Danmarks Geologipris goes to Globe researcher
The Geological Society of Denmark has awarded their annual ‘Denmark’s Geology Prize’ to Associate Professor Christian Mac Ørum Rasmussen from GeoBiology. Christian receives the award for his unique contribution to the understanding of early Palaeozoic biodiversity change and for his dissemination of palaeontology to the broader public.
Christian’s research has focused on understanding the causal drivers behind biodiversity change in deep time. His focus has been on the early Palaeozoic (~540–420 million years ago) as this interval saw some particularly profound changes in biodiversity accumulation both in terms of global speciation events as well as mass extinctions. Lessons learned from these events recorded by the fossil record are of great importance to the understanding of the current biodiversity and climate crisis, and Christian has therefore been an avid advocate for refining the temporal resolution of fossil species richness data so that they become more relevant for the understanding of how e.g. climate change affects biodiversity change today.
“This certainly was a big surprise!”, Christian explains and continues “I was writing grant proposals on a Monday morning at the top floor of the Maersk Tower. Suddenly 15–16 people – colleagues from several institutions in the geoscience environments – burst into the room. With champagne! I had no idea what was going on, so this was definitely a memorable way to be presented with this prestigious prize. I am, of course very humble and thankful to the Society and to all my colleagues who suggested me as a recipient. I am very honoured!”
The Geological Society of Denmark particularly highlights Christian’s significant contributions to our understanding of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), which some 470 million years ago saw a massive increase in the number of species on Earth during the Ordovician period. Christian’s research has demonstrated that this event happened much faster than previously thought and that it was instigated by sudden global cooling.
In addition to his scientific contributions, Christian has also been a great advocate for the outreach of palaeontology in Denmark. He has been active in educating the public about the importance of this field and has thus helped to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of this important scientific field.
Christian will receive the award at the Geological Society of Denmark’s annual General Assembly in Aarhus on 11 March.