Biogeosciences Working Group

Meet the Biogeosciences Working Group

Founders of biogeosciences.org
NOTE: This working group is no longer active.

Will Berelson Ph.D.
University of Southern California - Geochemistry
Research Interests: Biogeochemical cycles (modern and deep time), diagenesis and sediment geochemistry, layered microbial communities, oxygen uptake by microbes, methane/sulfate cycling in anoxic environments, biogenic mineral dissolution, trace metal cycling in sediments, paleoenvironmental proxies, tracers and in situ technology, coastal oceanography.
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Sherry Cady Ph.D.
Portland State University - Geomicrobiology
Research Interests:The interactions between microbes and their environment that result in biosignatures that become preserved in the geological record; development of instruments to study biosignature formation in-situ; application of microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to detect and characterize nanoscale biosignatures.
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Greg Cutter Ph.D. (Chair)
Old Dominion University - Chemical Oceanography/Biogeochemistry
Research Interests: Processes affecting trace element speciation and distributions in natural waters and sediments; air-sea transport and exchange of gases and trace elements; paleoceanographic tracers; analytical methods for aquatic chemistry; computer modeling of geochemical processes.
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Katrina Edwards Ph.D.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - Geomicrobiology
Research Interests:Geomicrobiology and microbial biogeochemistry. The role of microorganisms in mediating the rates and mechanisms of rock, mineral, and organic matter transformations.
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Anne Giblin Ph.D.
Marine Biology Laboratory - Biogeochemistry
Research Interests:Cycling of elements in the environment, especially the biogeochemistry of iron, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Much of my work has been focused in soils and sediments where I have examined element cycling under different conditions of oxidation and reduction. I have worked on topics such as the effects of increased sulfate deposition from acid rain on the sulfur cycle of lakes, the mobility of trace metals in salt marsh sediments, the controls on the availability of phosphorus in tundra soils, and the controls on denitrification in marine sediments.
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Rob Jackson Ph.D.
Duke University - Biogeochemistry and Terrestrial Ecology
Research Interests: Examines feedbacks between global change and the biosphere. Current projects in his lab include studies of the global carbon and water cycles, biosphere/atmosphere interactions, and vegetation change.
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Tim Lyons Ph.D.
Unversity of California, Riverside - Professor of Biogeochemistry in the Department of Earth Sciences
Research Interests: Coupled biogeochemical cycles of trace metals, sulfur and organic carbon in oxygen-deficient marine settings and reconstructions of Precambrian paleoenvironments using a range of trace element and stable isotope approaches. From a geologic standpoint, these studies speak to issues as critical as the progressive oxygenation of the earth's early ocean and atmosphere and, thus, provide the chemical context for the evolution of multicellular life.
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Karen McLaughlin Ph.D. (in progress)
Stanford University - Biogeochemistry
Research Interests:Marine Biogeochemical cycles and nutrient cycling.
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Bill Reeburgh Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine - Terrestial and Marine Biogeochemistry
Research Interests:Global cycles of biogeochemically important elements, methane biogeochemistry and organic carbon storage in high deposition rate marine sediments and anoxic marine basins, and high-latitude terrestrial environments in the global carbon and atmospheric methane budgets.
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Charles Rice Ph.D.
Kansas State University - Soil Microbiology
Research Interests: Studies basic mechanisms in nutrient cycling, organic matter dynamics, and microbial ecology as they apply to agricultural and prairie ecosystems and environmental problems.
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Past Members of the Biogeoscience Working Group

Ken Nealson Ph.D.(Past Member)
University of Southern California - Geobiology
Research Interests: Develops methods that are now being interfaced with the study of organisms in extreme environments, and with upcoming missions, both for in situ life detection and for analysis of samples returned from Mars in future missions.
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Sybil Seitzinger Ph.D.(Past Member)
Rutgers University - Biogeochemistry
Research Interests: The sources and transport of inorganic nutrients (N, C, P) in watersheds and their effect on aquatic ecosystems, especially at the coastal zone. The processes (i.e., natural and anthropogenic) that drive and influence elemental cycling (i.e., sources, transport, transformation and fate)
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Roger Summons Ph.D. (Past Member)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Geobiology
Research Interests: We study organic matter from microbes, environmental samples and rocks. Ancient rocks and oils contain a rich abundance of hidden information within, including molecular and isotopic signatures of the biota existing at the time the organic matter was formed. The goal of our research, then, is to extract and interpret these signals, in order to reconstruct ancient environments and understand how life evolved within them.
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Susan Trumbore Ph.D.(Past Member)
University of California, Irvine - Biogeochemistry
Research Interests: My research applies geochemical tracer techniques to study biosphere-atmosphere exchange of trace gases. Other research focuses on the processes determining the flux and isotopic composition of trace gas emissions from soils.
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