Professor Matt Kilburn is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He earned a BSc in Planetary Science from University College London and a PhD in Experimental Petrology from the University of Bristol. Early in his career, he held postdoctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University of Bristol, followed by a Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford in 2003. In 2006, Kilburn joined UWA as a Lecturer at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), where he advanced to Senior Lecturer in 2010, Associate Professor in 2013, and Professor in 2018. He served as Head of UWA's Ion Probe Facility from 2006, Deputy Director of CMCA from 2016, and Director of CMCA from 2018 until August 2019. Currently, he coordinates the postgraduate unit Analytical Techniques for the Geosciences (GEOS5507).

Kilburn specializes as an expert in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), including NanoSIMS, and other analytical techniques, with applications ranging from geochemistry and biogeochemistry to biomedical research and nuclear safeguards. His multidisciplinary research encompasses studies on early life on Earth, microbial mediation in mineral alteration, sulfur metabolisms in Archean rocks, nutrient cycling in coral symbiosis, and organomineralization processes. Key publications include 'Microfossils of sulphur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia' (Wacey et al., 2011), 'Advances in the analysis of biogeochemical interfaces: NanoSIMS to investigate soil microenvironments' (Mueller et al., 2013), 'Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) as an analytical tool in the geosciences' (Kilburn & Wacey, 2015), 'The mechanism of borosilicate glass corrosion revisited' (Geisler et al., 2015), 'Radionuclide distributions in Olympic Dam copper concentrates: The significance of minor hosts, incorporation mechanisms, and the role of mineral surfaces' (Rollog et al., 2020), and 'Recognition of a widespread Paleoproterozoic hydrothermal system in the southern McArthur Basin, northern Australia, by in-situ analysis of fine-grained pyrite and spatially-associated solid bitumen in the Lamont Pass palaeohigh' (Li et al., 2022). In September 2019, he took up the position of Head of the Environmental Sample Laboratory in the Department of Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, while retaining his adjunct role at UWA.

Professional Email: matt.kilburn@uwa.edu.au