Research

*Palynology: This falls into two categories:

    1. Studies of the palynomorphs (spores, pollen, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, and other organic-walled microfossils) in sediments and sedimentary rocks for biostratigraphic, paleoecological, paleoclimatic and other interpretations.

    2. Palynofacies analysis involving the study of dispersed organic matter (palynodebris) in sediments and sedimentary rocks, and integrating them with other criteria (e.g., organic geochemistry) for paleoenvironmental and sequence stratigraphic interpretations.

* Sedimentology: Grain size and lithofacies analyses, also applied for sequence stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

* Geographic areas of study

    1. Cretaceous-Neogene of southeastern Nigeria (northern Niger Delta) and Colombia (South America)

    2. Eocene-Miocene of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Blake Bahama Plateau

    3. Cambro-Ordovician and Cretaceous-Paleogene of southeast Missouri

    4. Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana Transform Basin, offshore West Africa (Cretaceous-Pleistocene; ODP Leg 159)

    5. The middle Cretaceous transgressive-regressive sequences in the U.S. Western Interior (Texas, Oklahoma panhandle, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana)

    6. Offshore Namibia and South Africa: a) Late Cretaceous-Pleistocene coastal and nearshore sediments; b) Neogene paleoceanography of the Middle Cape Basin (ODP Leg 175)

    7. Pleistocene to Recent sediments in the Grand Canyon

    8. Modern acidic and neutral hypersaline lakes of Western Australia and Victoria, Australia (integrated microbiology, geochemistry and palynology of extreme environments)

    9. Cenomanian-Turonian of the North Western Desert, Egypt

    10. The evolution of extremely acid lakes and groundwaters in Western Australia

    11. Stratigraphy and geochronology of suspected impact structures in Missouri

    12. Holocene paleoecology and paleoclimatic reconstruction of Lake Izabal, Guatemala

* Major Funding Sources

National Science Foundation

American Chemical Society - Petroleum Research Fund

U.S. Science Support Program

University of Missouri Research Board

Josephine Husband Radcliffe Endowment to Missouri S&T

Private corporations