Clara Blättler's Research Group
About Us
We are a group of scientists dedicated to furthering our understanding of Earth's geochemistry and history. We work with samples of rocks, sediments, and fluids of wide-ranging ages and from various locations. These materials help us answer questions about the carbon cycle, ancient environments, and the processes that shape the Earth's surface. Explore our website to stay up to date on current projects, read up on previous research, and see how the lab is progressing!
News
(4/26/2024) Kly gave a presentation on his senior thesis research (advised by Preston) at the department's undergrad research Expo. Congratulations, Kly!
(3/14/2024) Clara gave a talk at the University of Toronto
(3/13/2024) Congratulations to Preston, whose paper on balanced and imbalanced geochemical sets is out in PNAS! UChicago wrote a news story about it.
(3/1/2024) Agustina Lencina is visiting us for a few months from Catamarca, Argentina as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Welcome!
(2/9/2024) Clara is back on land after IODP Expedition 401. Stay tuned for scientific results coming out in the future!
(12/11/2023) Clara has boarded the JOIDES Resolution for IODP Expedition 401! She will be at sea for the next 2 months analyzing sediment cores drilled from offshore Portugal, Spain, and Morocco to help understand the Messinian Salinity Crisis.
(12/3/2023) We've got several presentations at AGU next week! Keep an eye out for presentations by Chiza (poster PP11G-1219 on Monday), Kly (poster EP53D-1750 on Friday), and Preston (posters ED11C-0774 on Monday and B23G-2169 Tuesday)
(12/1/2023) Clara participated in a 2-day workshop on enhanced rock weathering (ERW) and ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), hosted by UChicago's new Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
(11/3/2023) Chiza is giving a talk at St. Olaf College in Minnesota about her boron isotope work on evaporites
(10/14/2023) Jordan is attending GSA, where he will be giving a poster on lingulid brachiopod geochemistry and a talk on a core from the early Triassic
(10/3/2023) Clara gave a talk about her work as part of the Skyline Talk series at the Consulate General of Switzerland
(9/30/2023) We had a great time participating in this year's South Side Science Festival!
(9/19/2923) We're getting ready to drive a car-ful of scientists up to Minneapolis for this year's Midwest Geobiology Symposium, where our summer undergrad student Andrew will be presenting a poster
(8/7/2023) Lauren is back from the field with a good collection of glauconite samples (despite numerous people telling her that there was no glauconite in the Belt - just shows that it's worth taking a look yourself)
(7/31/2023) Congratulations to Roger, whose paper on the sulfur isotopic signature of lucinid clam shells has been accepted for publication in Geology!
(7/21/2023) Lauren is headed out to the field to look at glauconite in the Cambrian Deadwood Fm and the Precambrian Belt Supergroup!
(6/27/2023) Preston and Kly have returned from field work in Oregon sampling river waters
(6/20/2023) Welcome to Mohammed Al-Musawi, who is visiting our lab for a couple of weeks to measure Mg isotope ratios in dolomites
(6/15/2023) Check out Chiza Mwinde's short presentation at the Smart Museum of Art about a different perspective on an old sculpture: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtesG3wAVSn/
(6/12/2023) Welcome to Surjyendu Bhattacharjee, who is visiting our lab for a couple of weeks to measure Mg isotope ratios in some carbonate samples
(5/29/2023) Congratulations to everyone who has given talks recently! Malu gave a great noon balloon seminar about her recent cruise, Chiza gave a department Expo talk on her exciting experimental results, and Preston presented ideas about geochemical cycling at the Chapman conference on hydrothermal circulation and seawater chemistry
(5/22/2023) Thanks to Mohammed Al-Musawi (Western Michigan University) for visiting virtually to share some of his work!
(5/1/2023) Malu has just returned from a cruise to the Galápagos, where she dove with Alvin and collected fossil corals (among other things). More info on the cruise can be found here: https://galapagosdeep2023.com/
(4/25/2023) Welcome to Rob Ulrich (UCLA) and Allegra Tashjian (Northwestern) who are visiting for a couple days to help prepare some of Rob's samples for Mg isotope analysis
(4/24/2023) Thanks to Ted Present and Surjyendu Bhattacharjee (Caltech) for visiting us virtually and sharing some of your work on magnesites. Looking forward to continuing the collaboration!
(4/3/2023) Thanks to Anna Waldeck for visiting us from Northwestern to share some of her work!
