Recruitment/Posting Title Postdoctoral Associate Department SEBS-Dept Marine & Coastal Science Salary Annual Salary Posting Summary Seeking one Postdoctoral Associate to work on a collaborative NSF funded project titled,
“Constraints on the role of sediment diagenesis in chemical mass balance and Eocene climate using high-resolution pore fluids from IODP Expedition 396.”

Silicates are important minerals in ocean sediments and Earth’s crust. The chemical changes (or diagenesis) of silicates in marine sediments may play a key role in regulating seawater chemistry at modern and geological timescales. Yet, our understanding of how silicate diagenesis influences specific elements, such as magnesium (Mg), strontium (Sr), lithium (Li) and boron (B), in seawater is incomplete. These elements are important in both the modern ocean and as proxies for understanding changes in the ocean over geologic time. For example, Mg, Sr, Li, and B are used as paleoclimate proxies for temperature (Mg/Ca), weathering (Sr/Ca, Li/Ca), and the carbonate system (B/Ca).

The Postdoctoral Associate will pair chemical analysis of fluids squeezed from new sediment cores from the North Atlantic Ocean with modeling techniques to determine which diagenetic processes are occurring in marine sediments, how these processes influence seawater chemistry, and whether silicate diagenesis has influenced global climate processes over the last 65 million years. The research will be conducted at Rutgers University and Princeton University. Themes from this project (e.g., solute sources and sinks, climate change) will be incorporated into public lectures that the Postdoctoral Associate will give at New Jersey community colleges. The Postdoctoral Associate will also develop summer research projects as part of mentoring programs for current Rutgers undergraduate students and students from under-represented groups at colleges across the country.

Position Status Posting Number 22FA0979 Posting Open Date 09/01/2022 Posting Close Date