BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Paleoceanography Frontier: 21st Century Technologies and Novel
  Questions
DTSTART:20150303T161500
DTEND:20150303T171500
DTSTAMP:20260408T105518Z
UID:7e41f2f455a480475fe6ca415f450faaacfb5fd47ba17a9978441956
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Howard Spero\, Director\, Stable Isotope Laboratory\, Depar
 tment of Earth & Planetary Sciences\, University of California Davis (USA)
 \nAbstract:\nIn the mid 1950’s\, Cesare Emiliani published landmark pape
 rs on the use of oxygen isotopes to reconstruct past climate variations fr
 om fossil foraminifera shells. Nearly 60 years later\, the oxygen isotope 
 technique is still one of the most important tools in the paleoceanographe
 rs’ arsenal.  In recent years\, new geochemical proxies and emerging te
 chnologies have been combined to explore novel paleoclimatic questions tha
 t were only dreamed of during Emiliani’s graduate years at the Universit
 y of Chicago. In this presentation I will discuss how the application of n
 ew technologies such as laser ablation ICP-MS\, SIMS and nanoSIMS can be u
 sed to address old and new paleoceanographic problems. I will present data
  from laboratory experiments with living planktonic foraminifera that have
  allowed us to calibrate these proxies and reduce the spatial resolution o
 f geochemical analyses to the micron and sub-micron level. These data conf
 irm many of the fundamental geochemical relationships used by researchers 
 to reconstruct ocean temperatures and water geochemistry from the fossil r
 ecord. When individual foraminifera from a fossil assemblage are analyzed 
 using LA-ICP-MS and coupled to oxygen isotope measurements from standard i
 sotope ratios mass spectrometry\, we are able to extract novel information
  from the fossil record that was not previously possible.Short biography:\
 nAfter obtaining his PhD in Biology at the University of California Santa 
 Barbara in 1986\, Dr. Howard Spero joined the faculty of the Department of
  Earth and Planetary Sciences at University of California Davis in 1990. D
 r. Spero has served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundati
 on (2006-08)\, Department Chair (2010-12) and is a Humboldt Research Award
  Recipient and Fellow of the American Geophysical Union\, Geological Socie
 ty of America and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr.
  Spero’s research focuses on the development\, calibration and applicati
 on of novel geochemical proxies for recontructing climate change throughou
 t earth history. His research combines experiments with living and fossil 
 planktonic foraminifera over the past 250\,000 years.
LOCATION:GR A3 31 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2031
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR