Professor Yani Najman
Professor of TectonicsResearch Overview
Research:
I am interested in using sediment records to determine the tectonic, climatic, erosion and topographic history of a region. I utilise emerging and established provenance techniques, in particular isotopic fingerprinting and detrital geochronology and thermochronology, to advance the detrital approach and apply it to novel geological problems. In orogenic settings, my work is focused on the Himalaya, Tibet and the Pamirs. Here I use the sedimentary archive of material eroded from the mountain belt and preserved in adjacent sedimentary basins to better understand the inter-relationship between tectonics, erosion and sedimentation, to reconstruct hinterland tectonics and investigate mountain-building processes, and to constrain the proposed influence of Himalayan erosion on global climate and ocean geochemistry. Field work has taken me across much of Central Asia, as well as offshore to drill sediment core in the Bay of Bengal. Further afield, I have conducted research in West Antarctica, and North and East Africa, to investigate the evolution of major palaeodrainages in these regions, including the documentation of a transcontinental river system in Antarctica and determination of the initiation of the River Nile.
Teaching:
I teach on the following courses:
- Environmental Processes and systems (LEC 103)
- Natural Hazards (LEC 185 - module convenor)
- Environmental field course (LEC 270 - module convenor)
- Geoscience in practice (LEC 277 - module convenor).
- Planning independent research (LEC 507 - module convenor)
Roles:
- Director of Studies for the MSc in Environment and Development
- Senior Admissions Tutor for undergraduate Environmental and Earth Sciences degree programmes
- PGT dissertation organiser (LEC 505 - module convenor)
Constraining the timing of uplift of the Tibetan plateau by determining the palaeodrainage evolution of the Red River
01/02/2025 → 31/01/2027
Research
Quantifying earthquake hazard and enhancing resilience in India
14/02/2024 → 30/09/2029
Research
Impact of the Plio-Pleistocene transition on provenance and sediment routing from the Himalaya to the deep-sea Bengal Fan
01/10/2022 → 30/06/2027
Research
Phase 2 - North-South Variation: Investigating North-South variation in the evolution of the region of the Bengal Basin and Western Myanmar
01/03/2019 → 31/07/2021
Research
FP7: iTECC Investigating Tectonism Erosion Climate Couplings
01/01/2013 → 30/06/2017
Research
Determining the palaedrainage history of the Nile River: Investigating land-ocean atmosphere inter.
01/10/2011 → 30/09/2015
Research
River capture in the easternmost himalaya
01/09/2009 → 30/06/2013
Research
Goldschmidt Conference
13/07/2008 → 24/07/2008
Research
Determining Himalayan evolution and erosion history: innovative provenance techniques applied to the suture zone sediments
01/11/2005 → 31/03/2010
Other
- Earth Science
- Understanding a changing planet