geochemistry
Daniel received a PhD from ETH Zurich in 2016 and was then awarded two postdoctoral fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation, enabling his research activities at UCLA and Caltech where he joined the research groups of Prof. Craig Manning, Prof. Robert C. Newton and Prof. Paul Asimow. In 2019, Daniel joined the faculty of the Department of Earth- and Environmental Sciences at LMU Munich as tenure-track professor of Geochemistry. He received tenure in 2024 and runs the experimental petrology laboratory at LMU Munich.
Research
Daniel conducts high-pressure phase equilibrium experiments on synthetic and natural rock compositions to investigate the geochemical effects halogens and CO2 yield on the evolution of silica-undersaturated magmatism in oceanic and continental hot spots and the formation of carbonatites therein. His research focuses on physico-chemical igneous processes within the upper mantle and crust that source and trigger explosive volcanism, but also control economically relevant critical metal- and strategic trace element mineralization within the lithosphere. Therefore, Daniel´s research group utilizes state-of-the-art analytical and experimental techniques to disclose mineral – melt disequilibrium reactions, melt differentiation dynamics and storage capacities of volatiles in a wide range of silicate- and carbonate melt compositions at geologically relevant pressure and temperature conditions.