Professor Owen Weller-Gibbs (né Weller)
- Professor of Metamorphic Petrology
- Fellow and Director of Studies, Sidney Sussex College
- UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
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About
I read Natural Sciences as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Earth Sciences, prior to completing a metamorphic petrology-focussed DPhil in the Earth Science department at the University of Oxford in 2014. I conducted a short-term JSPS postdoctoral fellowship at Nagoya University in Japan during the latter half of 2014, analysing high-pressure rocks from the region, followed by two years as a Visiting Fellow at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, mapping the terra incognita of the Canadian Arctic. I started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 2017, prior to become an Associate Professor in 2022 and a Professor of Metamorphic Petrology in 2025. In 2022 I also started a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship on the petrogenesis of alkaline-silicate magmatic systems.
Research
Work in my research group aims to decipher tectonic processes through time primarily through the analysis of metamorphic rocks, with the overarching goal to produce a coherent view on Earth's chemical and dynamic evolution. Our approach promotes being rooted in field and petrographic observations, and we frequently integrate phase equilibria modelling, thermal modelling, high-temperature geochronology, Raman spectroscopy, and a variety of major and trace element microanalytical techniques. Major themes of our research include analysing how the metamorphic rock record can be used to decode the evolution of plate tectonics and what biases exist in this record (e.g. Weller & St-Onge, 2017; Copley & Weller, 2024), assessing the viability of tectonic processes (e.g. Weller et al., 2019, Miocevich et al., 2022), and exploring the evolution and behaviour of mountain belts (e.g. Whyte et al., 2021; Weller et al., 2021; Copley & Weller, 2022).
I started a more contemporary research theme in 2022 on the petrogenesis of rare-earth element (REE) deposits associated with alkaline-silicate magmatic systems (e.g. Soderman et al., 2025a,b; Beard et al., 2024), for which I have been awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. Following publishing new composition-dependent equations of state (x-eos) for anhydrous alkali melt, nepheline, kalsilite, melilite and Mg-bearing ilmenite (Weller et al., 2024), and correcting an existing hydrous sub-akaline silicate melt model (Green et al., 2025), work is underway to extend the anhydrous melt x-eos to a hydrous model system.
Current PhD students:
2021–: Nick Lucas, on the tectono-thermal structure of the Grenville orogen, Canada.
2022–: Matthew Morris, on the petrogenesis of Li-bearing granites in Cornwall, UK.
Teaching and supervision
I teach second- and third-year metamorphic petrology, a fourth year options course called 'Earth History' and lead the second-year field trip to Cornwall.