I'm a PhD candidate in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech and a Garen Graduate Fellow, working with Professors John Eiler and Woodward Fischer.
I love exploring nature through the lens of stable isotopes, from the molecular to the global scale. I'm deeply interested in the co-evolution of the early biosphere and Earth's chemistry. These interests drive my research, where I seek to uncover processes and mechanisms that shape our planet's biogeochemical systems, both past and present.
Currently working on position-specific carbon isotope analysis of amino acids
M.Sc. Thesis, advised by Prof. Orit Sivan
Here are the papers about methane production and consumption!
Lotem, N., Mueller, E.P., Leadbetter, J.R., Kitchen, N., Halevy, I., & Eiler, J.M. (in review). Equilibrium and non-equilibrium clumped isotope signatures in microbially-produced H2.
Lotem, N., Rasmussen, B., Zi, J. W., Zeichner, S. S., Present, T. M., Bar-On, Y. M., & Fischer, W. W. (2025). Reconciling Archean organic-rich mudrocks with low primary productivity before the Great Oxygenation Event. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(2), e2417673121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2417673121
Hochscheid, F., Turner, A.C., Lotem, N., Bill, M., & Stolper, D.A. (2025). Experimental determination of hydrogen isotopic equilibrium in the system H2O(l)-H2(g) from 3 to 90 °C. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 394, 368-382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2025.02.029
Zeichner, S. S., Fischer, W. W., Lotem, N., Moore, K. R., Goldford, J. E., & Eiler, J. M. (2024). The Carbon Isotopic Composition of Archean Kerogen and Its Resilience Through the Rock Cycle. American Journal of Science, 324, 8. https://doi.org/10.2475/001c.116058
Lotem, N., *Pellerin, A., Walter Anthony, K., Gafni, A., Boyko, V., & Sivan, O. (2023). Anaerobic oxidation of methane does not attenuate methane emissions from thermokarst lakes. Limnology and Oceanography, 68(6), 1316-1330. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12349
Pellerin, A., *Lotem, N., Walter Anthony, K., Eliani Russak, E., Hasson, N., Røy, H., Chanton, J. P., & Sivan, O. (2022). Methane production controls in a young thermokarst lake formed by abrupt permafrost thaw. Global change biology, 28(10), 3206-3221. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16151
Bialik, O.M., Bookman, R., Elyashiv, H., Marietou, A., Saar, R., Rivlin, T., Taha, N., Benaltabet, T., Lotem, N., Funaro, E., & Antler, G. (2022). Tropical storm-induced disturbance of deep-water porewater profiles, Gulf of Aqaba. Marine Geology, 453, 106926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2022.106926
* Equal contribution.