People

Brad Sageman, Principle Investigator

A link to Brad’s personal webpage is here. This site includes music and art from the Sageman family.

CURRENT PhD. ADVISEES

 

Luca Podrecca, PhD. Candidate

Luca joined the department in fall 2018 after completing his M.S. degree at Rutgers and he has been working on the application of sulfur isotope data to the reconstruction of sea-level dynamics in the Quaternary of a U.K. loch and the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior Basin. He recently took on a new project focused on the Aptian OAE1a event. His home page can be found here.

 

FORMER PhD. and POST DOCTORAL ADVISEES

Matthew Jones, PhD. graduate.

Matt’s PhD. research included isotope chemostratigraphy and astrochronology of orbitally forced lacustrine deposits of the Songliao basin, north-eastern China, Turonian deposits of the Demerara Rise section and the Western Interior U.S., and Cenomanian-Turonian strata of the SH#1 core from southern Utah. He defended his PhD. thesis in 2018, joined Sierra Petersen’s research group (U Michigan-Ann Arbor) to pursue clumped isotope paleotemperature work, and contunued this in a fellowship with Brian Huber at the Smithsonian (Washington D.C.). He recently accepted a position with the USGS in Reston, VA and will move there in 2023. Matt’s most recent webpage is here.

 

Jiuyuan Wang, PhD. graduate.

Jiuyuan worked on a new suite of geochemical tools to study changes in paleo-ocean chemistry during major events in Earth history. These include δ44Ca, 87Sr/86Sr, and δ88/86Sr measurements, which together offer a more comprehensive means to evaluate drivers of chemical changes (i.e., changes in chemical fluxes from weathering, hydrothermal inputs, carbonate burial, or carbonate dissolution due to ocean acidification following massive CO2 release events). His study interval included the Permo-Triassic extinction interval, Neoproterozoic cap carbonates, and Cretaceous OAE’s. Jiuyuan defended his PhD. thesis in 2020 and moved to New Haven, CT where he is an Agouron postdoctoral fellow working with Prof.s Lidya Tarhan and Noah Planavsky. Visit Jiuyuan’s new webpage here.

 

Dr. Ben Linzmeier

Ben completed his PhD. work with Shanan Peters and John Valley at UW-Madison in August 2017 and joined our department as an Ubben Program post-doctoral scholar. Ben’s PhD. work, which focused on high-resolution stable isotopic analysis of molluscan shell material to interrogate life habits and paleoenvironmental conditions, prepared him well for the paleo-ocean acidification project he is pursuing here in collaboration with Andy Jacobson, Matt Hurtgen and myself. You can find more info about Ben’s current position and work here.

 

Dr. Anna Waldeck

Anna spent almost two years with us working on the Ca/Sr isotope multi-proxy and analyzed samples from Cretaceous OAE’s and stage boundaries marked by significant biotic turnover among marine calicifiers. She recently accepted a research position at Brown University and relocated to Rhode Island. Her contact information can be found here.

 

 

 

Dr. Young Ji Joo

PhD. Thesis: Late Cretaceous Carbon Isotope Chemostratigraphy and Analysis of Perturbations in Global Carbon and Sulfur Biogeochemical Cycles (2012).
Current Position:  Assistant Professor, Pukyong National University.

Dr. Jason Flaum

PhD. Thesis: Investigation of Phosphorus Cycle Dynamics Associated with Organic Carbon Vurial in Modern (North Pacific) and Ancient (Devonian and Cretaceous) Marine Systems : Strengths and Limitations of Sequentially Extracted (SEDEX) Phosphorus Data. (2008).
Current Position: Research sedimentologist, USGS-Denver.

Dr. Stephen Meyers

Ph.D. Thesis: Integrated Cyclostratigraphy and Biogeochemistry of the Cenomanian/ Turonian Boundary Interval, Western Interior Basin, North America (2003).
Current Position: Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Robert Locklair

PhD. Thesis:  Causes and Consequences of Marine Carbon Burial: Examples from the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation and the Permian Brushy Canyon Formation. (2007)
Current Position: Geoscientist, Chevron Inc.

