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Professor Robert J. Poreda Ph.D. University of California, San Diego 1983 |
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227 Hutchison Hall poreda@earth.rochester.edu |
Professor Poreda has spent the past 25 years researching the noble gas signature in the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, crust and mantle. He graduated from Yale University in 1976 with a degree in geology and continued his graduate education at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (UC San Diego), completing his Ph.D in 1983 on the isotopic composition of noble gases in volcanic systems. At the University of Rochester since 1987, he has established a world class noble gas laboratory, devoted to understanding the processes that shape our planet. Publishing over eighty papers on topics that range from the degassing of the earth’s interior to the evolution of the Antarctic Dry Valley lakes, his research has always focused on novel applications of noble gases to problems in the earth sciences. Funding from the National Science Foundation (Ocean and Earth Sciences), NASA and the Department of Energy have provided the means to continue an active and diverse research program. A recent program of study into the ability of fullerenes to encapsulate noble gases during their formation has led to discoveries that link meteorite impacts, major mass extinction and flood basalt volcanism. Ultimately, this research may provide evidence for the origin of our own atmosphere and the genesis of complex organic material, the building blocks of life, on the surface of the early earth. |
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