NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
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- Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Faculty Affiliate, Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy
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- Affiliated Faculty. Principal Research Scientist, Quaternary Geology, Illinois State Geological Survey ( ISGS )
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- Effects on Leaf Wax Composition. Advisor: Francesca McInerney
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- Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Prof. Bradley Sageman uses carbon isotopes to fine-tune the chronology of the sediments laid around the Phanerozoic ocean anoxic events towards developing high-resolution stratigraphy spanning across North America.
Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies; Co-Director and Faculty Affiliate, Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy (formerly ISEN) Academic Director for Master's of Science in Energy and Sustainability
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- Research Associate Professor
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- Geophysicist at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Brian Shiro currently serves as Supervisory Geophysicist at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). He oversees HVO's seismic and infrasound instrumentation, data processing, and data distribution from about 100 stations in the State of Hawaii. Shiro also manages HVO's formal response to significant earthquakes and volcanic activity. In addition, he serves as Advanced National Seismic System regional coordinator for the State of Hawaii.
Brian graduated from Northwestern University in 2000 with majors in Integrated Science, Physics, and Geological Sciences (now Earth & Planetary Sciences). He completed a senior honors thesis on New Madrid Seismic Zone deformation with advisor Professor Seth Stein. Shiro also worked in Professor Brad Sageman's lab to measure the carbon content of K-T Boundary rocks. Brian credits geophysics courses taught by Professors Emile Okal and Craig Bina with sparking his interest in earth science. "Taking Physics of the Earth for ISP as a sophomore inspired me to major in Geological Sciences and pursue a career in geophysics," he says.
After NU, Brian earned a M.A. in Earth & Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, where his research focused primarily on the seismicity and tectonics of the Tonga subduction zone with fellow EPS alumnus Doug Wiens as his advisor. As a graduate student, Brian took part in four IRIS-PASSCAL seismic field deployments in North America, Fiji, Tonga, Antarctica, and the Northern Mariana Islands. On the Mariana expedition in 2003, Brian was part of a small team to first witness and report the eruption of Anatahan Volcano.
From 2005-2016, Brian worked as a Geophysicist at the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The job required 24x7 monitoring of global seismicity, forecasting of tsunami threats, and issuing alerts to the Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean basins. He was awarded the NOAA Citation Award in 2012 for his service during the 2009 Samoa, 2010 Chile, and 2011 Japan tsunamis. Brian also played a key role in establishing the joint NOAA-USGS Hawaii Integrated Seismic Network and operated the USGS Honolulu Magnetic Observatory.
On the side, Brian has pursued a passion for space exploration. He has completed astronaut training programs, analog Mars missions (see Northwestern Magazine feature), earned a graduate certificate from the International Space University, and a M.S. in Space Studies from University of North Dakota. Brian has applied to NASA's astronaut program three times and made it to the "Highly Qualified" group of top applicants. Shiro is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where his dissertation investigates how geophysical exploration techniques can be used in Mars analog environments. His main field site is the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation facility on Mauna Loa Volcano, where he trains and remotely manages crews who explore the landscape. Brian is also a science team member for the NASA Insight mission, which will send a seismometer to Mars in 2018.
In his spare time, Brian enjoys ultra-marathon running, obstacle course racing, cycling, hiking, SCUBA, aviation, and being a dad to his two children. He serves on the local school board and is a strong advocate of science education in his local community.
Professor Scotese retired from teaching at the University of Texas, Arlington, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2013. He is now a Research Associate at the Field Museum of Natural History and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern University. He continues to collaborate with several research groups on topics concerning the history of the Earth System, but his main focus is a book entitled: "Earth History, the Evolution of the Earth System". He is the coauthor of more than 100 scientific publications, and his maps and animations have been used in numerous geological textbooks, scientific research papers, and are on display in museums worldwide. Additional information can be found at the PALEOMAP website, the Global Geology website, Professor Scotese's YouTube channel, or his ResearchGate webpage.
Professor Bina uses thermodynamic modeling of phase relations, under equilibrium and disequilibrium conditions, to investigate the seismology and geodynamics of Earth's mantle and subducting lithosphere. He also studies the composition and mineralogy of planetary mantles, investigating roles of thermal and compositional variations, elemental partitioning relations, redox reactions, material properties, and structural transitions.
