Paula Reimer Explained

Paula Reimer
Honorific Suffix:	OBE
Other Names:	Paula Jo Lucas Reimer
Fields:	earth science, radiocarbon dating and calibration, carbon cycling, archaeology
Workplaces:	Queen's University Belfast University of Washington Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Education:	PhD, University of Washington, 1998 MSc, Iowa State University, 1976 BSc, Iowa State University, 1974
Thesis Title:	Carbon cycle variations in a Pacific Northwest lake from the late glacial to early Holocene
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Academic Advisors:	Minze Stuiver
Known For:	radiocarbon dating and applications
Awards:	2013 Lyell Medal (Geological Society of London) 2014 Elected member of Royal Irish Academy 2021 Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology 2021 Archaeologist of the Year 2022 James Croll Award 2022 Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) 2024 Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award (GSA)
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Paula Jo Reimer is a radiocarbon and archaeological scientist. Reimer is the former director of the ¹⁴Chrono Centre for Climate, the Environment, and Chronology at Queen's University Belfast.^[1]

Biography

Reimer has a BSc in Physics (1974) and MSc in Biophysics (1976) from Iowa State University. She was awarded her PhD in Geological Sciences, working with Minze Stuiver, from University of Washington in 1998.^[2] She worked at the Quaternary Isotope Lab at Washington from 1977 to 1998, after which she moved to Queen's University Belfast for a Postdoctoral fellowship in 1998–2001. This was followed by a second postdoctoral fellowship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2001 to 2004. In 2004, she became director of the ¹⁴Chrono Centre at Queen's until her retirement in 2023.^[3]

Paula's research has focussed around improving radiocarbon dating and calibration, with a particular focus on understanding carbon cycling and radiocarbon reservoirs.Alongside Minze Stuiver, she developed the first internationally-agreed radiocarbon age calibration curve (IntCal98^[4]) and provided the first freely-available software package (CALIB^{[5] [6]}) to calibrate radiocarbon dates. From 2002-2020, Paula chaired the International Radiocarbon Calibration (INTCAL^[7]) Working Group. INTCAL provide (regular-updated) internationally-agreed radiocarbon calibration curves for the Northern and Southern Hemispheric Atmosphere (denoted IntCalXX and SHCalXX), and the global surface oceans (MarineXX), where XX denotes the year in which the update was provided. These calibration curves enable consistent and comparable radiocarbon dating across the life and environmental sciences. During Paula's tenure as chair, she oversaw the production of IntCal04,^[8] IntCal09,^[9] IntCal13,^[10] and IntCal20.^[11] The advances provided by these curves have extended radiocarbon calibration to the technique’s limit 55,000 years ago.^[12]

Awards

Reimer was awarded the Lyell Medal from The Geological Society in 2013.^[13] She was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2014. In December 2020, Reimer was voted the 2021 'Archaeologist of the Year' in the annual Current Archaeology awards.^[14] In 2021 Reimer was the recipient of the Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology from the Archaeological Institute of America in recognition of her "distinguished record of contributions to the advancement of archaeological science".^[15] Reimer was the recipient of the James Croll Medal from the Quaternary Research Association in January 2022.^[16]

In July 2022, she was appointed as Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for "services to Radiocarbon Dating, Calibration and Chronology".^[17] In 2024, Paula was awarded the Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award of The Geological Society of America for outstanding contributions to the interdisciplinary field of archaeological geology.^[18]

Selected (key) publications

A full list of Reimer's publications can be found here.

