Rate My Professor Michael Palin

Dr. J. Michael (Mike) Palin served as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geology, Division of Sciences, at the University of Otago from 2002 until his retirement. He holds a BA from California State University, Fullerton, an MS from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and a PhD in Geology from Yale University in 1992. Palin conducted postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology from 1992 to 1994 and at the Australian National University from 1995 to 2001. His academic career has been dedicated to advancing knowledge in geological sciences through rigorous research and supervision of graduate students.

Palin's research specializes in hydrothermal, igneous, and metamorphic geochemistry, encompassing geochronology, rock and mineral analysis, geologic carbon sequestration, planetary geology, and the geology of New Zealand and the United States. He has authored or co-authored numerous influential publications in leading journals. Key works include 'Relative oxidation states of magmas inferred from Ce(IV)/Ce(III) in zircon: application to porphyry copper deposits of northern Chile' (Ballard, Palin, and Campbell, 2002, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology), 'Two-sided accretion and polyphase metamorphism in the Haast Schist belt, New Zealand: Constraints from detrital zircon geochronology' (Cooper and Palin, 2018, Geological Society of America Bulletin), 'Ancient melt depletion overprinted by young carbonatitic metasomatism in the New Zealand lithospheric mantle' (Scott et al., 2014, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology), 'Gilt by Association? Origins of Pyritic Gold Ores in the Victory Mesothermal Gold Deposit, Western Australia' (Palin and Xu, 2000, Economic Geology), and 'Oxygen isotope partitioning between rhyolitic glass/melt and CO2: An experimental study at 550-950°C and 1 bar' (Palin, Epstein, and Stolper, 1996, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta). These contributions have impacted understanding of magmatic oxidation states, mantle processes, mineralization, and metamorphic evolution. Palin has actively contributed to the University of Otago's geochemistry research group and supervised theses on topics such as lithic distributions, provenance, and carbonate alteration.