Weiran Li (Alex)
​李蔚然

Welcome to my website! I am a petrologist-geochemist-volcanologist from Sichuan, China. I have been assistant professor at the Department of Earth Sciences and curator of Stephen Hui Geological Museum at the University of Hong Kong, since October 2022.

 

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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).

In 2019, I completed my PhD on subduction-zone volcanism at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (supervisor: Prof. Fidel Costa). During my PhD, I visited Ruhr University Bochum, Germany in 2017 to conduct diffusion experiments (supervisor: Prof. Sumit Chakraborty). Between early 2021 and September 2022, I was a postdoc at University of Cambridge working on mantle plume temperatures beneath global ocean islands (supervisor: Dr. Oliver Shorttle and Prof. John Maclennan). 

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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). 

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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 geothermobarometry, and mantle melting and plume temperatures (postdoc project at Cambridge; see webpage for the "MC2" Mantle Circulation Constrained project). 

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Teaching:  

2022/2023:

Fundamentals of Modern Sciences (Semester 2)

Data Analysis (Semester 2)

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2023/2024: 

Mineralogy (Semester 1)

Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (Semester 2)

Geochemistry (Semester 2)

 

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Collaborators: 

Sumit Chakraborty (Ruhr Bochum, Germany)

Kazuhide Nagashima (U. Hawaii, USA)

Oliver Shorttle (Cambridge, U.K.)

John Maclennan (Cambridge, U.K.)

Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge, U.K.)

Olivier Namur (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Oleg Melnik (University Grenoble Alpes, France)

 

and many other excellent scientists... 

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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).

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p.s. I am trying to update this website at the end of each month.

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