Updated on July 21, 2025
Welcome toVRockLab website!
I am Wei-Ran (aka Alex) Li 李蔚然. I am the founder of VRock Laboratory and an assistant professor (tenure-track) in Volcanology and Igneous Petrology at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. I am also the chief curator of Stephen Hui Geological Museum (the first geological museum in Hong Kong).
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I studied at Peking University (Beijing) for my B.S. (in Geochemistry & double major in art history; 2008-2012) and M.S. (in Structural Geology; 2012-2014), and completed my PhD on subduction-zone volcanism at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2019 (supervisor: Prof. Fidel Costa). I visited Ruhr University Bochum, Germany as a PhD student in 2017 to conduct diffusion experiments (supervisor: Prof. Sumit Chakraborty). I was a postdoc at University of Cambridge between 2021-2022 (supervisors: Dr. Oliver Shorttle and Prof. John Maclennan) before joining HKU as a faculty member.
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Research topics: I use a combination of petrological observations, in-situ microanalyses, thermodynamic and kinetic modelling, and high-temperature experiments to study:
(1) volcanoes: volcanic eruption mechanisms / magma storage and mixing / volcanic hazards
(2) volatiles (H2O-CO2-S-F-Cl) cycling at subduction zones
(3) timescales of magmatic processes (diffusion chronometry) and geological events (Ar-Ar and U-Th dating)
(4) mantle chemistry and temperature
(5) Rare earth element partitioning and ore generation
My research areas include Merapi volcano (Indonesia), Mount Erebus (Antarctica), Changbaishan volcano (China), and Mayon volcano (Philippines).
Since 2014, I have been working on effusive-explosive eruption transition at active volcanoes and have developed multiple models/calculation tools based on a volatile-bearing phosphate mineral - apatite (see research projects and models/tools pages). I am particularly interested in applying thermodynamic modelling to study mineral-fluid-melt systems, including volatile/rare-earth element partitioning, mineral-based thermobarometry, and mantle temperatures.
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Teaching:
2023/2024:
Mineralogy (Semester 1);
Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (Semester 2)
Geochemistry (Semester 2)
2022/2023:
Fundamentals of Modern Sciences (Semester 2)
Data Analysis (Semester 2)
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Please do not hesitate to contact me (weiranli AT hku.hk) if you are interested in collaborating or joining our group (see VACANCIES page).
News
2025
November
I will give a keynote invited talk at the Australian Specialist Group in Geochemistry, Mineralogy & Petrology (SGGMP) biennial conference (https://sggmp25.com/).
September
I will lead the HKU team to attend the ACV field camp in Mt. Unzen. This will be the third time participance for HKUers after Bali, Indonesia and Jeju, Korea.
June & July
I attended IAVCEI meeting in Geneva (gave 1 talk and 1 poster presentation; co-convened 1 session) and Goldschmidt conference in Prague (organised a grant writing workshop for early career researchers). Great to see old friends and colleagues and form new collaborations!
April
Convened a session on volatiles and fluids at the Chinese Society for Mineralogy Petrology and Geochemistry 19th annual meeting in Wuhan. An amazing conference!
Check out two papers we published this month in National Science Review (NSR) and Journal of Petrology where we applied diffusion chronometry to study the thermal history of magmatic systems and ocean island basalt-mantle temperatures:
NSR: Li and Costa (2025)
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf141
J Petrol: Li et al (2025)
https://doi.org/10.1093/petrology/egaf033
February
Check out our new website for the VRockLab (http://vrocklab.hku.hk) compiling all apatite-based calculation tools developed in our previous work. New calculation tools will be provided on the above website in future.
2024
December
Check out our session ("Low-probability high-impact eruptions") at IAVCEI2025! Abstract submission is open till December 20, 2024.
November
I have joined the Editorial Board of Volcanica as a Topical Editor.
July-August
A very busy and productive summer! Check out our new paper published in CMP about global magmatic apatite volatile systematics: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-024-02147-8
June
I gave a talk on apatite analysis at the EPMA forum at Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China) on 15 June. Amazing conference and campus of ZJU!
May
I gave an invited talk at the 9th Young Scientist Forum of Earth Sciences in Xiamen on 19 May.
March
Led group members to attend ACV field camp in Bali, Indonesia (first time for HKUers to participate) and (re)visited Batur and Agung volcanoes!
January
Start to be the PI of the electron microprobe (EPMA) laboratory at DES, HKU (check out the "facilities" page for more info).