Dr. Adam Murphy

PhD. Thesis:  Physical and biogeochemical mechanisms of black shale deposition, and their implications for ecological and evolutionary change in the Devonian Appalachian Basin. (2000)
Current Position: Instructor, University of Phoenix

CO-ADVISED

Dr. Maya Gomes

PhD. Thesis:  Modern and Ancient Studies of Sulfur Isotope Cycling in Low-Sulfate Systems. (2014)
Advisors: Hurtgen and Sageman
Current Position: Assistant Professor, John Hopkin’s University

Dr. Allie Baczynski

PhD. Thesis:  Evaluating Carbon Cycle Dynamics and Hydrologic Change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Bighorn  Basin, Wyoming. (2014)
Advisors: McInerney and Sageman
Current Position: post doctoral research associate, Penn State University

Dr. Rosemary Bush

PhD. Thesis:  Leaf Wax n-Alkanes as Paleoclimate Proxies: Calibrations in Modern Plants and Applications in Ancient Ecosystems. (2014)
Advisors: McInerney and Sageman
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Instruction/College Advisor, Northwestern University

Dr. Rich Barclay

PhD. Thesis: Testing the driving mechanisms for Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (94Ma) using pCO2 estimates and carbon isotopes Derived From Fossil Plant Material In The Dakota Formation Of Southwestern Utah. (2011)
Advisors: Sageman and McElwain
Current Position: research scientist, National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)

Dr. Derek Adams

PhD. Thesis:  Biogeochemical Consequences of Low Sulfate Oceans:  A Study of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2. (2011)
Advisors: Hurtgen and Sageman
Current Position:  Co-founder, EarthBridge Energy LLC.

Dr. Joniell Borges

PhD. Thesis:  Continental Weathering Products: Clay Mineral Surfaces as Sinks for Organic Carbon in Marine Environments; Chemistry and Petrography of Bed Sediments from Large Rivers–Provenance and Chemical Weathering. (2007)
Advisors: Sageman and Huh
Current Position: Geoscientist, Chevron Inc.

Dr. Jiří Laurin

PhD. Thesis: Effects of relative sea-level fluctuations and other controls in linked nearshore and hemipelagic depositional settings; examples from the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin and the U.S. Western Interior. (2003)

Fulbright Scholar and visiting PhD. student, 2001
Advisors: Ulicny and Sageman
Current Position: Research Scientist, Czech Academy of Science

Dr. Josef Werne

PhD. Thesis: A Geochemical Evaluation of Depositional Controls and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions in Organic-Rich Sediment Deposits: Evidence from the Modern Cariaco Bason, Venezuela, and Applications to the Devonian Appalachian Basin.  (2000)

Advisors: Hollander and Sageman
Current Position:  Professor, University of Pittsburg

FORMER UNDERGRADUATE ADVISEES

Jordan Todes

Senior Honors Thesis: Seismic and geochemical studies of mantle and paleoenvironmental structure: perspectives from subduction zones and the Western Interior Basin (2018)
Current position: PhD. candidate, University of Chicago

Caroline Schuette

Senior Honors Thesis: Isotopic analyses of inoceramid shells as evidence for the Plenus Cold Event and an investigation of nacre tablet thickness as a proxy for temperature (2018)
Last known position: Research Assistant, Alexander Center for Population Biology, Lincoln Park Zoo

Dr. Tyler Kukla

Senior Honors Thesis: A tale of two CIEs: An isotopic and paleogeographic comparison between the Mid Cenomanian Event and Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (2016)
Current position: Post doctoral scholar, Colorado State University

Dr. Jennifer Mills

Senior Honors Thesis: Sulfur cycle dynamics during the early Aptian OAE1a: Implications for the mechanisms driving Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Events (OAEs). (2013) Marshall Scholar, UK 2013-15
Current position: PhD. graduate, UC-Berekley; Research Scientist, Hierloom Carbon (ARPA-E)

Dr. Allegra Mayer

Senior Honors Thesis: Geochemical evidence for variable redox conditions in the late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. (2013) DAAD Scholar, Germany 2013-14
Current position:  PhD. candidate, UC-Berekely

Robin Saywitz

Senior Honors Thesis: Analyzing Colombian Rocks From the Cretaceous Period for a Milankovitch Beat (2013)
Current position: PhD. graduate Political Science, AUG 2022, Texas A & M University

Colin Carney

Senior Honors Thesis: Phosphorous systematics of the Late Devonian Kellwasser events.
Current Position: Assistant Specialist, Stable Isotopes, UC Santa Cruz

Petra Pancoskova

Senior Honors Thesis: Spectral Analysis of Orbitally Forced Sediments Using Measured Sections and Photographic Images. (2002)