News
8/20/20 - post-COVID status update
On March 21st, nearly exactly 5 months ago to the day we shutdown the laboratory due to the then emergent coronavirus pandemic. It swept over New York in dramatic fashion and in hindsight we are all thankful that everyone stayed healthy and responsible. The instruments were shutdown all the way to the vacuum pumps, which kept the source and analyzer volumes happy until we could start generating electrons again. Nearly two months ago, in mid-June, a skeleton crew returned to the lab to spin things back up; the mass specs came back online with few hiccups and therefore the decisions made (in haste) in the spring felt all the more justified. With a summer of analyses now under our belts, we wade cautiously into the fall semester with more measurements planned, manuscripts in preparation or submitted, and vigilance for conducting research under pandemic altered conditions...
Other important developments this spring and summer were Oliver Shipley's successful dissertation defense and a few proposals that finally stuck! Ollie is off to the University of New Mexico for a post-doc and various other members have their marching orders in hand from SBU, the ACS-PRF, and the NSF.
On a much lighter note, our favorite tri-state glass blower, Daryl Smith at the Yale University Department of Chemistry has put together a nice series of Youtube videos that detail glasswork and various other laboratory concerns. It's fun to see these sorts of resources come online as we are all pushed out of the classroom and laboratory - a silver lining!
2/25/20 - Late 2019-early 2020 laboratory updates
It's been a busy winter for the group... we've got too many updates to post on the web, but some highlights include:
Mae and Yang joining the group this fall as graduate students. Mae was awarded the departmental David E. King Field Fund to travel to Turkana with Greg earlier in the fall.
Deployment of some basic soil monitoring stations at TBI-Ileret and TBI-Turkwel for proxy validation.
Hosting Chinese colleagues Yongbo Peng (Nanjing/LSU), Hao Yan (Nanjing/LSU), and Meng Jin (South China Sea Institute of Oceanology).
Fieldwork in west Turkana with Troy Rasbury (SBU), Frank Sousa (OSU), and Elena Steponaitis (Tulane), and SBU students Mae and Kevin Hatton.
And strong progress making measurements!
Stay tuned for more frequent web updates :)
5/23/19 - First laboratory data published!
"Low and seasonally variable salinity in the Pennsylvanian equatorial Appalachian Basin" in Earth and Planetary Science Letters with Linda Ivany and her students Marie Y. Jimenez and Emily J. Judd.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X19302882
9/14/17 - Renovations complete
As the summer ended here in Stony Brook so to did the rehab/renovation of our stable isotope laboratory, and as with many new laboratories this space ended up incorporating several features that I had come to appreciate while at all of my previous institutions. I borrowed most heavily from my time as a student at JHU and a post-doc at Harvard. Those familiar with the previous laboratory of Passey-Levin and the Johnston and Pearson labs will no doubt see inherited designs in the below pictures. That said, we spent a lot of time independently thinking about economy, utility, and workflow (not to mention HVAC and other services) in what was essentially a 'blank slate' space. Now the real work begins... onto mass spectrometer installations (more on that VERY soon!) and outfitting for a variety of projects.
6/21/17 - Mid-renovation update
In the approximately one and a half months since the last update, the third floor of the Earth and Space Science Building has literally and figuratively been abuzz with electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and even, at times, a rookie junior faculty member tinkering away in the 'under renovation' space. In this case pictures are probably worth more than words, so I've arranged the following in chronological order (with dates in the alt text):
5/1/17 - Abated and ready
This past weekend ushered in the first step of the laboratory renovation process: asbestos abatement. After cleaning out the previous occupant's desks, computers, and the odd 80's era commuter bicycle, the space was ready for SBU plumbers, electricians, and carpenters to strip everything back to the bare bones. The abatement proceedings started just as I left the building on Friday evening, and I arrived Monday morning to this blankest of canvases:
1/17/17 - Welcome!
If you've made it this far, then you should already be able to tell that we're just spinning up here in Stony Brook. In the next several months the group is likely to grow, the laboratory will be transformed, and I'm working my hardest to produce 'deliverables': overdue manuscripts, new course content, submitted proposals, and more. Stay tuned to this feed for important updates and news of milestones reached!