Geological Oceanography
Overview
Jacqueline E. Dixon
Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1992
Office Phone: 727.553.3360
Email: jdixon@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Igneous Petrology; Mantle Geochemistry; Role of Volatiles in Magmatic Processes; Deep Earth Geochemical Cycling of Volatiles
Specialties: Geochemistry, Igneous Petrology, Marine Volcanology, Volatiles, Higher Education Administration, Geology
Dr. Dixon鈥檚 research interests focus on the role of H2O and CO2 in the generation and evolution of basaltic magmas with an emphasis on submarine volcanoes. Her work includes solubility studies of H2O and CO2 in basaltic melts, vapor saturation and degassing models, and modeling of volatile contents in primary magmas and the mantle. Study areas have included the mid-ocean ridge system, Hawaii, the Galapagos, and the Easter Salas y Gomez Seamount Chain. Dr. Dixon received a NSF Early Career award in 1997 for excellence in research and education. In 2007, EPSL acknowledged one of her papers (Dixon et al., 2004) as one of their top-50 most cited articles.
From 1992 through 2010, Dr. Dixon was a professor at the University of Miami, where she was as a professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and in the Geology Department within the College of Arts and Sciences. At UM, she served as Director of the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy鈥檚 Undergraduate Program (鈥�03-鈥�08), Senior Associate Dean for the Life and Physical Sciences (鈥�06-鈥�10), and Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (鈥�09-鈥�10). In 2011, Dr. Dixon joined the University of South 手机看片 to became Dean of the College of Marine Science. She returned to the faculty as a Professor in July 2020, and recently received a major award from the National Science Foundation to study submarine volcanism on the mid-Atlantic Ridge south of Iceland. The research expedition will involve detailed mapping and sampling using ROV Jason and AUV Sentry.
Dixon is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She serves as the Editor in Chief for Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a gold open access AGU journal that publishes original research papers on Earth and planetary processes with a focus on understanding the Earth as a system. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and on the MIT Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences Advisory Board.
Pamela Hallock Muller
Distinguished University Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1977
Office Phone: 727.553.1567
Email: pmuller@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Biological, Environmental and Evolutionary Controls on the Production and
Accumulation of Carbonate Sediments: Geologic History of Reefs; Modern Coral Reefs;
Shelf Ecology; Environmental Management; Micropaleontology; Paleoceanography; Paleoecology
Studies of both the geologic record and modern ecosystems provide insight not only
into environments of the past and present, but also the probable effects of human
activities on future tropical marine ecosystems. Foraminifera are the most abundant
shelled organisms in modern oceans and have a fossil record going back more than 500
million years. They are also excellent model organisms for environmental and paleoceanographic
research. Ongoing projects include: a) decadal-scale changes in reef communities of
the 手机看片 Keys, b) biology and ecology of benthic foraminifera, corals and their
algal symbionts, c) development of bioindicator protocols applicable to reef environments
worldwide, and d) effects of ocean acidification on calcification of benthic organisms.
Professor Hallock鈥檚 graduate students have come from backgrounds ranging from biology
and geology to engineering and computer science; all with an interest in interdisciplinary
research. Their work has implications across the geobiological spectrum including
cell biology, algal symbiosis, coral-reef ecology, environmental management, global
environmental change, evolution, paleoceanography, sedimentology, and hydrocarbon
exploration.
In 2012, Dr. Hallock Muller was elected as a Fellow of the Paleontological Society.
In 2013, Dr. Hallock Muller was chosen as one of the Top 25 Women Professors in 手机看片.
Cheryl J. Hapke
Research Professor, College of Marine Science
Ph.D. Coastal Geology
Coordinator, 手机看片 Coastal Mapping Program
Office Phone: 727-553-1184
Email: chapke@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Coastal regions throughout the world are experiencing the impacts of sea-level rise and increased coastal hazards from inundation, storms, and erosion. Detailed knowledge of coastal processes and evolution are critical for understanding vulnerabilities to the various hazards in both natural and built systems. Coastal communities have a growing need for coastal science experts to aid in the development of sound sea-level rise adaptation plans. My research focuses on the geomorphic evolution of coastal systems ranging from barrier islands to rocky coasts and estuarine systems 鈥� understanding how coasts are changing now and have changed in the past is critical towards understanding what may happen in the future. Potential future coastal response can be modeled in the context of probabilistic frameworks and the models very dependent on high-resolution elevation data of both the coastline and the adjacent seafloor. I am the coordinator of the 手机看片 Coastal Mapping Program, an initiative to coordinate across federal and state partners to realize the vision of having high-resolution data available for all of 手机看片鈥檚 coastal waters in a decade. Data collected as part of this initiative has application across numerous sectors including research, navigation, restoration, storm surge modeling, fisheries management, and community resilience planning.
