Heiko Pälike is a Reader (similar to Associate Professor) at the University of Southampton, in the School of Ocean and Earth Science within the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. His research interests are focussing on the interaction of mostly marine geological archives and the climate history of the Earth, using stable isotope measurements, and time series analysis to decipher the imprint of Earth's orbital variations on glacial cycles and climate.

This is the fifth seagoing expedition for Heiko, and the third for ODP/IODP, including a really memorable one in 2004 to the Arctic Ocean with an armada of ice-breakers. Heiko has been to the PEAT part of the equatorial Pacific three times, first during ODP Leg 199, then on the Roger Revelle on a site survey cruise for the PEAT expeditions, and now as one of four co-chief scientists for Expeditions 320 and 321.

Heiko graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Natural Sciences in 1997, and then did an M.Sc. in Hydrogeology at University College, London in 1998. He received a Ph.D. from the Department of Earth Sciences in Cambridge in 2002. He then moved to Stockholm, Sweden, as a postdoc between 2002 and 2004. Since 2004 he has been at the University of Southampton.