Professor Bina serves on the Editorial Board of Progress in Earth and Planetary Science for the Japan Geoscience Union. He is a frequent visiting researcher in the Department of Geophysics at Charles University in Prague and serves on the International Advisory Board for the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Dan (Darcy) Li Global Biogeochemical Cycle of Silicon: Its Past, Present, and Future. Advisor: Abraham Lerman
In addition to scientific accomplishments, Wiens has served the global geophysical community in a range of important organizational roles including senior leadership in the International Polar Year program. He led the development of the Washington University seismology/tectonics group into a program of international stature. In addition to being a superb scientist, he ranks as an excellent teacher and an effective and supportive advisor for both graduate students and postdocs. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a special tribute for exceptional scientific contributions in the Earth and space sciences, an honor conferred upon not more than 0.1% of the Union's 50,000 members in any year.
Doug Wiens, a world leader in seismology, has made great advances studying earthquakes, volcanoes, and the evolution of the lithosphere. He has conducted field research on land and at sea around the world including Africa, the Pacific, South America, and Antarctica. He currently leads the seismology component of the National Science Foundation's international effort to map and analyze an unknown part of Antarctica, the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, by deploying seismometers on the ice.
Dr. H. Grant Goodell was a dedicated teacher and researcher who focused on groundwater geology and marine resource management. Dr. Goodell earned his PhD from Northwestern University in July of 1957. Before attending college he served in the Korean War as a Navy aviator and received a Purple Heart for his service. After graduation, he started his teaching career as a professor at Florida State University, where he worked actively to develop the oceanography department. In 1970, he moved to the University of Virginia's newly formed Department of Environmental Sciences, becoming its chair just a year later. He held this post for eight years. Dr. Patricia Wiberg, professor and current chair of the department said,
"At the time environmental sciences was created in 1969 (merging the former geology and geography departments), the department had only eight faculty and few undergraduate or graduate students. When Grant stepped down as chair, the department had grown to 24 faculty and had been home to more than 150 majors and 80 graduate students."
Along with the development of these departments, in 1979, he also created an interdisciplinary program in marine affairs that drew from schools of Law, Engineering and Applied Science, Architecture, and the Graduate School of Arts and Science, a program that ran for more than twenty years. In 1973, he was awarded the President's and Visitors' Research Prize in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and in 1990, the Governor of Virginia, Doug Wilder, appointed him to a joint legislative subcommittee to study the impact of oil and gas drilling on the Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Goodell retired in 1998, but he remained active at the University of Virginia as a Professor Emeritus. Over his career he sat on more than 100 dissertation committees, published many articles in his field, and served on many scientific committees and boards relating to geology and the environment.
In addition to academia, aviation, and his family, he loved horses and carpentry. In 1976, he purchased 16 acres of land just outside Charlottesville where he eventually designed and constructed a solar house, a barn, and miles of fence line. He moved his family into the house in 1981, where he stayed for the remainder of his life. During this time he enjoyed riding horses, buying and restoring antique furniture, and tinkering in his woodworking shop. He passed away on December 19th, 2013.
An established leader in seismology and geoscience education, Wysession is noted for his research on the composition of Earth's deep mantle, particularly the core-mantle boundary. Other areas of contributions in his more than 100 published papers include the structure of the Mid-continent Rift, the tectonics and structure of African plates, intraplate seismicity, and the visualization of seismic wave propagation.
Wysession has served the geophysical community on the Board of Directors of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Board of Directors; as Chair of IRIS Education and Outreach); co-creator of the NSF CIG (Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics) program; Chair of the NSF Earth Science Literacy Initiative; and editor of the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Geophysical Research, and EOS.
Wysession is a leader in geoscience literacy and education. He has coauthored more than 30 textbooks, ranging from Pearson's national elementary and middle school science programs to the popular graduate-level Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure. Wysession was Chair of Earth and Space Sciences for the influential National Research Council's report A Framework for K-12 Science Education, and Chair of Earth and Space Science for the writing of the new national K-12 Next Generation Science Standards, which is currently revolutionizing the teaching of science in most U.S. primary and secondary schools. Wysession is a frequent lecturer (>300 presentations) and guest on television and radio programs concerned with earthquakes, Earth structure, human impacts, climate change, and science education. Wysession is the author of four video lecture courses with the Teaching Company's Great Courses series: How the Earth Works, The World's Greatest Geologic Wonders, National Geographic's Polar Explorations, and The Science of Energy.