(3/4/2023) Chiza, Kalena, Vespera, and Clara participated in our department's Earth Day open house event for high-schoolers - see some photos below
(2/27/2023) A huge (belated) thanks and farewell to Roger, who recently left our group to start on the faculty of Purdue University. Congratulations and good luck!
(1/19/2023) Welcome to Malu Ferreira who is joining us as a postdoc!
(12/7/2022) We're looking forward to AGU in Chicago next week! Check out Roger's talk on Monday, Preston's posters on Monday and Tuesday, Jordan's poster on Wednesday, and Clara's poster on Thursday
Older News
(11/30/2022) Preston and Clara just returned from a sampling trip to the McCracken Core Library in Rolla, MO. Thanks to collaborators David, Jim, and Mikaela and to Missouri Geological Survey staff Cheryl and Gavin!
(10/4/2022) Clara was doing a bunch of traveling to give talks at Ohio State, ETH Zürich, and Boise State. It was great to meet students and other scientists and to share my work on glacial pore fluids. And in the meanwhile, the rest of the lab group went to the Midwest Geobiology Symposium!
(9/17/2022) We had so much fun sharing some of our work and showing off some cool rocks at the South Side Science Festival!
(8/22/2022) Welcome to Preston (Chamberlin + NSF post-doc) and Lauren (graduate student)! Glad to have you joining us this fall
(8/11/2022) Congratulations to Roger on his upcoming position at Purdue! We will miss you in 2023. See his website for more info on his new lab
(7/19/2022) Thanks to Brandon Mahan for visiting us these last two days so that we could share ideas about ion chromatography and applications of metal isotope analyses
(7/13/2022) A huge thanks and farewell to Dan, who is leaving our group to start graduate school in the fall. Good luck and keep in touch!
(7/11/2022) Clara delivered a talk (virtually) at Goldschmidt showing data on the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event from the FAR-DEEP cores of Fennoscandia
(6/15/2022) Congratulations to Chiza and Jordan for both passing their qualifying exams this term - on to candidacy and the next stage of their PhDs!
(6/14/2022) Thanks to Dan for getting us access to the Shedd aquarium for a group trip!
(6/10/2022) Jordan just got back from a couple weeks of fieldwork in some VERY HOT (but also beautiful, and geologically rich) parts of CA, NV, and UT
(5/10/2022) Welcome to Fernando Gomez from CICTERRA and the University of Córdoba, Argentina, who will be visiting us in Chicago through June!
(4/25/2022) Congratulations to Roger on his paper being accepted in GCA! It shows how sulfur isotope ratios in carbonates are affected by carbonate diagenesis, and how we can use other isotopic proxies in combination with sedimentology/petrography to understand these processes
(4/19/2022) Thanks to James Busch for joining our group meeting and sharing his work on the Shuram excursion
(3/29/2022) Thanks to Ted Present and Surjyendu Bhattacharjee for joining our group meeting and sharing their work and ideas about magnesite formation
(3/8/2022) We learned this evening that the entire lab group is VERY bad at bowling...
(2/28/2022) Clara just got back from a trip to some high-altitude hypersaline and alkaline lakes in the Puna region of Argentina - included some amazing microbial carbonates and volcanic landscapes (and also some adorable vicuñas and flamingos!)
(2/11/2022) Roger and Clara just wrapped up another successful trip to SSRL to learn more about sulfur and iron speciation in Paleoproterozoic rocks
(12/26/2021) Congratulations to Dan and Roger on our paper coming out in RCM detailing our latest laboratory methods: Adapting automated instrumentation for high-throughput calcium isotope measurements by MC-ICP-MS
(12/20/2021) Congratulations to Anna Waldeck and Haley Olson on their paper coming out in EPSL (with contributions from Clara): Calibrating the triple oxygen isotope composition of evaporite minerals as a proxy for marine sulfate
(12/14/2021) Roger gave a great AGU talk about his work on the Permian Capitan Reef!
(11/16/2021) Thanks to Pallabi Basu for joining our group meeting and sharing her work on the Vindhyan Basin
(11/15/2021) Roger and Clara wrapped up a successful trip to the SSRL synchrotron to investigate sulfur and iron speciation in Paleoproterozoic rocks from Fennoscandia (with lots of help from Jocelyn Richardson and Sam Webb!)
