Weiran Li (Alex)
​李蔚然

Updated on September 5, 2022

Welcome to my website! 

I am a petrologist-geochemist-volcanologist from Sichuan China. 

Before moving to Cambridge, U.K. where I am working as a postdoc, I spent six years (2008-2014) in Beijing for my undergraduate and master studies at Peking University, and another six years (2014-2020) in Singapore for my Ph.D. study at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) (see my latest CV). 

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I will be an assistant professor (and curator of the Stephen Hui Museum - excited!) at the University of Hong Kong from October 2022. I will have fundings/would love to help seek fundings for Ph.D. students, RAs and postdocs. Please do email me (weiranli AT hku.hk) if you are interested. 

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My research combines petrological observations, chemical analyses, thermodynamic/diffusion modelling (Python/Matlab), and high-temperature experiments to unravel:

(1) volcanoes: mechanisms of volcanic eruptions, eruptions sizes and styles, the architecture of volcano plumbing systems, and volcanic hazards

(2) volatiles in subduction-zone magmatism

(3) timescales of magmatic processes (diffusion chronometry) and geological events (Ar-Ar and U-Th dating)

(4) mantle temperature-lithology, and mantle upwelling (current project).

(5) REEs (rare earth elements) and magma-related ore generation

My research areas include Merapi volcano (Indonesia), Mount Erebus (Antarctica), Changbaishan volcano (China), and Mayon volcano (Philippines). 

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I have been intensively working on investigating volcanic effusive-explosive transition at subduction-zone volcanoes using a volatile-bearing mineral - apatite (check out modelling tools we developed shown on research projects and models/tools pages). Whilst in the U.K., I am working on using ocean island basalts to estimate mantle potential temperatures and lithologies, as part of the MC2 project funded for five years by NERC.

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p.s. I am trying to update this website at the beginning/end of every month.