Funktion und Aufgaben:

I am a postdoctoral researcher working with Taylor Schildgen as part of the GyroSCoPe project.

Wissenschaftliche Interessen:

I am primarily interested in the ways in which tectonic, geodynamic and climatic processes are expressed and recorded in Earth's surface landscape and geology.

At GFZ my main focus has been on how alluvial rivers (rivers whose beds and banks are made of loose, easily transported alluvium) respond to environmental and tectonic change by aggrading, incision and adjusting their rates of sediment transport. Understanding these processes is important because they are recorded by fluvial landforms, such as terraces and fans, and facies variations in downstream sedimentary basins. I have primarily used a modelling approach to explore how cyclical variations in sediment and water supply (driven, e.g., by glacial-interglacial cycles) influence  the amplitude and timing of aggradation, incision and variation in sediment-transport rates. In a first paper, we showed how the amplitude and timing of alluvial rivers' response to changing sediment and water supply depends on the timescale of the imposed variation, the catchment length and hydrology, and position in the catchment, for a simple, one-dimensional river geometry (M^cNab et al., 2023, GRL). We have since extended this analysis to take into account the arrangement of alluvial rivers in interconnected networks.

I have also been involved in a project, led by Jens Turowski, exploring the lateral evolution of channel belts and river valleys. We developed a model based on the theory of random walks to describe the lateral migration of river channels, and hence the widening of river valleys and distribution of sediment ages in floodplains (Turowski et al., 2025, ESurf).

Other projects include:

• Response of bedrock rivers to drainage capture events (Gong et al., 2024, ESurf).
• Inferring depths and temperatures of mantle melting from basaltic major-element geochemistry (M^cNab and Ball, 2023, Volcanica).
• Origins and evolution of cratonic basins (particularly Congo, Parnaíba, Taoudeni).
• Formation and significance of ancient transient landscapes (M^cNab and White, 2021, GSA Bulletin).
• Neogene-Quaternary uplift, magmatism and geodynamic evolution of Anatolia (M^cNab et al., 2018, G³; 2019, G³).
• Active tectonics in Afghanistan and the Tajik Depression (M^cNab et al., 2019, Geology).

Karriere:

Since June 2020: Postdoctoral Researcher, GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung, Potsdam
October 2023–November 2023: Visiting Researcher, ISTerre, Université Grenoble Alpes
October 2019–June 2020: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
October 2015–June 2020: Supervisor & Demonstrator, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

Werdegang / Ausbildung:

2015–2020: University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences, PhD
2011–2015: University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, MEarthSci