New faces at the GI: Gunther Kletetschka
Gunther Kletetschka has joined the GI as associate research professor in the Tectonics and Sedimentation research group. Kletetschka’s areas of research interest are diverse. Mostly his work is centered on magnetic nanoparticles.
“I study [magnetic nanoparticles] in various environments,” Kletetschka said, including lake sediments. “For that we travel to various lakes and drive tubes in the middle of the lake, retrieve [the cores] and study how magnetic records can tell the history of these lakes.
“Also, [the] human brain, where we found that as people age, they have a larger and larger size of iron oxide in their brains that is possible to detect magnetically. In addition these grains appear to respond to various frequencies of radio waves (we confirmed KHz to MHz).”
Other contexts in which Kletetschka studies magnetic nanoparticles include graphene material, where his team detected magnetic nanoparticles inside carbon nanotubes made of graphene; magnetic and gravity anomalies, where the magnetic grain size in rocks can help with interpretation of not only magnetic anomalies but also gravity anomalies, not only for Earth but also planets like Mars, or the Moon and other solid surface solar system bodies; and impact craters, where magnetic analyses show that craters affect the magnetic properties of impacted rocks. Future areas of research that he hopes to explore include lunar landings, mining of asteroids and samples from Mars.
“These research aspects rapidly develop and I'll report on them when more solid data are available,” Kletetschka said.
Though Kletetschka has only recently relocated to Fairbanks, he’s had a relationship with the GI for quite a while, though based from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He has international funding for collaborations between UAF and Charles University and he continues to advise graduate students in Prague. The collaborative work involves comparison of the climate in Alaska and Central Europe based on lake sediments in those two vastly separated areas.
“I'd like to initiate a mutual agreement for collaboration between the two universities and initiate student/faculty/postdoc exchange in future.”
Kletetschka completed a MS in magnetism in 1994 and a PhD in petrology and geophysics in 1998, both at the University of Minnesota. He had a postdoc from 1998 – 2000 at Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA, working on a Mars and near asteroid mission. For the next 10 years he continued working at GSFC, mostly on the James Web Space Telescope mission, planetary magnetic anomalies and comet research. In 2011 he returned to the Czech Republic to take care of his mother and joined Charles University in Prague. His first affiliation with UAF began in 2016.
When asked why he decided to come to Alaska, he said in 1989 Professor David Stone invited him to do a PhD in Alaska but he chose Minnesota instead.
“In 2016 I got a letter from David that he is about to retire and [he asked] if I want to try to continue his work in Alaska. I gladly accepted,” Kletetschka said. “My motivation is to continue to do diverse research in magnetism and GI appears to be a good carrier for this goal.”
Kletetschka reports that he likes blueberries, extreme sports (scuba, paragliding), singing, sport gymnastics, philosophy, religion studies and Asian/Eskimo culture.