Rate My Professor Isra Ezad

Isra Ezad is a lecturer in igneous petrology and geochemistry in the School of Earth and Oceans at the University of Western Australia, a position she assumed in 2024. An experimental igneous petrologist by training, her research centers on the composition and melting behavior of Earth's mantle, particularly the influence of volatile elements on the mobility of base and precious metals during mantle melting processes. She applies these experimental insights to understand the formation of magmatic sulfide deposits and ore genesis from heterogeneous mantle sources. Prior to joining UWA, Ezad completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She earned her PhD in 2019 from University College London with a thesis on "The grain growth kinetics of spinel in the mantle," and an integrated MSci in Geosciences from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2015.

Ezad has produced a substantial body of peer-reviewed research, with 26 outputs including articles in high-impact journals. Notable publications include "Unveiling the metallogenic continuum of an Archean craton" (Nature Communications, 2026, with M. Demmer and M. Fiorentini), "Mantle sources of kamafugitic magmas: Insights from partial melting experiments on phlogopite clinopyroxenite and clinopyroxene glimmerite" (Mineralogical Magazine, 2026), "Hydrous minerals are sinks for first row transition elements in the mantle: An experimental partitioning study" (Chemical Geology, 2025), "Experimental observations of CaSiO3-CaTiO3 perovskites: implications for Ca-rich inclusions observed in sub-lithospheric diamonds" (Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 2025), and "Melting of amphibole-apatite-rich metasomes in the continental mantle and comparison of melt compositions with natural igneous rocks" (Lithos, 2025). In recognition of her early-career promise, she was awarded the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award in 2026 for a project investigating hydrous pyroxenites as alternative sources of critical metals like copper, cobalt, and platinum group elements, aiming to advance mineral exploration models. At UWA, she supervises honours and masters projects on topics such as tracking mantle metasomatism for critical metals mobilization and experimental studies on gold release from the mantle.