Universität Wien - Fakultät für Physik - Isotopenforschung

Peter STEIER

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Research interests:

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technique:

Very heavy ions (actinides); Time-of-flight Detectors; Energy loss and straggling; Isobar identification;

Applications:

Nucleosynthesis; Supernovae; ²⁴⁴Pu; natural occurring ²³⁶U; Isotopic signatures in Geology; ¹²⁹I.

¹⁴C:

Dating for Archaeology; Application of Bayesian statistics to calibration.

General particle accelerator technique:

implementation of algorithms from numerical mathematics and control technology for automated machine tuning; Automation of measurements; Ion optics and beam diagnostics, simulation software.

Materials for lectures:

Click here for my List of Publications

Career:

Childhood and school in Traun, Oberösterreich

[1985 – 1995] Diploma of physics at the University of Vienna

Free lance programmer at various software firms

Diploma thesis in nuclear physics with the theme "Messungen der inelastischen doppeltdifferentiellen
Neutronenemissionsquerschnitte von Blei mit 14-MeV-Neutronen". Master of Science in October of 1995

[1995 - 2000]
Dissertation in nuclears physics supervised by Prof. W. Kutschera with the theme "Exploring the limits of VERA: A universal facility for accelerator mass spectrometry

Assistant at the Institute for Raduim Research (later Isotope Research) and Nuclear Physics at the University of Vienna.

Presentations at international conferences in the USA, Germany, and Austria

[1996- 1997] alternative service at the Wilhelminenspital in Vienna

[ December 2001] Doctor of Science

[since April 2001] Assistant at the Institute for Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics at the University of Vienna

Collaborator in the Spezialforschungsbereich (SFB) of the FWF (F014) and the VAW under the patronage of the UNESCO , 1998: The Synchronization of Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd Millennium BC
First Speaker: Univ. Prof. Manfred Bietak, Second Speaker: Univ. Prof. Hermann Hunger
Principle investigator of project F 1408: Univ.-Prof. Walter Kutschera, 14C Dating for Absolute Chronology of Eastern Mediterranean Cultures in the Second Millenium BC with AMS.
Co-principle investigator of project F 1408: DDr. Peter Stadler. Collaborators of project F 1408: Dr- Alfred Priller, Dr. Peter Steier, Dr- Eva Maria Wild.

Contractor of EU-Project Contract Nr. EVK2-1999-00316: Influence of Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange in a Changing Climate on Atmospheric Transport and Oxidation Capacity (STACCATO), 2000
Coordinator: Dr. Andreas Stohl, Lehrstuhl für Bioklimatologie und Immissionsforschung, TU München, Germany
Contractors: Dr. Alfred. Priller, Mag. Michael Berger, Univ. Prof. Dr. Walter Kutschera, Dr. Peter Steier, Dr. Eva Maria Wild, VERA Laboratory, Universität Wien, Wien Austria, Univ. Prof. Dr. Ilse Steffan, Institut für Analytische Chemie, Universität Wien, Wien, Austria

Co-Investigator of the Austrian Research Fund (FWF) Research Project P21403 "The global U-236 inventory", Contractor: AO Univ. Prof. Dr. Gabriele Wallner.

Talks at international conferences and laboratories:

Priller A, Steier P, Golser R, Kutschera W, Rom W, Wallner A, Wild E. Hard-VERA and soft-VERA. 31st Symposium of North Eastern Accelerator Personnel (SNEAP), Jülich, Germany, October 13-15, 1997

Steier P, Brandl T, Fischer H, Golser R, Kutschera W, Priller A, Puchegger S, Rom W, Vockenhuber C, Wallner A, Wild E. VERA - the 3-MV Pelletron AMS Facility in Vienna. Fifteenth International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry. Denton, Texas, USA, November 4-7, 1998.

Steier P. The automatic data evaluation system of VERA. Seminar at the Institute for Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, Dezember 21, 2000.

P. Steier, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, A. Priller, C. Vockenhuber. V. Liechtenstein. Heavy ion AMS with a "small" accelerator. Seventh European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology (ECAART) , Guildford, UK, August 21-25, 2001.

P. Steier, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, A. Priller, C. Vockenhuber, S. Winkler. VERA, an AMS facility for all isotopes. Held at the 9th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-9) September 9-13, 2002, Nagoya, Japan.

Peter Steier, Alfred Priller. The behaviour of dust-induced parasitic corona discharges in the 3 MV pelletron of VERA. 37th Symposium of North Eastern Accelerator Personnel (SNEAP), Strasbourg, France, Oct. 13 - 16, 2003.

Peter Steier, Andreas Bergmaier, Thomas Faestermann, Robin Golser, Klaus Knie, Gunther Korschinek, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Christof Vockenhuber, Katharina Vorderwinkler, Anton Wallner. Z-Identifikation durch „deltaTOF“ und AMS von ¹⁸²Hf. Seminar des Beschleunigerlabor Garching, 23.Juni 2004, Munich, Germany.

