Colloquium Schedule

Department Members, University of Maryland - College Park

September 4, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

At this, the first colloquium of the 2026-2027 Academic Year, members of the newly named Department of Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (GEPS) will get to know each other, their wide range of expertises, and their research interests through a series of fun activities.

TBD

September 18, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Click here if you would like to meet with the speaker.

Deb Jaisi, University of Delaware

September 25, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Marcin Chwała, Wrocław University of Science and Technology and University of Maryland - College Park

October 23, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Cecilia Sanders, University of Maryland - College Park

October 30, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Apatites (Ca-phosphate group minerals) that form at low temperatures through the assembly of Ca ions and phosphate ions dissolved in water can incorporate oxygen-sensitive trace elements into their mineral structure in a way that is highly resistant to resetting even over hundreds of millions of years. That means, potentially, that apatite biominerals (bones, teeth, shells), chemical sediments (ooids, peloids), and early-forming cements and intraclasts in shallowly-buried pockets of sediment pore fluid can all record information about gradients in oxygen depletion and metal enrichment, which in turn can inform our understanding of how living and non-living components of past environments were interacting and cycling nutrients. However, rocks formed from these low-temp "bio-mediated" and "biomineralized" apatite phases often contain bits and pieces that formed in different settings, reworked and redeposited many times over. Non-destructive, high spatial resolution methods like Raman and fluorescence micro-spectroscopy, can help us distinguish these bits and pieces and unpack their formation histories in minute detail. Here, I'll present the application of these methods to a range of different apatite minerals to demonstrate their efficacy for distinguishing apatite of known oxic and anoxic origins. Then, I'll turn to apatites with unknown and more complex paleoredox histories and discuss the implications for the origins and drivers of phosphate mineralization therein. Finally, I'll discuss some open research questions to which I am applying these methods now and in the near future.

Ingrid Romero, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

November 13, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Gabriella Weiss, UMBC and NASA GSFC

November 20, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Lee Kump, Pennsylvania State University

December 18, 2026 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Jessica Warren, University of Delaware

February 5, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Dawn Sumner, University of California, Davis

February 12, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Tanja Bosak, Massachussetts Institute of Technology

February 19, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Scott Lakeram, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

March 12, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Kaushik Mitra, University of Texas, San Antonio

April 2, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Rachel Laker, Hanover College

April 9, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Clara Chan, University of Delaware

April 16, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

Robert Hazen, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory

April 23, 2027 at 11:00 am (ESJ 1215)

The coordinator for the Colloquium Series is Dr. Cecilia Sanders.