Michael Henehan

Experience

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  University of Bristol Halls of Residence

  Oct 2006 - Jun 2009

  Bar Manager/Bar Tutor

  Bar Manager of Churchill Hall Bar (2006-2007), Bar Tutor at University Hall Bar (2008-2009). Duties included staffing, pricing, stocking, commercial strategy, event organisation and compliance with licensing and hygiene regulations.

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  University of Southampton

  Dec 2009 - Feb 2014

  After finishing an M/Sci in Palaeontology and Evolution at Bristol in 2009, I moved to the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton to begin a PhD with Dr. Gavin Foster, Prof. Paul Wilson and Prof. Jonathan Erez of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The problem of anthropogenic climate change will almost certainly become increasingly pressing for planners and policymakers in the years ahead. But to make plans for future adaptation, we need to understand just what extremes of climate we may be faced with. Key to understanding this is understanding the sensitivity of the Earth's climate system to CO2 level change, and in order to determine this we need to work out how exactly CO2 levels have changed in the past.With this in mind, the main focus of PhD current research was calibrating the boron isotope-pH proxy in planktic forams. The boron isotope-pH proxy has great potential for estimating past levels of atmospheric CO2, but, like many proxies, there are a number of complications that must be considered when applying it to the geological record. So-called "vital effects" may bias the recorded signal, so that the measured boron isotope ratio of a foram shell may actually reflect not only the environmental conditions around the shell, but also some imprint of the life processes of the organism. For us to gain any meaningful understanding of past CO2 levels from boron isotopes, it is vital that we understand to what degree our CO2 reconstructions may be affected by these biological interferences, and factor these out. To begin to circumvent these issues, I constructed a range of species specific δ11B-pH calibrations for modern planktonic foraminifera (from cultures, tows and core-tops), that may be applied with confidence to the geological record of the last few million years. Aside from this work on planktic foraminifera, I also worked on calibrating boron isotope-pH relationships in inorganic carbonate precipitates, scleractinian corals, and coccolithophores. Show less

  • Post-Doctoral Researcher

    Aug 2013 - Feb 2014

  • PhD Research Student

    Dec 2009 - Sept 2013
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  Bestiversity/Science Tent

  Jan 2011 - Jan 2012

  Speaker/Outreach Co-ordinator

  Under the management of Asst. Prof. Anthony Gallagher, in 2011 I ran a stall in the Science Tent entitled "Everything you've ever wanted to know about Climate Change but were too afraid to ask". Then in 2012 I co-ordinated a cohort of speakers from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, to work under Anthony in the Science tent and to give talks in the newly launched 'Bestiversity' Tent. I gave a talk myself in the 'Bestiversity' tent entitled "Climate change: Fact and Fiction". Our stall in the Science tent gave punters the chance to test their abilities in driving a research ROV, and showcased a few examples of the weird and wonderful creatures from the deep sea. Show less

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  Yale University

  Apr 2014 - Aug 2017

  Post-Doctoral Research Associate

  Research

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  Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre GFZ

  Aug 2017 - Dec 2022

  Research Scientist and Head of the Metal Isotope Clean Labs
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  University of Bristol

  Jan 2023 - now

  • Senior Lecturer in Marine Geochemistry

    Feb 2025 - now

  • Lecturer in Marine Geochemistry

    Jan 2023 - Mar 2025