Sophie Verheyden

Senior Geologist
Quaternary geology & Climate Change

                      +32 2 788 7614

Biography

Sophie Verheyden is geologist with a focus on environmental geochemistry (PhD VUB-ULB, 2001). She specialized in the use of cave deposits as a tool for the reconstruction of climatic, environmental, karstogenesis, seismic or anthropogenic activity reconstructions. She worked as a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow at the LSCE (CEA-CNRS), Paris on stable isotopic signature of fluid inclusions and also worked for the federal science policy department in Belgium. In 2014 she was awarded with the Baron van Ertborn Prize (Royal Academy of Belgium). She was at the base of the first UNESCO Global Geopark Famenne-Ardenne in Belgium and still works in close relationship with the geopark. Research interests include chronology, climate and environmental reconstructions in caves, development of stable isotopic mass spectrometry and optical spectrometric methods, cave monitoring, biomineralizations, MVT mineralisations and karstgenesis, Science Policy, UNESCO Global Geoparks. She currently teaches Geoconservation at U-Lille (invited professorship) and is research associate at VUB.

Expertise

Cave research, Mass spectrometry, LIBS, Raman, Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy, Cave monitoring, Science Policy, UNESCO Global Geoparks, Project evaluation

Research groups

Research interests

  • Chronology
  • Climate and environmental reconstructions in caves
  • Development of stable isotopic mass spectrometry and optical spectrometric methods
  • Cave monitoring
  • Biomineralizations
  • MVT mineralisations and karstgenesis
  • UNESCO Global Geoparks
  • Science policy

Key publications

Verheyden, S., Marinova, E., Ivanova, S., Burlet, C., Cheng, H., Edwards, L.R., 2021. Speleothem‐based chronology and environmental context of deposits from the Mishin Kamik Cave, NW Bulgaria–A contribution to the archaeological study of the Late Pleistocene. Journal of Quaternary Science 36 (7), 1221-1233. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3364

Nehme, C., Kluge, T., Verheyden, S., Nader, F., Charalambidou, I., Weissbach, T., et al., 2020. Speleothem record from Pentadactylos cave (Cyprus): new insights into climatic variations during MIS 6 and MIS 5 in the Eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews 250, 106663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106663

Jaubert J., Verheyden S., Genty D., Soulier M., Cheng H., Blamart D., Burlet C., Camus H., Delaby S., Deldicque D., Edwards R. L., Ferrier C., Lacrampe-Cuyaubère F., Lévêque F., Maksud F., Mora P., Muth X., Régnier É., Rouzaud J. & Santos F., 2016. Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France. Nature, 534(7605):111-114. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18291

Complete list accessible on Google Scholar

Project

Other activities

The Bruniquel Cave Investigations

Studies of the chronology and sedimentation history of the cave as well as the palaeoclimatic evolution in the context of Neanderthal occupations in the cave

Strategies for science funding and support