What do you do?
I am a paleoceanographer who studies the microchemistry of the shells of small fossil marine organisms, foraminifera, that lived in the surface waters of glacial oceans 10,000-150,000 years ago.

Why should the general public be interested in what you do?
Given the current concern about global warming and climate change, it is important that we understand the role of the ocean in controlling climate. We know that climate was radically different in times past. Since we can't look into the future to predict climatic change, we must turn to the past to reconstruct it. The chemical composition of the shells of fossil foraminifera are windows into climatic conditions during these ancient glacial times and provide the scientific community with information about ocean conditions during the life of the organism. Information about glacial ocean sea surface temperatures and changes in ocean circulation can be determined with considerable accuracy. Our research provides a critical component to modelers trying to tune global climate models for future climate prediction.

Why does it interest you?
Science is one of the last great frontiers of discovery on the planet. I find the field of paleoceanography an endeavor that allows me to combine my background in geology, chemistry, biology and oceanography to search for new discoveries. Besides, its a lot of fun and allows us to spend summers scuba diving in the tropics where we conduct our field research.

What major advances/discoveries have occurred in your research field over the last 10 years?
During the past decade, a fundamental paradigm regarding the rate at which the Earth's climate system can change was turned on its ear. Rather than viewing the Earth climate system as a slowly oscillating behemoth, we now see climate change as a system that can jump from cold to warm modes and vice versa over periods of decades. The term 'abrupt climate change' has become a dominant, albeit 'scary' component of all scientific discussions of modern global warming. Recent research on past climate change has produced two results that politicians should think about. First, while climate can change from one mode to another over decadal time periods, the system will not shift back to its original state in the same time frame. Rather, once the system shifts, it remains stable for periods of centuries until some new forcing function can push climate back into its previous state. Second, global warming has the potential of triggering extreme cold events in the northern hemisphere due to the impact of warming and surface ocean freshening on the oceanic circulation system and the ability of the ocean to transport heat to high latitudes.