New Haven, Conn. -- Robert A. Berner, the Alan M. Bateman Professor of Geology and Geophysics, a pioneer in the study of the geologic history of atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide, is being honored with a two-day symposium December 8 and 9 on the occasion of his retirement.
The symposium "Changes on Earth: Processes and Records" will be held in 123 Kline Geology Laboratories at 210 Whitney Ave. with talks from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days. It is free and open to the public. The speakers will include many notables of geochemistry, global climate analysis and paleobiology. Among them will be past students and collaborators of Berner. A schedule of all talks is online at http://www.yale.edu/opa/media/pdf/Berner_Symposium_rev01.pdf. For further information contact Ernestine Jones at 203-432-3161.
Sections of the symposium on Friday titled "Geochemistry Beneath the Waves" and "Stuck in the Mud," will cover work focusing on the geochemistry of the ocean, ocean floor and geomicrobiology. On Saturday the sessions will be "Playing in the Dirt" and "Evolving Ocean and Air" and focus on the alterations at Earths surface and the impact of atmospheric carbon dioxide on climate and oxygen on the evolution of life.
Widely known for his modeling of the carbon and sulfur cycles, he has calculated the evolution of atmospheric CO2 and O2 over the past 500 million years, or the Phanerozoic era, the time of abundant paleontologic record in rocks on Earth. These studies have encompassed the effect of CO2 on climate and the atmospheric greenhouse effect, and the effect of changing O2 on animal evolution.
Among the topics of his current research, Berner studies the effects of weathering, the role that plants play in the breakdown of rock, and the resulting effect on the g
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Contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel
janet.emanuel@yale.edu
203-432-2157
Yale University
5-Dec-2006