Wysession's research and science literacy work have been recognized through a Packard Foundation Fellowship, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship, the Innovation Award of the St. Louis Science Academy, a Distinguished Faculty Award of Washington University, the Ambassador Award from the American Geophysical Union, of which he is a Fellow, and the Frank Press Award from the Seismological Society of America.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
As Emeritus Professor, E.A. Okal continues to carry out research and mentor students in the fields of tsunami generation and propagation, intermediate and deep earthquakes, and methods for quantification of seismic sources.
Job Titles:
- Performance of Earthquake Hazard Maps. Advisor
In collaboration with scientists worldwide, he is also engaged in the preservation of analog archives of seismological data, and their conversion to digital support.
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- Arctic Climate Change in Alaska. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
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- Professor Emeritus, Ecole Normale Supérieure De Lyon
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- Emeritus Faculty
- Professor Emeritus
Han Li Remediation of Scattered Light in NEAR-Shoemaker MSI Imager: A Study of Martian Debris Aprons. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
James Hebden Rayleigh Wave Propagation in Mid-Ocean Ridge Waveguides. Advisor: Seth Stein. Publication Reference - Hebden, J.S.and S. Stein (2009) "Time-dependent Seismic Hazard Maps for the New Madrid Seismic Zone and Charleston, South Carolina, Areas." Seismological Research Letters 80(1):12-20.
Job Titles:
- Processes and Hazards Using Statistical Methods. Advisor
Jerome B. Cruz Surface Charge Behavior and Surface Hydroxyl Characterization of Andulusite and Al 2 O 3/SiO 2 Mixtures in Aqueous Solutions at Room Temperature. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
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- Size Distribution of Intraplate Earthquakes. Advisor: Emile Okal
Laurel Childress received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2016. Her primary advisors at Northwestern were Professor Neal Blair and Professor Steve Jacobsen. After receiving her Ph.D., she began working as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). While working at WHOI, she conducted research in the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility with Valier Galy and Ann McNichol. Her postdoctoral research focused on the investigation of carbon preservation in turbidite deposits using Ramped Pyr-Ox. This unique instrument and technique allows for the collection of multiple radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope measurements from one sample at intervals along a ramped temperature profile.
Dr. Childress began working for the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in September 2017. At IODP Dr. Childress serves as an Expedition Project Manager and Staff Scientist providing scientific expertise, leadership, and advocacy for the implementation of IODP expeditions and science services. This includes facilitating and sailing on IODP expeditions, conducting independent IODP and non-IODP research, and contributing to the science engagement activities of IODP and Texas A&M University. For example, they recently hosted the "In Search of Earth's Secrets" Pop-Up Science Encounter for a training workshop before the exhibit moves to Martinsville, VA, New Brunswick, NJ, and New York City, NY in the coming year.
Dr. Childress' first expedition as Staff Scientist will be October 2018, Expedition 378: South Pacific Paleogene Climate, which will depart Lyttelton, NZ before completing a south Pacific coring transect, and will conclude in Papeete, Tahiti. She will be joined by NU EPS PhD student Gabriella Kitch during the expedition. Expedition 378 will take place on the JOIDES Resolution. The JOIDES Resolution is a riserless scientific drilling vessel that supports labs for sedimentology, petrology, microscopy, paleontology, paleomagnetism, petrophysics, stratigraphic correlation, downhole measurements, chemistry, microbiology, XRD, and underway geophysics. Dr. Childress previously sailed on the JOIDES on Expedition 341 while she was a Ph.D. student.
Job Titles:
- Earthquake Recurrence and Hazard Models. Advisor: Seth Stein
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- Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and ( by Courtesy ) Earth & Planetary Sciences
My research focuses on understanding how plant communities and their environments have influenced one another through Earth's history. This involves the study of plant ecology, paleoclimate, and climate-ecosystem dynamics. I investigate how the stable isotope ratios of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen found in plant tissue record a plant's environment in both modern and fossil ecosystems and how they correlate with other plant-based environmental proxies like leaf morphology. These relationships are then used to reconstruct ancient ecosystems in a variety of different places and time periods from the Cretaceous to the recent, which allows us to paint a more nuanced picture of the history of biota-climate dynamics.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Department Chair
Prof. Matthew Hurtgen's research is about marine sulfur bio-geochemistry of ancient oceans.