Peter Steier, Franz Dellinger,Walter Kutschera, Eva Wild, Kurt Nicolussi, Peter Schießling. High-precision ¹⁴C AMS measurements for the stone-pine tree-ring chronology between 3500 BC and 3000 BC. Held at "Search for Precision and Accuracy",
SCIEM 2000 Workshop on Dendrochronology and Radiocarbon Dating, 8 – 10 January 2004, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Peter Steier, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera, Vitaly Liechtenstein, Alfred Priller, Christof Vockenhuber, Anton Wallner. Opportunities and Limits of AMS with 3-MV Tandem Accelerators. Talk at the Seventh European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology (ECAART). Paris, France, September 20-24, 2004.

Peter Steier, Roswitha Drosg, Walter Kutschera, Eva Maria Wild, Mariaelena Fedi, Martin Schock, Dietmar Wagenbach. Radiocarbon dating of ice samples from Alpine glaciers. SCIEM 2000 Workshop on Ice Core Dating and Tephra Analysis July, 8-10 2004, University of Vienna, Austria.

Peter Steier. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) - State of the Art. Seminar at the Neutron Physics Unit (NPU), European Commission JRC, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurement (IRMM), Geel, Belgium, February 24, 2005.

Peter Steier, Roswitha Drosg, Mariaelena Fedi, Walter Kutschera, Martin Schock, Dietmar Wagenbach, Eva Maria Wild. Radiocarbon determination of particulate organic carbon (POC) in non-temperated, Alpine glacier ice. Held at the 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-10), Berkeley, Califonia, USA, September 5-10, 2005.

Peter Steier, Roswitha Drosg, Bernd Kerschner, Walter Kutschera, Mario Schrenk, Eva Maria Wild. Preparation and measurement of small AMS samples at VERA. Held at the 19th Radiocarbon Conference in Oxford, 3rd-7th April 2006.

P. Steier, E. Berdermann, M. Berninger, D. Djokic, R. Golser, V. Liechtenstein, T. Orlowski, M. Pomorski. Spectrometry of heavy ions below 1 MeV/amu with ND and CVDD detectors. Held at the 3rd NoRDHia workshop at the GSI, Darmstadt, Aug. 30 – Sept. 1 2006.

Peter Steier, Robin Golser, Oliver Forstner, Walter Kutschera, Silke Merchel, Alfred Priller, Martin Suter, Christof Vockenhuber, Anton Wallner. ³⁶Cl exposure dating with a 3-MV tandem. Held at the International Workshop at the Xi’an Accelerator Mass Spectrometer, October 23-26, 2006, Xi’an, China.

Peter Steier, Robin Golser, Oliver Forstner, Walter Kutschera, Silke Merchel, Alfred Priller, Martin Suter,Christof Vockenhuber, Anton Wallner. ³⁶Cl exposure dating with a 3-MV tandem. Held at the ESF-IAAMS Workshop "Applications of cosmogenic isotope analysis in earth and environmental sciences”, Nov. 8-11, Wien, Austria

Peter Steier, Max Bichler, L. Keith Fifield, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Francesca Quinto, Stephan Richter, Michaela Srncik, Philippo Terrasi, Lukas Wacker, Anton Wallner, Gabriele Wallner, Klaus M. Wilcken, Eva Maria Wild. Natural ²³⁶U in environmental samples. Held at the 9th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Technology, Florence, Italy, September 3-7, 2007.

Peter Steier. Automatic AMS measurements and How an accelerator can tune itself. Talk held at the Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Seconda Universitá di Napoli Via Vivaldi 43, I-81100 CASERTA, Italy, Aug 31, 2007

Peter Steier, Oliver Forstner, Robin Golser Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Anton Wallner, Eva Maria Wild. VERA - A dedicated facility to measure long-lived radioisotopes with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). Talk held at the AMS Expert Meeting in Cologne, Sept. 20 - 21, 2007, organized by the Institut für Kernphysik, the Geographisches Institut, and the Institut für Geologie und Mineralogie der Universität in Köln.

Peter Steier, Max Bichler, L. Keith Fifield, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Francesca Quinto, Stephan Richter, Michaela Srncik, Philippo Terrasi, Lukas Wacker, Anton Wallner, Gabriele Wallner, Klaus M. Wilcken, and Eva Maria Wild. Natural and anthropogenic ²³⁶U in environmental samples. Talk at the DPG Frühjahrstagung, Darmstadt, Germany, March 10-14, 2008.

P. Steier, F. Dellinger, O. Forstner, R. Golser1, K. Knie, W. Kutschera, A. Priller, F. Quinto, M. Srncik, F. Terrasi, C. Vockenhuber, A. Wallner, G. Wallner, E.M. Wild. Analysis and application of heavy isotopes in the environment. Invited talk presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-11), Rome, Italy, September 14-19 2008.

