Harilaos (“Hari”) Tsikos (MSc, PhD)
Associate Professor & Head of PRIMOR
Geology Department – RHODES UNIVERSITY

Biography

Hari hails from Greece, where he graduated with a BSc degree in Geology from the National University of Athens in 1991. Thereafter, he obtained an MSc in Economic Geology and a PhD in Geology at Rhodes University, under the supervision of the late Professor John Moore. Upon completion of his PhD thesis in 1999, he became involved in a series of post-doctoral research contracts, firstly at the University of Johannesburg (then RAU) and subsequently at Oxford and Aberdeen Universities in the UK. He joined Rhodes University again in late 2005, this time as full-time, permanent academic staff, initially at senior lecturer level. He teaches aspects of Economic Geology, low-temperature Geochemistry and Earth History across all levels of study (undergraduate to MSc), and has been involved in the running of field-trips for senior undergraduate as well as postgraduate classes throughout his academic career.

 

His research interests and activities fall under three key complementary fields: (1) Origin of sedimentary deposits of iron and manganese; (2) Biological evolution and history of oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans around the Archaean-Proterozoic boundary; and, (3) Oceanic Anoxic Events as archives for Mesozoic oceanography and climate. His research combines standard field work, along with a variety of mineral-specific and bulk-rock geochemical applications that primarily include stable isotopes (traditional and novel), trace elements, speciation techniques and organic geochemistry at bulk and molecular level. To date, he has published 30 papers in the peer-review literature and presented around the same number of talks at international conferences and workshops.

 

He has supervised 5 MSc research students to successful completion, and is currently (co)-supervising a total of 8 MSc and 3 PhD students, respectively 3 and 1 of whom are registered part-time. He has also carried out reviews of manuscripts for over 20 different international journals & periodicals, research grant proposals and rating applications for South African and international funding agencies, and served in the editorial board of the Geological Journal between 2009 and 2014.

 

Recent papers

  1. Sciscio L, Neumann FH, Roberts DL, Tsikos H, Scott L & Bamford MK (2013) Fluctuations in Miocene climate and sea levels along the southwestern South African coast: inferences from biogeochemistry, palynology and sedimentology. Palaeontologia Africana 48, 2-18.
  2. Tzortzaki E, Katakitsios V & Tsikos H (2013) Biomarker evidence for intermittent photic zone euxinia in the Aptian-Albian organic sedimentary record from the Ionian Zone (Epirus, Greece). Organic Geochemistry64, 84-93.
  3. Fairey B, Tsikos H, Corfu F & Polteau S (2013) U–Pb systematics in carbonates of the Postmasburg Group, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa: Primary versus metasomatic controls. Precambrian Research 231, 194-205.
  4. Roberts DL, Sciscio L, Herries AI, Scott L, Bamford MK, Musekiwa C & Tsikos H (2013) Miocene Fluvial Systems and Palynofloras at the Southwestern Tip of Africa: Implications for Regional and Global Fluctuations in Climate and Ecosystems Earth Science Reviews 124, 184-201.
  5. Moore JM, Polteau S, Armstrong RA, Corfu F & Tsikos H (2012) The age and correlation of the Postmasburg Group, southern Africa: constraints from detrital zircon grains. Journal of African Earth Sciences 64, 9-19.
  6. Cabral AR, Tsikos H, Muramatsu Y & Sekiya T (2011) Iodine and bromine contents in the Palaeoproterozoic Hotazel iron formation, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa: A reconnaissance study. Chemie der Erde-Geochemistry71, 297-301.
  7. Moore JM, Kuhn BK, Mark DF & Tsikos H (2011) A sugilite-bearing assemblage from the Wolhaarkop breccia, Bruce iron-ore mine, South Africa: evidence for alkali metasomatism and Ar40-Ar39 dating. European Journal of Mineralogy 23, 661-673