Daniel Lowry
Assistant Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., Victoria University of Wellington, 2019
Office Phone: 727.553.1013
Email: daniellowry@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Antarctic ice sheet 鈥� ocean 鈥� bedrock interactions; Future ice sheet responses to emissions scenarios; Past ice sheet behaviour and abrupt change; Earth system response to ice sheet melt; Model uncertainty quantification
Specialties: Sea level rise; Climate change; Polar environments; Ice sheet instabilities; Climate tipping points
Dr. Lowry is an Assistant Professor in Geological Oceanography at 手机看片 College of Marine Science, with expertise in ice sheet and paleoclimate modeling. He studies how ice sheets interact with the ocean, atmosphere, and the soft and solid Earth, and how these processes affect the global sea level and climate system. His work combines physics-based models and machine learning with insights from geophysical observations and paleoclimate archives.
Before joining 手机看片 in 2025, Dr. Lowry was a Senior Scientist at GNS Science, where he co-led the Antarctic Ice Dynamics program, a NZ government-funded research programme to investigate how Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics will change in a Paris Target world of ~2掳C above preindustrial. This program accomplished a number of scientific achievements, including obtaining new observations of ice-ocean interactions and change at the Kamb Ice Stream grounding zone, and the development of fully coupled regional ice sheet-sea level, ice sheet-ocean, and atmosphere-ocean models. The team鈥檚 work directly contributed to a national guidance for sea level rise in New Zealand. Dr. Lowry was a Contributing Author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report for the Chapter on Ocean, Cryosphere, and Sea Level Change. In 2019, Dan completed his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington鈥檚 Antarctic Research Centre. His doctoral research integrated ice core, marine sediment, and cosmogenic geochronology data to model deglaciation in the Ross Embayment, Antarctica.
David F. Naar
Associate Dean, Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1990
Office Phone: 727.553.1637
Email: naar@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research: Marine Magnetics; Mid-Ocean Ridge and Hotspot Interactions; Plate Tectonics;
Wax Analog Modeling of Seafloor Spreading Processes, Seafloor Mapping of Fish Habitats,
Artificial Reefs, Coral Reefs, Mines, Paleoshorelines, and Hydrothermal Vents
These research interests have been addressed with oceanographic seafloor mapping expeditions
to the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Analyses of multibeam,
magnetics, gravity, side-scan sonar are made in conjunction with insight from a seafloor
spreading analog wax model. Ongoing projects include: Plate tectonic reconstruction
of the Pacific-Nazca plates, Off-axis volcanism along the Easter Seamount Chain, and
benthic habitat studies around 手机看片 and the Bahamas.
Brad E. Rosenheim
Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D. University of Miami, 2005
Office Phone: 727-553-3354
Email: brosenheim@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Southern Ocean Science Website
Research: Paleoceanography/Paleoclimate, stable isotopes, carbon cycling
Research in Brad Rosenheim鈥檚 group aims to constrain changes in climate and carbon
cycling in the recent geologic past, from the anthropocene to the last glacial maximum.
Researchers working with Dr. Rosenheim employ isotopic techniques including conventional
stable isotope measurements (H, C, N, O), non-conventional stable isotope measurements
(鈥渃lumped鈥� isotopes in CO2 derived from carbonate minerals), and radioisotopic techniques
including uranium system dating and radiocarbon analysis. Dr. Rosenheim鈥檚 group obtains
geologic and oceanographic data from sediment, coral and sclerosponge skeletons, ice,
and the open ocean water column. The group casts a broad approach to specific questions
regarding climate and carbon cycling, resulting in success of obtaining research support
from an equivalently broad section of NSF programs and other funding agencies that
fund Earth Sciences.
For up-to-date laboratory activities and a list of recent publications and news, please
visit the Rosenheim lab web page.
