Getachew Agmuas Adnew
BG Biogeosciences
The 2025 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Getachew Agmuas Adnew for exceptional scientific contribution to the biogeosciences, developing breakthrough techniques to improve our understanding of greenhouse gas exchange between the biosphere and atmosphere.
Dr Getachew Agmuas Adnew is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Marine and Atmospheric research (IMAU) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he is co-ordinating fundamental research across diverse biomes to develop theoretical insights on biosphere-atmosphere interactions with real-world observations.
Dr Adnew completed his studies in organic chemistry at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia, where he received a gold medal for his MSc thesis and then stayed on to hold a lecturing position there. In 2015, Dr Adnew then applied for a prestigious scholarship from the Danish government (2015) to conduct research at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, leading Dr Adnew to move to Europe and develop his skills in the field of environmental chemistry. This experience motivated Dr Adnew to pursue a technically challenging PhD at IMAU based in the Netherlands. During his doctorant at Utrecht University, Dr Adnew achieved a number of scientific achievements including developing the novel ‘17O fragment technique’, the only approach that provides a direct determination of the 17O excess of CO2 molecules in the atmosphere. Dr Adnew then applied this novel method to determine the effect of terrestrial biosphere photosynthetic activity on the 17O excess of atmospheric CO2 and water vapour using leaf gas exchange measurements for the first time, providing novel insights on the imprint of plant physiology and climate on the atmospheric D17O signal. Dr Adnew went on to develop the theoretical framework to interpret these novel plant measurements for the first time and in a way that it could be implemented in isotope-enabled land surface models linking the carbon and water cycles of the biosphere and atmosphere.
Since completing his PhD in 2020, Dr Adnew’s novel technique has been championed by the industry and he has moved on to specialise in the development of challenging clumped isotope techniques to study changes in the oxidation capacity of the past atmosphere using oxygen molecules (D35 and D36) trapped in the bubbles of ice cores or elucidating the origins, age and dynamics of clumped methane molecules (D13CH3D and D12CH3D2) in the sub-glacial environment of the Greenland ice sheet alongside radiocarbon measurements (D14C(CH4)). This important work has involved Dr Adnew working in different research environments (Denmark, Netherlands & Germany) developing collaborations and field experiments in the tropics (National Institute for Space Research, Brazil) and boreal regions and supervising Master students and Doctorants. His novel work and ongoing collaborations have led to important scientific publications, including many first author papers describing the interactions of the biosphere and climate on novel atmospheric tracers.
Dr Adnew has also played an active role in promoting scientific research exchange, convening a successful EGU Biogeosciences session focused on the application of stable isotopes and novel tracers in biogeochemical and atmospheric research (2021-2025) and supporting the organisation of the World Meteorological Organisation/IAEA Meeting on Carbon Dioxide and Greenhouse Gases in the Netherlands.
Dr Getachew Agmuas Adnew is a passionate and energetic international biogeoscientist recognised for his expertise in isotope biogeochemistry exemplifying the talents and scientific breakthroughs that are deserving of recognition by the EGU with an Outstanding Early Career Scientist award.