Alida Timar-Gabor - BiographyCurriculum Vitae#

Alida Timar-Gabor is Professor of Environmental Radioactivity at the Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB), and currently the director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Bio-Nano-Science at the same institution. She received her PhD in Physics in 2010 and her Habilitation in Environmental Sciences in 2015, both from UBB, after completing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and nuclear methods in environmental research at the same institution. She is the founder of the Luminescence Dating and Dosimetry Laboratory at UBB—the only facility of its kind in Romania, that she has later extended to incorporate electron spin resonance as well as hyperspectral cathodoluminescence based on scanning electron microscopy facilities, making the Environmental Radioactivity and Nuclear Dating Centre that she leads a recognized research hub for geochronology, retrospective dosimetry, and environmental monitoring.

Her research focuses on developing and applying optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and electron spin resonance (ESR) dating methods to establish chronologies of Quaternary sediments, reconstruct past climate and environmental changes, and assess retrospective radiation doses, with a focus on understanding the dynamics of defects in quartz over geological time scales. She has led various research projects, including prestigious European Research Council grants: an ERC Starting Grant (INTERTRAP)-the first ERC grant in experimental sciences awarded to a researcher based in Romania, followed by an ERC Consolidator Grant (PROGRESS). These projects have advanced the understanding of the physics of trapped-charge dating, particularly in quartz, and contributed to refining methods for paleoclimate reconstruction from loess and other sediments across Europe, North America, Asia and New Zeeland as well as recently establishing quartz as a provenance indicator.

Alida Timar-Gabor published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, more than half being in collaboration with scientists abroad. She has served as a PhD supervisor to more than a dozen students as well as over ten postdoctoral students from multiple countries. She is an active member of national and international scientific committee. For example, she serves as the representative of Eastern European Scientists into the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the European Geoscientists Union, is the vice president of the scientific council of BBU and the representative of her home institution in The Guild research career assessment working group.