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ROBERT
ANDERSON (2005)
Dr.
Robert F. Anderson of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia
University, for his innovative contributions in the fields of biochemical
cycles, ocean sedimentation and climate variability, through his
development and use of pioneering radioisotope tracers and his scientific
leadership in multidisciplinary programs.
Dr.
Anderson is a Senior Scholar and the Associate Director for Geochemistry
at the Lamont-Doherty Observatory in Palisades, New York, and an Adjunct
Professor of Columbia University. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry /
Oceanography from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in
Oceanography from the Joint Program of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Anderson has
recently received the Director's Award for Research Excellence and the
Annual Mentoring Award from the Lamont-Doherty Observatory.
Dr.
Anderson has done pioneering work in the use of several radioisotopes for
understanding ocean biogeochemical cycles and sedimentary processes, and
for inferring their role in past climate variability in particular. Using
uranium series and other isotopes, he established past particle-scavenging
rates and processes in the ocean, and used this information to reconstruct
how the rain of biogenic material to the seabed has varied with climate
change. He pioneered the use of uranium as a tracer for the level of
anoxia in marine sediments, and has used its concentrations in historical
sediments to infer the ocean's reduction-oxidation state and estimate
biological productivity during past climate states. His work has shown
that biological productivity in the Southern Ocean during the last glacial
maximum was much higher than present-day pelagic productivity, and has led
to important discoveries about the role of productivity changes in
mediating atmospheric CO2 levels. Dr. Anderson has been highly
influential in mentoring young scientists, leading the Joint Global Ocean
Flux Study in the Southern Ocean, and now leading the planning of
GEOTRACES, an international effort to determine the marine biogeochemical
cycles of trace elements and their isotopes on a global scale.
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