July 21, 2023

Grant: $500 in Fall 1990

Education level at the time of the grant: PhD student

Project Description: 
I used my grant to support a second paleontological field season, traveling to southern California and Baja California. The goal was to visit a number of marine fossil localities in San Diego and northern Baja, on both the Pacific and Gulf of California coasts. 

My project examined changes to the marine faunas of tropical America during the past 35 million years, focusing on changes associated with closure of the Panama Seaway approximately three million years ago, which separated the Caribbean and Pacific portions of tropical American waters. Changes associated with seaway closure were profound, including an important contribution to the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, marine extinctions on the Caribbean side, and the onset of upwelling and high productivity on the Pacific side. Documenting the evolutionary and ecological consequences of those changes involves extensive collecting and knowledge of the fossil faunas from that broad geographic area. My Sigma Xi grant allowed me to visit and examine important fossil localities on the Pacific side of the seaway.

How did the grant process or the project itself influence you as a scientist/researcher?
It was incredibly important to get this grant, as it was the first grant that I applied for as a doctoral student, and it allowed me start my field work. I’ve gone on to do many years of field work in Baja California, and that experience, in which I lead a group of five, gave me the confidence both to conduct field research, and to be an expedition organizer and leader.

Where are you now? 
I am now the curator of geology and paleontology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Students may apply for Sigma Xi research grants by March 15 and October 1 annually at www.sigmaxi.org/giar.