CONSERVATION SCIENCES

FOR ART, ARCHITECTURE, ARCHIVES AND ARCHAEOLOGY

ABOUT US

Established May 2010

ERIC DOEHNE BRIEF BIO

Eric Doehne is a professor and consultant specializing in historic materials, such as ancient pigments, ceramics, stone and concrete. He holds a B.S. in geology from Haverford College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from the University of California, Davis.

Eric is a Lecturer in Art Conservation at Scripps College, in Claremont, California where he teaches several interdisciplinary courses as part of a new major. This program is the first undergraduate major in Art Conservation on the West Coast of the United States. A staff scientist and consultant for the Getty for many years, Dr. Doehne was also the 2012 International Chair at the University of Cergy Pontoise for the PATRIMA project in French cultural heritage preservation.

Eric Doehne coauthored “Stone Conservation: An Overview of Current Research, 2nd Edition” with Clifford Price at University College London. Available as a book and free PDF, published by the Getty Conservation Institute.

Dr. Doehne works at the intersection of science, art and technology on the composition, behavior, and treatment of inorganic materials. He has characterized material from the Sistine Chapel, the Dead Sea scrolls, paintings from Audubon to Van Gogh, the Getty Kouros, Chumash Rock Art, Copan, York Minster, Tiwanaku, the Laetoli Footprints (3.6 mya), and the First Photograph (1826).

Recent work includes the Alamo in San Antonio, a workshop on Rising Damp in Galveston, a workshop on Ceramics Conservation at AMOCA, and a new course on Art Forensics. Previous projects include Magnesian Limestone in collaboration with English Heritage and Desalination of Porous Building Materials, a European Commission project. He is a guest lecturer at UCLA in archaeological conservation and at USC in the historic preservation program. Dr. Doehne established his career at the Getty Conservation Institute (1988-2010) and has continued his work, applying science to conservation problems, such as the deterioration of stone and concrete. Clients include The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, English Heritage, The American Research Center in Egypt, The Getty Conservation Institute, and private clients.

Conservation Sciences was founded to help clients answer important questions about the legacy of material culture. High-tech tools combined with experience make for compelling results. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, a center for science, technology, and art, and home to the Huntington, the Norton Simon Museum, Caltech, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Conservation Sciences provides materials science consulting services for art, architecture, archives  and archaeology.

ABOUT ERIC

Trained in geology, geochemistry, and microscopy, Eric Doehne is a professor, research scientist and consultant who has analyzed the Dead Sea scrolls, the Sistine Chapel, Laetoli Footprints (3.6 mya), and the First Photograph (1826) using environmental electron microscopes and other sophisticated instrumentation. In over 60 publications Dr. Doehne has specialized in the preservation and technology of inorganic materials such as stone, glass, pigments, and concrete. Eric has a special interest in salt damage to porous materials. Before founding Conservation Sciences, Dr. Doehne established his career as a conservation scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.

“I teach, write, and consult about the conservation of cultural heritage, and the role of science in understanding and preserving our history. My work is known internationally and is regularly cited in scientific journals. I’ve been quoted in the New York Times, profiled in the Los Angeles Times, and featured in The History Channel’s documentary Life After People. I enjoy being a catalyst for collaborative work and a ‘bridge’ between science, technology, and art.”

EXPERTISE & RESEARCH INTERESTS

Stone Conservation, Weathering and Change:


  • Weathering of stone and stone conservation

  • Salinization, climate change and salt weathering

  • World Heritage sites as an metric for adaptation to climate change

Art Conservation, Art Forensics & Crime, Materials Science, History of Technology

  • Scientific Methods for Authentication of Art; Forgery, Looting and Tourism

  • Science for Preservation: 

Art, Architecture, Archaeology, and Archives

 • Science and history-pigments, glass, ceramics, stone

Electron Microscopy, Computational & Analytical Imaging, Measuring Change:

  • ESEM-EDS, FIB, EPMA, PLM, Hyperspectral and Time-Lapse imaging

  • Low-cost methods of measuring changes to materials

  • Measuring change in world heritage - crowd sourcing

Dr. Doehne’s particular interest is the role of salinization and soluble salts in the deterioration of buildings, wall paintings, and sculpture. His research subjects have included stone conservation at the Maya site of Copán, Honduras; evaluation of conservation treatments for historic masonry in South Australia and New Orleans; geochemical studies of the ancient marble quarries of Thassos, Greece; and the technology of ancient glazes and pigments, such as Coral Red and Maya Blue. Eric is known for his pioneering work with the environmental scanning electron microscope, his research monitoring rates of stone weathering in the lab and on monuments in the field using time-lapse imaging, and the “Doehne” method for X-ray correction in ESEM/EDS analysis. He has also served on the editorial boards of the IIC’s journal Reviews in Conservation and the journal Scanning.

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