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- Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University
Maya Gomes is an Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. She uses the sulfur cycle as a window into exploring biogeochemical cycling and microbial ecology in both modern and ancient systems with the ultimate goal of evaluating environmental drivers of major Earth-life transitions. For example, she has used models of water column biogeochemistry in modern lakes to explore how isotope records provide information about environmental changes associated with Ocean Anoxic Events and other mass extinctions. Although much of her work is centered around exploring how modern systems can be used to explore environmental change in the past, her research also provides insight into how climate change will influence biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem resilience in future.
At Northwestern, Maya focused on biogeochemical cycling in low sulfate systems because marine sulfate levels were much lower than modern levels for most of Earth History. Her advisor, Matthew Hurtgen, encouraged her to work in both modern and ancient systems to probe important questions about how to use sulfur isotope geochemistry to extract paleoenvironmental information from the rock record. She also benefited from research and career insight from her committee members: Bradley Sageman, Neil Blair, Abe Lerman, Donna Jurdy, and Francesca McInerney.
After completing her Ph.D, she expanded her studies of sulfur isotope geochemistry to include oxygen isotopes in sulfate as a NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. Then, she became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Studies at Washington University, where she undertook studies of geochemical and morphological signatures in modern microbial mats to inform the interpretation of biosignatures in lithified microbial mats deposited before the dawn of animal life. Now a professor at Johns Hopkins, she is developing a research group in Comparative Geobiology, which is a multi-disciplinary approach to study how geochemical and morphological patterns in modern sedimentary systems capture information about ecological diversity, biological activity, and environmental conditions.
When not thinking about sulfur, sediment, and rocks, Maya enjoys cooking, dancing, the outdoors, and various needle crafts. She keeps in contact with many people from Northwestern EPS and appreciates all of the support from this dynamic community.
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- Adjunct Scholar
- Adjunct Scholar - Research Geophysicist at the Illinois State Geological Survey ( ISGS )
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- Professor, Joint Appointment in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Prof. Neal Blair's interest lies in the fate of organic matter and carbon cycling in modern environments.
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- Arctic Climate Change in Alaska. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
Niel Plummer, since the award of his PhD degree at Northwestern in 1972, has been a geochemical innovator and new-trail blazer par excellence. His doctoral dissertation, the several publications resulting from it, and subsequent work have defined a new standard for studying mineral-water reactions in the laboratory. Plummer's study of the reaction rates and dissolution products of the ubiquitously present mineral calcite in water was a seminal study, the results of which are cited to this day. After joining the US Geological Survey in 1974, Plummer's activities became focused on the important sets of geochemical processes that control the composition of ground waters flowing through the Earth's subsurface. Here, he developed a novel computational model of mineral-water geochemical interactions, based on chemical thermodynamic and hydrological data. The purpose of this very successful model was to estimate how ground water composition may change in the course of its flow through aquifers where the rock mineralogy changes. Numerous applications of this basic model and its later variants were made in the studies of ground waters by Niel Plummer and collaborators in many parts of North America, including such geologically diverse setting as the ground waters in New Mexico, Virginia, California, Wisconsin, Idaho, Florida, and Pennsylvania. These studies opened a new page in our understanding of evolution of ground-water systems and their contamination by human activities.
Since the mid-1990s, Niel Plummer's work took a different term. A number of human-made gaseous compounds have been identified in the atmosphere and shown to act as greenhouse gases, potentially affecting the climate. These are mostly several chlorofluorocarbon compounds (CFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride. Additionally, a wide range of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), released to the atmosphere by various industrial activities, are known to affect the ozone cycle in the lower atmosphere. Plummer's and his collaborators' work has been focused in the last 10 to 15 years on the identification of these rare gaseous compounds in ground waters in order to measure their ages and flow rates. The work is a combination of field sampling of ground waters, laboratory analyses using cutting-edge ultra-sensitive techniques, and theoretical modeling and interpretation. These are completely novel techniques making a new chapter in the study of ground waters that is being written to a great extent by Niel Plummer and his collaborators.
