Brian Kendall

Professor Kendall uses geochemistry to:

develop innovative geochemical methods that can serve as process tracers for petroleum systems, ore mineralization, and biogeochemical cycles;
learn more about how mineral and petroleum deposits form and improve exploration strategies for these important resources;
reconstruct the history of atmosphere and ocean oxygenation through time and its relationship to biological evolution, seawater chemistry and natural resource deposits.

• Development of innovative geochemical methods that can serve as process tracers for petroleum systems, ore mineralization, and biogeochemical cycles;
• Learn more about how mineral and petroleum deposits form and improve exploration strategies for these important resources;
• Reconstruct the history of atmosphere and ocean oxygenation through time and its relationship to biological evolution, seawater chemistry and natural resource deposits.
• Threats to Aquatic Ecosystems and their Interaction
• Climate Change and Geosciences

Specific research themes include metal isotope geochemistry of petroleum and implications for oil-oil and oil-source rock correlations; inorganic geochemistry (trace element concentrations and metal isotope compositions) of conventional and unconventional petroleum source rocks and economic and environmental implications for energy development; metal isotope geochemistry and geochronology of ore deposits and implications for ore formation and exploration; the co-evolution of Earth's surface oxygenation, metal biogeochemical cycles, and biological evolution over time, as inferred from trace element concentrations and the Mo, U, and Os isotope compositions of sedimentary rocks; sedimentary geochronology using the Re-Os isotope system.

• 2008, Doctorate Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada
• 2003, Master of Science Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada
• 2000, Bachelor of Science (BSc) Geology (Honors), University of Alberta, Canada

• 2021 Canada Research Chair in Redox-Sensitive Metal Isotope Geochemistry (Tier 2)
• 2019, GAC W.W. Hutchison Medal
• 2016, 2014 Outstanding Performance Award
• 2016 Jane Lang Excellence in Earth and Environmental Sciences Teaching Award
• 2016 Ontario MRI Early Researcher Award
• 2014 University of Waterloo Faculty of Science Outstanding Performance Award
• 2008-2009 Agouron Institute Geobiology Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2004-2007 Alberta Ingenuity Ph.D. Studentship, 2004-2007
• 2003-2005 NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral

• Geological Association of Canada
• Geological Society of America
• American Geophysical Union
• Geochemical Society

• EARTH 331 - Volcanology and Igneous Petrology
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Kendall B., Dahl T.W., Anbar A.D., in press. Good golly, why moly? The stable isotope geochemistry of molybdenum. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry: Non-traditional stable isotopes. Mineralogical Society of America and Geochemical society.
• Kendall B., Creaser, R.A., Reinhard, C.T., Lyons, T.W., Anbar, A.D., 2015. Transient episodes of mild environmental oxygenation and oxidative continental weathering during the late Archean. Science Advances 1, e1500777.
• Kendall B., Komiya T., Lyons T.W., Bates S.M., Gordon G.W., Romaniello S.J., Jiang G., Creaser R.A., Xiao S., McFadden K., Sawaki Y., Tahata M., Shu D., Han J., Li Y., Chu X., Anbar A.D., 2015. Uranium and molybdenum isotope evidence for an episode of widespread ocean oxygenation during the late Ediacaran Period. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 156, 173-193.
• Kendall B., 2014. An osmium-based method for assessing the source of dissolved rhenium and molybdenum to Archean seawater. Chemical Geology 385, 92-103.
• Kendall B., Brennecka G.A., Weyer S., Anbar A.D., 2013. Uranium isotope fractionation suggests oxidative uranium mobilization at 2.50 Ga. Chemical Geology 362, 105-114.
• Scott C., Planavsky N.J., Dupont C.L., Kendall B., Gill B.C., Robbins L.J., Husband K.F., Arnold G.L., Wing B.A., Poulton S.W., Bekker A., Anbar A.D., Konhauser K.O., Lyons T.W., 2013. Bioavailability of zinc in marine systems through time. Nature Geoscience 6, 125-128.
• Sahoo S.K., Planavsky N.J., Kendall B., Wang X., Shi X., Scott C., Anbar A.D., Lyons T.W., Jiang G., 2012. Ocean oxygenation in the wake of the Marinoan glaciation. Nature 489, 546-549.
• Kendall B., Reinhard C.T., Lyons T.W., Kaufman A.J., Poulton S.W., Anbar A.D., 2010. Pervasive oxygenation along late Archaean ocean margins. Nature Geoscience 3, 647-652.
• Anbar A.D., Duan Y., Lyons T.W., Arnold G.L., Kendall B., Creaser R.A., Kaufman A.J., Gordon G.W., Scott C., Garvin J., Buick R., 2007. A whiff of oxygen before the Great Oxidation Event? Science 317, 1903-1906.
• Please see Brian Kendall's Google Scholar profile or Brian Kendall's Research Gate profile for a full list of his peer-reviewed articles.

• August 31, 2016 Ontario Government awards $2.3 million for early career researchers and infrastructure
• November 19, 2015 A whiff from blue-green algae likely responsible for Earth's oxygen: Study