Peter Steiera Franz Dellinger, Oliver Forstner, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Francesca Quinto, Aya Sakaguchi, Michaela Srncik, Anton Wallner, Gabriele Wallner, Eva Maria Wild. Actinide measurements with AMS at VERA. Invited talk at the Workshop "Black rain of Hiroshima atomic bomb and related studies", Hiroshima, Japan, 27 March, 2009

P. Steier, F. Dellinger, O. Forstner, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, A. Priller, M. Srncik, M. Martschini, S. Merchel, A. Sakaguchi, A. Wallner, G. Wallner. AMS of heavy ions at VERA: Measurement procedures and applications. 10th European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology, 2010

P. Steier. AMS of heavy ions at VERA: Measurement procedures and applications. 22nd Seminar Activation Analysis and Gamma-Spectroscopy (SAAGAS-22), 2009

Peter Steier, Jakob Liebl, Robin Golser, Klaus Mair, Alfred Priller, Kilian Sanholzer, Kirill Streltsov, Iris Vonderhaid, Eva Maria Wild, Matthias Kucera. AMS systems, ion sources, sample input - technical limitations and future possibilities. Invoted talk at the International Workshop on Small Scale Radiocarbon Analysis ETH Zurich, Switzerland 13 – 16 September 2011

P. Steier. Current status of VERA AMS laboratory. Talk at the University Bratislava, Jun 21, 2012.

P. Steier, R. Golser, E. Hrnecek, K. Knie, A. Priller, F. Quinto, M. Srncik, A. Wallner, G. Wallner, S. Winkler. AMS of the minor plutonium isotopes. Presented at the AMS-12, Wellington, New Zealand, Mar 25, 2011.

Peter Steier, Christina Fasching, Klaus Mair, Tom Battin, Alfred Priller. UV oxidation - a new extraction method for radiocarbon dating. Presented at the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference - 2012, Wellington, New Zealand, 09.07. - 13.07.2012

P. Steier. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry – analysis of the rarest atom species for earth and environmental science. Invited talk at the 19th International Conference on Mass Spectrometry, ICMS-19, Sept. 15-21, Kyoto, Japan.

Peter Steier, Edith Schmidt, Josef Buchriegler, Jenny Feige, Oliver Forstner, Martin Martschini, Leonard Michlmayr, Alfred Priller, Eva Maria Wild, Stephan Winkler, Robin Golser. The development of new AMS techniques at VERA. Invited talk at the MALT Symposium 2012, Sept 21/22, Tokyo, Japan.

P. Steier, R. Eigl, A. Priller, F. Quinto, A. Sakaguchi, I. Spendlikova, M. Srncik, G. Wallner, S. Winkler, and R. Golser. Everywhere present, hard to detect: oceanography to geology with the new AMS isotope ²³⁶U. Invited talk at the Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposiumon Fundamental and Applied Science (HIAS), April 8-12 2013, Canberra, Australia

Posters at international conferences:

P. Steier, S. Puchegger, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, A. Priller, W. Rom, A. Wallner, E. Wild Developments towards a fully automated AMS system. Fourteenth International Conference on Ion Beam Analysis / Sixth European Conference on Accelerators in Applied Research and Technology, Dresden, Germany, July 26-30, 1999

Steier P, Rom W. The Use of Bayesian Statistics for Chronologically Ordered Samples: A Critical Analysis Eighth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Vienna, Austria, Spetember 6-10, 1999

Peter STEIER, Werner ROM, and Stephan PUCHEGGER Critical Aspects of Bayesian Mathematics in ¹⁴C Calibration 17th International Radiocarbon Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, June 18-23, 2000

P. Steier, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, V. Liechtenstein, A. Priller, C. Vockenhuber, S. Winkler. First tests with a Natural Diamond Detector (NDD) - a possibly powerful tool for AMS. Presented at the 9th International Conference on Accelrator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-9) September 9-13, 2002, Nagoya, Japan

Peter Steier, Franz Dellinger, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Werner Rom, Eva Maria Wild. Pushing the precision limit of 14C AMS. Held at the 18th Radiocarbon Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 1-5 September 2003

Peter Steier, Robin Golser, Walter Kutschera, Alfred Priller, Christof Vockenhuber, Katharina Vorderwinkler, Anton Wallner. AMS of ⁴¹Ca and ³⁶Cl at a 3-MV tandem with a Delta-TOF detector. Presented at the 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-10), Berkeley, Califonia, USA, September 5-10, 2005.

P. Steier, O. Forstner, R. Golser, W. Kutschera, S. Merchel, T. Orlowski, A. Priller, C. Vockenhuber, A. Wallner. ³⁶Cl exposure dating with a 3-MV tandem accelerator. Presented at the EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 15 - 20 April 2007.