(10/12/2021) Thanks to Kristian Olson for joining our group meeting and sharing his work on Searles Lake
(10/5/2021) Thanks to Mebrahtu Weldeghebriel for joining our group meeting and sharing his work on halite fluid inclusions
(10/1/2021) Roger is giving a talk at Purdue University about sulfur isotopes in pyrite and carbonate
(9/28/2021) Thanks to Cameron Manche for joining our group meeting and sharing his work on dolomite stoichiometry
(9/25/2021) Excited to be at the Midwest Geobiology Symposium at IUPUI! And well done, Roger, for a great talk
(9/10/2021) Clara is grateful to receive the Nanne Weber Early Career Award from AGU's Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Section!
(9/7/2021) Thanks to Kelsey Lamothe for joining our group meeting and updating us on her project!
(7/9/2021) Wrapped up Goldschmidt with some successful presentations (but sadly, no French coffee or croissants)
(7/2/2021) Roger and Clara are headed to virtual France next week to participate in the Goldschmidt conference! Check out our presentations on Monday, Thursday, and Friday.
(6/7/2021) The academic year is over and summer is here!
(5/24/2021) Roger and Dan are at the Florida Geological Survey in Tallahassee this week to sample some core material
(4/27/2021) Thanks to Gabriella Kitch for joining our group meeting and sharing her work on the PETM
(4/6/2021) Thanks to Anne Gothmann for joining our group meeting and sharing her work and ideas about corals
(3/2/2021) Thanks to Preston Kemeny for joining our group meeting and sharing his work
(2/23/2021) Thanks to Sajjad Akam for joining our group meeting and sharing his work
(1/26/2021) Frozen lingulids are moving into our lab!
(12/16/2020) Clara will be giving a webinar for Seds Online on 4pm UK time (10am Chicago time) - link available here
(12/9/2020) Roger will be discussing work from his PhD at AGU at 9pm Central Time: Sedimentary Marcasite: a Proxy for Ocean Acidification?
(12/2/2020) We affirm that we embrace efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in our scientific community, and that we consider these to be an essential part of our work and responsibilities
(11/19/2020) Clara participated in the PSD's Roundtable Talks on these important topics: "Beyond Cosmetic Inclusion", "Engaging in Inclusive Conversations - Suggested Tools", and "So Exactly what is Anti-Racism?"
(10/29/2020) Clara is "attending" GSA online, giving an invited talk: "Calcium isotope ratios show spatial patterns of open-system marine diagenesis in Maldives carbonate sediments"
(10/15/2020) Roger measured our first publication-quality Mg isotope data on unknown geological samples - congratulations!
(9/29/2020) The academic year 2020-2021 starts today. A very warm welcome to our new graduate students, Chiza and Jordan!
(8/4/2020) Update: we have resumed limited lab activities and are excited to restart projects!
(6/10/2020) We are taking time today to participate in #ShutDownSTEM (https://www.shutdownstem.com/about) and work towards eliminating racism in academic science.
(4/27/2020) Clara will be giving a remote seminar at the University of Southern California
(4/15/2020) Explore the Physical Sciences Division's digital book celebrating the achievements and narratives of 30 women who are shaping the fields of STEM at the University of Chicago, including our very own Clara!
(3/23/2020) Lab activities are temporarily suspended as we all stay at home to limit the spread of COVID-19. Be safe.
(1/29/2020) Hosting visitor Kelsey Lamothe (University of Melbourne) to collaborate on a project about carbonate diagenesis!
(1/13/2020) Excited to share news about our lab at the Gordon Research Conference on Geobiology in Galveston, TX.
(12/6/2019) Clara will give a seminar at the University of Washington School of Oceanography.
(11/13/2019) The 2+ week-long installation of our Neptune XT MC-ICP-MS is finished and the instrument is ready to generate data!
(11/12/2019) Clara will give the EPSS department colloquium at UCLA.
(11/4/2019) Our first instrument, an automated Ion Chomatograph, has been installed and is now operational!
(10/21/2019) Lab renovations are concluded, and the spaces are ready for use! Now time for instrument installations...
(10/25/2019) Roger Bryant will give the EPS departmental seminar at Northwestern University.
(10/11/2019) Come see Kalena Genesis present her summer research at the UCISTEM Undergraduate Research Symposium.
(9/30/2019) Just a few weeks until the new lab spaces in Hinds are ready for use...
(9/27/2019) Congratulations to Roger Bryant on delivering a seminar on his research at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology!
(9/16/2019) Welcome to Dan Razionale, who will help keep everything in the lab running well!