Dr Ávila research centres around the application of ion microprobes to the understanding of the isotopic nature of terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials at the microscale. In particular, she is interested in new analytical developments and applications that extend the use of in situ isotopic measurements in earth and planetary sciences. Current areas of interest include: (1) environmental and biological evolutions on early Earth, and their influences on the chemical evolution of the atmosphere and oceans, (2) factors influencing isotopic fractionation (mass-dependent and mass-independent fractionation) associated to sulfur and oxygen isotopes in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials, (3) sulfur and oxygen isotopic signatures of biological processes, and (4) technique development and innovation of in-situ measurements of stable and radiogenic isotopes using the ion microprobe.
