Staff
Prof Ian Bailiff
Contact (email at ian.bailiff@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
After reading physics at Sussex University Ian Bailiff joined the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art at Oxford as a postgraduate student and subsequently submitted a research MSc on the development of new luminescence dating techniques. Following a further year working on an instrument development project he came to Durham in 1979 as a research assistant on a pottery dating project; following a series of appointments as a Research Fellow he was awarded an SERC Advanced Fellowship, and in 1991 was appointed a Lecturer.
He heads a luminescence dating laboratory that has the capability to support both dating and methodological investigation, and his research has been primarily focused on the study of the luminescence properties of minerals and their application to radiogenic techniques of dating. Currently the primary materials of interest are sediments from prehistoric sites and ceramic materials from medieval buildings and structures. Recent work on the dating of brick from medieval buildings of known age has shown that luminescence is capable of providing very reliable and accurate results. The work on medieval buildings, combined with an interest in instrumentation, has recently led to collaborative work on the application of infrared thermography to the structural analysis of medieval buildings with Prof. Danny Donoghue in the Geography Department.
Long term collaboration has developed with the Maison d’Archaeologie, Bordeaux III on various topics, most recently including the dating of brick from medieval buildings in France and England, and participating in a GdRE network project funded by the CNRS, Ceramic Building Materials and New Dating Methods. Students from Bordeaux have undertaken a series of dating projects in the laboratory; a Dual PhD project on the dating of medieval brick has recently been completed and the laboratory is keen to further develop collaborative projects of this type.
He was recently appointed Joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Radiation Measurements which, within its broad remit of radiation-related research, includes luminescence and ESR dating. This journal is the primary source of information for physics related aspects of these two methods, and since 1984, the journal has included Special Issues devoted to the papers of the International Conference on Luminescence and ESR Dating.
The experimental techniques developed for dating can also be applied to the measurement of radiation dose in the environment using ceramic materials, a field in which the laboratory has developed world-leading expertise. He coordinated a series of international projects on the development of retrospective dosimetry techniques applied to ceramic materials for application to the reconstruction of radiation dose in areas downwind of the Chernobyl power station and the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. He was a member of the Report Committee for Report 68 of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (Retrospective Assessment of Exposures to Ionising Radiation).
Research Groups
Research Projects
Research Interests
- Luminescence dating of ceramics and sediments
- Luminescence measurement techniques
- Retrospective dosimetry
Indicators of Esteem
- 2009: Co-Editor in Chief, Radiation Measurements: Co-Editor in Chief, Radiation Measurements
Selected Publications
Books: sections
- Bailiff IK & M.J. Tooley. 2000. Luminescence dating of fine-grain Holocene sediments from a coastal setting. In Holocene land-ocean interaction and environmental change around the North Sea. Shennan, I & Andrews, J Geological Society Special Publications 166: London: Geological Society. 55-67.
Journal papers: academic
- Bailiff IK 2007. Methodological developments in the luminescence dating of brick from English late medieval and post medieval buildings. Archaeometry 49(4): 827-851. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Bailiff, IK 2006. Development of single grain OSL dating of ceramic materials: Spatially resolved measurement of absorbed dose. Radiation Measurements 41(7-8): 744-749. (Additional information)
- Wilkinson, K. Gerrard, C. , Aguilera, I. Bailiff I.K. & Pope, R. 2005. Prehistoric and Historic Landscape Change in Aragón, Spain: Some Results from the Moncayo Archaeological Survey. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 18(1): 31-54. (Additional information)
- Bailiff IK, Stepanenko VF, Göksu HY, Jungner H, Balmukhanov SB, Balmukhanov TS, Khamidova LG, Kisilev VI, Kolyado IB, Kolizshenkov TV, Shoikhet YN & Tsyb AF 2004. The application of retrospective luminescence dosimetry in areas affected by fallout from the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site: an evaluation of potential. Health Physics 87(6): 625-641. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Bailiff IK & Mikhailik VB 2004. The use of calcium silicate bricks for retrospective dosimetry. Radiation Measurements 38(1): 91-99. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Mikhailik VB, Bailiff IK, Kraus H, Rodnyi PA & Ninkovic J 2004. Two-photon excitation and luminescence of a CaWO4 scintillator. Radiation Measurements 38(4-6): 585-588. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Bailiff, I. K. & Mikhailik, V. B. 2003. Spatially-resolved measurement of optically stimulated luminescence and time-resolved luminescence. Radiation Measurements 37(2): 151-159. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Bailiff IK 2000. Characteristics of time-resolved luminescence in quartz. Radiation Measurements. 32 401-405
