Brian Kendall

Brian Kendall is a professor in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo, a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, and director of the Metal Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory at UWaterloo. Kendall’s research has two main themes: 1) the co-evolution of Earth’s environment and life through time; and 2) the formation of mineral deposits, including critical minerals.

Using the concentration and isotopic composition of redox-sensitive metals in sedimentary rocks, his work reconstructs changes in atmosphere-ocean redox conditions and seawater chemistry through time and infers their impacts on biological evolution and mass extinction. These efforts include the rhenium-osmium geochronology of organic-rich sedimentary rocks and non-traditional “stable” metal isotope systems such as molybdenum, uranium, thallium, and rhenium. Kendall’s research also focuses on developing innovative geochemical methods that can serve as process tracers for ore mineralization and uses novel tools to improve exploration strategies for critical mineral deposits and other important resources.

Kendall is an internationally recognized researcher in sedimentary geochemistry and Precambrian geology. Kendall’s research has been published in high-impact journals, including Science, Science Advances, Nature, Nature Geoscience, and Nature Communications. He has published invited review papers, including in the Treatise on Geochemistry 3rd Edition and Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He has given several invited and keynote talks at major national and international conferences and completed a lecture tour across Canada as a Geological Association of Canada W.W. Hutchison medal recipient.

On the modern Earth, our industrial activity, including fossil fuel combustion that leads to greenhouse gas release, is causing adverse environmental effects such as ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation. These environmental effects also occurred in the wake of ancient large volcanic eruptions associated with the emplacement of large igneous provinces. Studying these past events provides insight into how today’s fossil fuel use could shape future environmental change. Additionally, Kendall’s research provides key findings on the formation of critical mineral deposits, which are essential for clean-energy technologies, and helps provide new geochemical indicators that point to high-grade ore zones for sustainable resource extraction.

• Development of innovative geochemical methods that can serve as process tracers for petroleum systems, ore mineralization, and biogeochemical cycles

• Learn more about how critical minerals 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

• Inorganic geochemistry (trace element concentrations and metal isotope compositions) of conventional and unconventional petroleum source rocks and economic and environmental implications for energy development

• Climate change and geosciences

• Threats to aquatic ecosystems and their interaction

• 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

• 2025, 2019, Canada Research Chair in Redox-Sensitive Metal Isotope Geochemistry (Tier 2)

• 2024, 2016, 2014, University of Waterloo Outstanding Performance Award

• 2019, GAC W.W. Hutchison Medal

• 2016, Jane Lang Excellence in Earth and Environmental Sciences Teaching Award

• 2016, Ontario MRI Early Researcher Award

• 2008 – 2009, Agouron Institute Geobiology Postdoctoral Fellowship

• 2004 – 2007, Alberta Ingenuity Ph.D. Studentship

• 2003 – 2005, NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral

• Interim Department Chair

• Executive Director of Faculty of Science Foundation

• Geological Association of Canada

• Geological Society of America

• American Geophysical Union

• Geochemical Society

• EARTH 232 - Introductory Petrography
  • Taught in 2021, 2025, 2026
• EARTH 331 - Volcanology and Igneous Petrology
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• EARTH 627 - Radioactive Isotope Systems
  • Taught in 2022, 2023

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

• For the full list of Brian Kendall’s publications, please see Google Scholar.

• Kendall B., Creaser R.A., Hannah J.L., Goswami V., Tripathy G., 2025. Reel-to-reel Re-Os records: Earth system transactions preserved in sediments. Elements, v. 21, p. 264-270. https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.21.4.264

• Kendall B., Ostrander C.M., 2025. Oxygenation of the Proterozoic Earth’s surface: An evolving story. In: Anbar A.D., Weis D. (Eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry, 3rd Edition, v. 5, p. 297-336. Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-99762-1.00058-9

• Kunert A., Kendall B., 2023. Global ocean redox changes before and during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event. Nature Communications, v. 14, #815. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36516-x

• Yang S., Lu X., Chen X., Zheng W., Owens J.D., Young S.A., Kendall B., 2023. Uranium and molybdenum isotope evidence for globally extensive marine euxinia on continental margins and in epicontinental seas during the Devonian-Carboniferous Hangenberg Crisis. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 352, p. 133-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.04.027

• Kendall B., 2021. Recent advances in geochemical paleo-oxybarometers. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, v. 49, p. 399-433. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071520-051637

• 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