Amelia Shevenell
Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004
Office Phone: 727.553.3372
Email: ashevenell@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Southern Ocean Science Website
Wikipedia page
Research: Paleoceanography/Paleoclimatology; Trace and minor elements in biogenic
calcite and marine sediments; Stable isotopes in carbonate and siliceous marine microfossils;
Lipid biomarkers; Sedimentology
Dr. Shevenell is an Professor of Geological Oceanography at 手机看片 College of Marine
Science. She received her PhD in Marine Science in 2004 from the University of California
Santa Barbara. In 2005, she was awarded a Program on Climate Change postdoctoral fellowship
at the University of Washington. In 2007, Dr. Shevenell moved to the United Kingdom,
where she was an Assistant Professor in Earth Sciences and Geography at University
College London. She joined the 手机看片 faculty in 2011. Dr. Shevenell's research focuses
on generating high-resolution geochemical and micropaleontological (foraminifera)
records from marine sediments to address questions related to Earth's climate evolution
over the last 65 million years. Her current research interests are geographically
diverse (including the Southern Ocean and North Pacific Ocean) and divided into three
focus areas: 1) Antarctic ice sheet development over the last 50 million years from
far-field and ice proximal marine sediment records, 2) the role of the high-latitude
oceans in Glacial-Interglacial carbon cycling, and 3) Antarctic Holocene climate variability.
Research undertaken by the Shevenell Lab is relevant to IPCC concerns that ongoing
climate changes are accelerating polar ice cap melting and global sea level rise.
Shevenell and her graduate students develop, calibrate, and employ a wide variety
of inorganic and organic geochemical and micropaleontologic techniques to reconstruct
past changes in ocean temperature, circulation, productivity, continental ice volume,
and carbon cycling on decadal to million year timescales. Dr. Shevenell is actively
involved in several international research programs, including the International Ocean
Discovery Program (IODP), and has served on several IODP advisory panels, in addition
to proposing and participating in several IODP scientific expeditions. Dr. Shevenell
currently serves the broader scientific community in several capacities. In 2020,
she was appointed as an Associate Editor for the AGU journal, Paleoceanography and
Paleoclimatology; in 2016 she was recognized as an AGU Outstanding Reviewer. In 2019,
Dr. Shevenell was elected to serve as the Geological Oceanography Counselor on The
Oceanography Society governing council, and is a member of their nominations and ethics
committees. In 2019, Dr. Shevenell was elected a full member of Sigma Xi, the scientific
research honor society and received a 手机看片 Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement
Award. Dr Shevenell maintains an active sea-going research program and encourages
graduate student participation in research cruises.
Trevor Williams
Associate Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D. University of Edinburgh, 1994
Office phone: 727-553-4002
Email: trevorjwilliams@usf.edu
CV: View CV
Research: The marine sediment record of Antarctic ice sheet instability under past warm climates; provenance of ice-rafted detritus (IRD) and glacial sediment; Mediterranean Outflow Water in the late Miocene
Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor in Geological Oceanography at 手机看片 College of Marine Science. His research focusses on marine sediment records of past climate change and the history of the Antarctic ice sheet. He uses records of iceberg-rafted detritus (IRD; rock fragments and mineral grains transported out to sea in icebergs) to find times in the geological past when ice sheets became unstable and retreated, which, when combined with paleoclimate records, help us to understand the vulnerability and tipping points of ice sheets under future warm climates. Further, argon and neodymium isotope geochemistry of IRD and glacial sediment can be used to fingerprint their sources on the Antarctic continent and establish the relative stability of the ice sheet on individual ice drainage basins.
Before joining 手机看片 in 2025, Trevor Williams was an Expedition Project Manager at the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) JOIDES Resolution Science Operator (JRSO) at Texas A&M University. He sailed on five two-month-long seabed coring expeditions as staff scientist, providing guidance and leadership to international teams of scientists and coordination of the IODP technical and operations teams. From 1999鈥�2015 he was a research scientist in the IODP Borehole group at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and sailed on ten IODP expeditions as a downhole logging scientist. These expeditions investigated diverse marine geological environments, including carbonate depositional systems, cold-water carbonate mounds, glacial sedimentation, pelagic sediments, current-deposited drift systems, submarine fans, serpentinite mud volcanoes, and the basaltic ocean crust. Most recently, he sailed on IODP Expedition 401 to investigate water exchange through the Mediterranean-Atlantic gateways before and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, when the Mediterranean was partially isolated from the Atlantic resulting in deposition of over 1-km of salts.
Williams received a B.Sc. in geology and geophysics from University of Durham, UK; a Ph.D. in paleomagnetism from the University of Edinburgh; and a one-year Royal Society postdoctoral fellowship to work on lake sediments at CEREGE, Marseille, France.