Kärt, a PhD student at the Norwegian Geological Survey/UiT The Arctic University of Norway successfully defends her doctoral thesis. Kärt worked closely with Aivo Lepland and her thesis contributed to an improved understanding of Paleoproterozoic Earth history and the relative role of global vs. local controls on stratigraphic isotopic records. Congrats, Kârt!

Just back from a successful trip to Chicago for the 7th annual Midwest Geobiology Symposium at Northwestern University. 13 people from WashU attended, including representatives from Fike, Bradley, Konecky, and Catalano labs, presenting posters and fantastic talks by Jocelyn Richardson, Roger Bryant, and Scott Beeler.

Looking forward to 2019 when MWGB returns to its origins at WashU!

It is unfortunately time to say goodbye to our postdoctoral fellow Morgan Reed, who has began her job as an Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara. We wish her all the luck in her new position! [And hope she comes back to visit often!

Dr. Morgan Reed (UC Santa Barbara), Fike, and co-authors publish results (Raven et al. 2018, Nature Communications) highlighting the potential role of organic matter preservation in contributing to the increased organic matter burial preserved during the Cretaceous OAE 2.

This fall we have a graduate student joining the lab: Seth Wood, a recent graduate from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Goldschmidt wrapped up this weekend, including great talks by graduate student Roger Bryant and Dr. Virgil Pasquier, sharing their respective insights on sulfur cycling and the role of depositional conditions based on micro-scale δ³⁴S (Roger) and Δ³³S (Virgil) data from pyrites.

This summer we hosted two students (Preston Willis and David Yang) as part of the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program, which provides students entering their senior year of high school an opportunity to gain experience within a laboratory research setting. Preston and David were fantastic and contributed to developing protocols for analyzing organic sulfur in marine sediments and comparing it to other S-containing phases. Looking forward to hosting next year’s STARS students.

Fike and graduate student Jocelyn Richardson head to Estonia to participate in a short course (26 June – 1 July, 2018) on isotope records in Earth history.

The 2nd Geobiology Gordon Research Conference took place from Jan 26 – 31, 2018 in lovely Galveston, TX.  The conference brought together ~130 geobiologists from around the world.

Prof. Fike gave a talk on the depositional controls on pyrite isotopic composition in modern sediments and the rock record, while lab alumna Dr. Catherine Rose (faculty at St Andrews) gave a talk on carbonate-associated sulfate.    Grad students Jocelyn Richardson and Roger Bryant gave outstanding posters!

We look forward to the return to Galveston for Geobiology 2020!

Graduate student Roger Bryant publishes his first paper (Bryant et al. Applied Spectroscopy), demonstrating the power of Raman spectroscopy for distinguishing differences in pyrite morphology.  The research points the way toward improving our ability to reconstruct the conditions under which pyrites form in natural marine sediments.  Onward!