New research frontiers bridging the gap between organic and inorganic activity at scales ranging from molecular to global and societal issues such as environmental geochemistry and global change have inspired the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia to target biogeochemistry as its path to a nationally recognized program. Recent hires in organic geochemistry, geomicrobiology, and paleoceanography were chosen to complement existing expertise in aqueous and stable isotope geochemistry, hydrogeology, sedimentology, oceanography, and paleontology. As a leader in the biogeochemistry group, I intend to address our most tangible need, more and better doctoral students, in the context of a multifaceted strategy to develop and promote our new agenda. I have defined a research program to support students in efforts to extrapolate exciting results from ongoing studies of modern anoxic marine basins to address fundamental questions in a classic ancient shale sequence, the Pennsylvanian cyclothems of mid-continent North America. Highlighting innovative approaches to isotope chemostratigraphy and the controls on carbon cycling, iron sulfide formation, and trace-metal partitioning across well-defined gradients in paleoredox will extend the implications of this study far beyond regional significance.
