Prof. Dr. Derya Gürer

Prof. Dr. Derya Gürer is a geodynamicist and tectonics researcher whose work integrates structural geology, marine geophysics, paleomagnetism, and geodynamic modelling to investigate lithospheric deformation and plate boundary evolution. She is currently Professor of Geodynamics and Research Lead of the heiMAG Laboratory at Heidelberg University. Before joining Heidelberg University, Gürer was Lecturer in Earth and Marine Sciences (equivalent to Assistant Professor, tenured from 2021) at The University of Queensland, Australia and a Research Fellow at the Black Mountain Paleomagnetic Laboratory at Australian National University.

She received her PhD in Earth Sciences from Utrecht University in 2017, where her doctoral research focused on reconstructing subduction evolution in the Anatolian region within the Tectonics & Mantle Dynamics group. Prior to this, she completed an MSc in Geology at University of Oslo in the Physics of Geological Processes Center of Excellence, and a BSc in Geosciences at University of Bonn.

Her research and academic activities are highly interdisciplinary and internationally collaborative, spanning Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States. In the past three years, she has focused on the conceptualization and development of the heiMAG Laboratory for Earth Magnetism at Heidelberg University. While the laboratory infrastructure is still under development, this work has laid the foundation for integrating quantitative mineral magnetic methods with tectonics, geodynamics, and field-based Earth science research.

Prof. Dr. Derya Gürer has supervised undergraduate and MSc students and contributed to graduate training through teaching and research supervision at The University of Queensland, The University of Tasmania and now at Heidelberg University. She has mentored early-career researchers within interdisciplinary and international research environments, including large collaborative tectonics projects and marine scientific expeditions. Her supervision emphasizes the integration of field observations, laboratory analysis, and quantitative interpretation, encouraging students to combine structural geology, geophysics, paleomagnetism, and geodynamic concepts to address complex Earth science questions. She is committed to fostering an inclusive and collaborative research environment that supports the development of interdisciplinary scientific skills and encourages researchers to communicate the broader societal relevance of Earth science research, including its implications for natural hazards and long-term landscape evolution.

Derya Gürer’s research focuses on the evolution of plate boundary systems and lithospheric deformation through the integration of structural geology, tectonics, paleomagnetism, marine geophysics, and geodynamic concepts. Her work combines extensive field observations with quantitative approaches that link geological processes across spatial and temporal scales.

Her research contributions span three main areas:

• Convergent margin tectonics and orogenic evolution, including subduction evolution, plate boundary reorganization, and basin development in the Mediterranean and broader Tethyan and Western Pacific regions.
• Plate kinematics and large-scale geodynamic processes, integrating geological observations with tectonic and mantle reconstructions to investigate lithosphere–mantle interactions and plate motion evolution.
• Mineral magnetic applications in tectonics, developing quantitative approaches using paleomagnetic and mineral magnetic methods to better constrain deformation histories and tectonic processes recorded in rocks.

Her research combines field geology, laboratory measurements, and geodynamic interpretation, supported by extensive international collaborations and expedition-based science. Gürer has contributed to major interdisciplinary projects and ocean drilling expeditions, and has led one oceanographic expedition and her publication record includes contributions to journals such as Nature Geoscience, Science, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and Geophysical Research Letters.

Field-based research and scientific expeditions form a central component of Derya Gürer’s scientific work. Since 2010, she has conducted approximately 120 weeks of field research in remote and tectonically diverse regions including Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, New Caledonia, Norway, Oman, Turkey, and the Pacific and Southern Oceans.

She has extensive experience in both terrestrial and marine geoscience campaigns and has participated in major international oceanographic expeditions, including:

• Structural Geologist, IODP Expedition 405 – JTRACK: Tracking Tsunamigenic Slip in the Japan Trench
• Sedimentologist, IODP Expedition 392 – Agulhas Plateau Cretaceous Climate
• Lead PI and Chief Scientist aboard R/V Falkor expeditions in the Tasman and Coral Seas
• Scientific crew member aboard R/V Investigator expeditions in the Southern and Indian Oceans

These expeditions integrate tectonics, marine geophysics, paleomagnetism, and Earth system science, and have contributed to the development of a broad international research network across Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States.

• Fu, Qiang; Dekkers, Mark J; Spassov Simo; Gürer, Derya; Hung, Chien-Cheng; Arts, Job PB; André R Niemeijer. (in press). Geophysical Research Letters. Fluid-induced magnetic enhancement in sandstone friction experiments: implications for coseismic fault temperature estimates.
• Özkaptan, Murat; Gürer, Derya; Gülyüz, Erhan; Cascella, Antonio; Stoica, Marius; Krijgsman, Wout. (2026). Magneto-biostratigraphic dating of the marine-terrestrial transition in the Miocene Sivas Basin (Central Anatolia): Implications for Neo-Tethys seaway closure and Eurasia-Arabia collision, Tectonophysics, 231220, Elsevier.
• Kirkpatrick, James D; Savage, Heather M; Regalla, Christine; Shreedharan, Srisharan; Ross, C; Okuda, Hanaya; Nicholson, Uisdean; Ujiie, Kohtaro; Hackney, Ron; Conin, Marianne. Expedition 405 Scientists. (2025). Extreme plate boundary localization promotes shallow earthquake slip at the Japan Trench, Science, eady0234, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Kirkpatrick, James D; Regalla, Christine; Conin, Marianne; Ujiie, Kohtaro; Fulton, Patrick M; Kodaira, Shuichi; Okutsu, Natsumi; Maeda, Lena; Toczko, Sean; Eguchi, Nobuhisa. Expedition 405 Scientists (2025). Expedition 405 summary, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 405.
• Conin, Marianne; Kirkpatrick, James D; Regalla, Christine; Ujiie, Kohtaro; Fulton, Patrick M; Kodaira, Shuichi; Okutsu, Natsumi; Maeda, Lena; Toczko, Sean; Eguchi, Nobuhisa. Expedition 405 Scientists. (2025). Site C0026, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 405.
• Regalla, C; Ujiie, K; Fulton, P; Kirkpatrick, J; Conin, M; Kodaira, S; Okutsu, N; Maeda, L; Toczko, S; Eguchi, N. Expedition 405 Scientists. (2025). Site C0019 Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 405.
• Kirkpatrick, James D; Fulton, Patrick M; Ujiie, Kohtaro; Conin, Marianne; Regalla, Christine; Kodaira, Shuichi; Okutsu, Natsumi; Maeda, Lena; Toczko, Sean; Eguchi, Nobuhisa; Expedition 405 Scientists. (2025). Expedition 405 methods, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 405.
• van Hinsbergen, Douwe JJ; Gürer, Derya; Koç, Ayten; Lom, Nalan. (2024). Shortening and extrusion in the East Anatolian Plateau: How was Neogene Arabia-Eurasia convergence tectonically accommodated? Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 641, 118827, Elsevier.
• Magri, Luca; Whittaker, Joanne M; Coffin, Millard F; Hochmuth, Katharina; Gürer, Derya; Williams, S; Bernardel, George; Uenzelmann‐Neben, Gabriele. (2024). Tectono‐stratigraphic evolution of the Kerguelen large igneous province: The conjugate William’s Ridge‐Broken Ridge rifted margins, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129, 3, e2023JB027493.

Earlier Publications

Prof. Dr. Derya Gürer on Google Scholar

Prof. Dr. Derya Gürer on ORCID