• Reimer P.J., Austin W.E.N., Bard E., Bayliss A., Blackwell P.G., Bronk Ramsey C., Butzin M., Cheng H., Edwards R.L., Friedrich M., Grootes P.M., Guilderson T.P., Hajdas I., Heaton T.J., Hogg A.G., Hughen K.A., Kromer B., Manning S.W., Muscheler R., Palmer J.G., Pearson C., van der Plicht J., Reimer R.W., Richards D.A., Scott E.M., Southon J.R., Turney C.S.M, Wacker L., Adolphi F., Büntgen U., Capano M., Fahrni S.M., Fogtmann-Schulz A., Friedrich R., Köhler P., Kudsk S., Miyake F., Olsen J., Reinig F., Sakamoto M., Sookdeo A., Talamo S. 2020. "The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)". Radiocarbon
• Reimer PJ et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887
• Reimer PJ et al. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50
• Reimer PJ et al. 2004 IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0-26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–1058
• Stuiver M and Reimer PJ 1993 Extended 14C Data Base and Revised CALIB 3.0 14C Age Calibration Program Radiocarbon 35(1):215–230
• Stuiver M, Reimer PJ et al. 1998 INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 24,000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40(3):1041–1083
• Heaton TJ et al. Radiocarbon: A key tracer for studying Earth’s dynamo, climate system, carbon cycle, and Sun Science (invited review)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Paula Reimer, Professor . Queen's University Belfast . 18 March 2021.
2. Web site: Paula Jo Lucas Reimer . Royal Irish Academy . 18 March 2021.
3. Web site: Paula Reimer . 29 July 2020 . The Conversation . 19 March 2021.
4. Stuiver M. Reimer PJ. Bard E. 1998. INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 24,000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon. 40. 3. 1041–1083 . 10.1017/S0033822200019123 . 1998Radcb..40.1041S. 128394089. 2. free.
5. Stuiver M . Reimer PJ. 1986. A Computer-Program for Radiocarbon Age Calibration Radiocarbon . Radiocarbon . 28 . 2B . 1022–1030 . 10.1017/S0033822200060276. 131711031. free .
6. Stuiver M . Reimer PJ. 1993. Extended 14C Data Base and Revised CALIB 3.0 14C Age Calibration Program . Radiocarbon . 35 . 1 . 215–230 . 10.1017/S0033822200013904. 1993Radcb..35..215S. 130085341. free .
7. Web site: INTCAL working group . . ¹⁴Chrono Centre. 2023-01-29.
8. Reimer PJ. Baillie MGL. Bard E. others. 2004 . IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0-26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon. 46. 3. 1029–1058. 10.1017/S0033822200032999. 2004Radcb..46.1029.. 38359692. 1. 10289/3690. free.
9. Reimer PJ. Baillie MGL. Bard E. others. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP . Radiocarbon. 51. 4. 1111–50. 10.1017/S0033822200034202. 2009Radcb..51.1111R. 12608574. 1. 10289/3622. free.
10. Reimer PJ. Bard E. Bayliss A. others. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon. 55. 4. 1869–1887. 10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947. 2013Radcb..55.1869R. 4976475. 1. free. 10289/8955. free.
11. Reimer PJ. Austin W. Bard E. others. 2020. The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP). Radiocarbon. 62. 4. 725–757. 10.1017/RDC.2020.41. 2020Radcb..62..725R. 216215614. 1. free. 11585/770531. free.
12. Heaton TJ . Bard E. others. Radiocarbon: A key tracer for studying Earth's dynamo, climate system, carbon cycle, and Sun. Science (Invited Review). 2021. 374. 6568. eabd7096. 10.1126/science.abd7096. 34735228. 243761602. 1.
13. Web site: Lyell Medal . The Geological Society . 18 March 2021.
14. Web site: Current Archaeology Awards . Current Archaeology . 18 March 2021.
15. Web site: Pomerance Award For Scientific Contributions To Archaeology . Archaeological Institute of America . 2021 . 18 March 2021.
16. Web site: Medal Winners . QRA . 25 December 2022.
17. Web site: Honorary Awards to Foreign Nationals in 2022 . 2022 . Gov.UK .
18. Web site: 2024 Geological Society of America Division & Section Award Recipients . 2024 . GSA . 14 August 2024.