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As part of the College’s new Interdisciplinary Seminar Series in the Life Sciences, marine geologist Rebecca S. Robinson will discuss the role nitrogen plays in charting the history of the ocean, noon Monday, Feb. 26 in HugelScienceCenter room 103.
Robinson, an assistant research professor at The University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, will present “Lessons from the Oceans of the Last Ice Age: Nutrients and Biology at the Ice Edge.”
According to Robinson, nitrogen is a nutrient that is essential to life and has the potential to limit biological productivity in large regions of the oceans. At the same time, biological processes are largely responsible for determining the oceanic nitrogen inventory.
The seminar will examine the biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen and important linkages between ocean biology and ocean chemistry in the modern and ancient ocean.
Robinson received a Ph.D. in marine geology and geochemistry from the University of Michigan and worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at PrincetonUniversity’s Environmental Institute prior to her appointment at URI. Her stable isotope laboratory focuses on the study of biologically important elements, with an emphasis on the marine nitrogen cycle.
The Interdisciplinary Seminar Series in the Life Sciences has come about through the efforts of nine professors across six academic departments to help the Lafayette community gain a better understanding of the fundamental principles of research in biology, chemistry, engineering, and environmental science.
The series, which is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, will engage the campus community with current research topics in the life sciences and provide a venue for professional development in the life sciences for all Lafayette faculty through new research relationships.
There are three focus areas for the seminar series: biomedicine and bioengineering, biochemistry and biotechnology, and biodiversity and environmental science. The series will run through spring 2008. Upcoming speakers and dates will be announced as they are added to the lineup.
As well as lecturing, invited speakers will meet with interested students and faculty. In these meetings, students will have the opportunity to discuss the science being presented and gain alternative perspectives on future careers in the field. Faculty will also have the opportunity to show the speakers first hand the research they and their students are doing here at Lafayette.
The core organizing committee consists of Jennifer S. Rossmann, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Patricia A. Darcy, assistant professor of chemical engineering; Steven E. Mylon, assistant professor of chemistry; and James K. Ferri, assistant professor of chemical engineering.