During his work at the US Geological Survey, Niel Plummer's contributions have been recognized by three awards of the US Department of Interior and two awards by external organizations: the O. E. Meinzer Award of the Geological Society of America, Hydrogeology Division, and Special Recognition Award of the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers, listed below.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Environmental Sciences Program, Assistant Chair, and Associate Professor of Instruction
Director of the Environmental Sciences Program, Assistant Chair, and Associate Professor of Instruction
Phone number: 847-491-7460
Office location: Tech F295/F296
patricia@earth.northwestern.edu
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- Candidate, NSF Graduate Research Fellow
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- Senior Research Scientist, EXXON ( Retired )
Peter Vail single-handedly revolutionized the interpretation of seismic data in oil exploration. He proved that reflections - lines on seismic sections- correlate with global sea level changes. Indeed, these sea level curves are now universally referred to as "Vail curves". Vail's research grew out of his work with Northwestern professors Larry Sloss and Bill Krumbein, from their ideas on sediment sequences on the North American continent.
In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious Penrose medal by the Geological Society of America. In his citation, Robert Mitchum (Northwestern, Ph.D. 1954) summarized:
"His early years in geophysics were very difficult times for Pete. The value of his work was not recognized, and he was ranked very low in geophysical technical appraisals. In addition, he was subject to ridicule and opposition from other geologists as well. In spite of this opposition, Pete persevered almost single-handedly in showing the relationship of seismic reflection patterns to chronostratigraphy. This was the 'Eureka!' event for Pete, because it showed that seismic data could be used for putting stratigraphy into a geologic time framework for mapping."
Peter Vail has played many important roles in industry, government, and academia. His numerous awards include the Sidney Powers Memorial Award of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the AAPG President's Award and Matson Award for best papers, an Individual Achievement Award from the Offshore Technology Conference, and also the Twenhofel Medal by SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). His extensive list of publications and the citations of this work attest to the fundamental significance of his research.
Prof. Magdalena Osburn's research interests focus on carbon and hydrogen isotope studies in lipids to study the habits of modern and ancient microbes, and to study past environment and hydrological balance from D/H ratios in lipids.
Rebecca Fischer received her B.A. from Northwestern University in 2009, double-majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Integrated Science. While an undergraduate at NU, Rebecca did high pressure experiments in Steve Jacobsen's laboratory. Rebecca earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2015, with a thesis entitled "Earth's accretion, core formation, and core composition". She then had an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the University of California Santa Cruz. In 2017, Rebecca began a faculty position at Harvard University, where she is currently the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Rebecca's research interests span mineral physics and planetary science. They include Earth's modern-day core and mantle compositions and mineralogy, the process of core-mantle differentiation on Earth and other terrestrial planets, and terrestrial planet accretion. She performs high-pressure, high-temperature experiments using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell to recreate conditions of Earth's lower mantle and core in the laboratory, and also performs numerical simulations. For example, she has studied the phase diagrams and equations of state of iron-rich alloys (candidate core materials) and silica, metal-silicate reactions at extreme conditions, and dynamics of terrestrial planet accretion in our Solar System. Back to Top
Job Titles:
- Instruction and Weinberg College Adviser
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- Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor and Director of Computing
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- Professor
- Wm. Deering Professor
Stefan Jensen completed an 8-month, 6,000 mile pedal bicycle trip from Mexico to Argentina in 2010. As a volunteer for a Chicago-based nonprofit, Reach the World, he wrote weekly social studies and science curricula based on the trip (including how volcanoes and canyons form, of course) for 3000+ underserved Chicago Public School students. Read the Take a Bike story.
He then spent the summer working as a field assistant and camp cook for Francesca McInerney's research group at their Bighorn Basin field camp.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Faculty Senator, Director of Graduate Recruitment
Job Titles:
- Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor and Director of Computing
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- Gazeteer of Mercurian Features. Advisor: Mark Robinson
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of Oceanography
Professor Bina serves on the Editorial Board of Progress in Earth and Planetary Science for the Japan Geoscience Union. He is a frequent visiting researcher in the Department of Geophysics at Charles University in Prague and serves on the International Advisory Board for the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Job Titles:
- Hydrology of Northern Cook County. Advisor: Patricia Beddows