Derek Vance is a geochemist whose research has addressed a wide range of fundamental questions in the earth sciences through his development and application of novel geochemical methodologies.

He has quantified the timescales on which mountain ranges are uplifted and eroded. His analytical and conceptual advances have constrained the rates and long-term variability of chemical weathering. He has used new isotope measurements of transition metals to understand biogeochemical cycles in the ocean. His discoveries range across time, from establishing markers for early life, through the chemical consequences of glacial cycles, to the chemical processes critical to the present and future surface-earth environment.