Ariel Anbar

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Ariel Anbar is an isotope geochemist and President's Professor at Arizona State University. He has published over 180 refereed papers on topics ranging from the origins of Earth's atmosphere to detecting life on other worlds to diagnosing human disease. [1]

Contents

Ariel D. Anbar
Ariel Anbar.jpg
Alma mater Harvard University AB 1989, California Institute of Technology PhD 1996
Awards Arthur L. Day Medal (2020), Donath Medal (2002)
Scientific career
Institutions Arizona State University
Doctoral advisor Gerald J. Wasserburg
Website https://www.anbarlab.org/

Education and career

Anbar was born in Rehovot, Israel and raised in Palo Alto, California and Amherst, New York. He received a A.B. in Geological Sciences and Chemistry from Harvard University in 1989. [2] While at Harvard, he worked under the supervision of Heinrich Holland and conducted experiments that suggested the importance of photochemical oxidation in Archean oceans, especially as a possible source of manganese oxides before the Great Oxidation Event. [3] He received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1996, advised by Gerald Wasserburg, where he developed methods for ultra-sensitive determination of rhenium and iridium in seawater. He was on the faculty of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester from 1996 to 2004. Since 2004, he has been on the faculty in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University. [2]

Research

Anbar's research group uses multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) to study natural variations in the “non-traditional” stable isotope abundances of transition metals as biomarkers and as probes of ancient ocean oxygenation. [4] His group was the first to report natural fractionation of molybdenum isotopes, [5] including how and why molybdenum isotopes fractionate during adsorption to manganese oxides. [6] This work provided a foundation for the use of molybdenum isotopes to study ancient ocean redox change. [7] Anbar and colleagues discovered a "whiff of oxygen" fifty million years before the Great Oxidation Event [8] [9]

Anbar's group has also worked on iron isotopes, demonstrating abiotic fractionation in low and high temperature systems. [10] They have also worked to develop the uranium isotope system as a paleoredox proxy, opening up the carbonate sedimentary record for investigation of changes in ocean oxygenation and their linkages to evolution. [11]

Anbar has also been involved in development of method to use calcium isotopes to study bone disease. [12] [13]

Leadership

Anbar led the NASA Astrobiology Institute program at Arizona State University from 2009 to 2015. [14] He served as President-Elect and President of the Biogeosciences Section of the American Geophysical Union from 2015 to 2019. [15] He currently directs the Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University, which is reinventing digital learning around curiosity, exploration, and discovery. [16] [17]

Awards

Anbar is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Geochemical Society, the European Association of Geochemistry, and the American Geophysical Union. [18] In 2002, he was awarded the Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal) from the Geological Society of America. [19] [20] In 2014, he was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in recognition of his work in digital learning innovation. [21] In 2017, he was named one of 10 “teaching innovators” by the Chronicle of Higher Education. [22] He was the Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecturer at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in 2017, [23] and received the Samuel Epstein Science Innovation Award from the European Association of Geochemistry in 2019. [24] He received the Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America in 2020. [25] [26] He is a Distinguished Sustainability Scholar in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Related Research Articles

Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the entire Solar System, and has made important contributions to the understanding of a number of processes including mantle convection, the formation of planets and the origins of granite and basalt. It is an integrated field of chemistry and geology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archean</span> Second eon of the geologic timescale

The Archean Eon, in older sources sometimes called the Archaeozoic, is the second of the four geologic eons of Earth's history, preceded by the Hadean eon and followed by the Proterozoic. The Archean represents the time period from 4,000 to 2,500 Ma. The Late Heavy Bombardment is hypothesized to overlap with the beginning of the Archean. The Huronian glaciation occurred at the end of the eon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geobiology</span> Study of interactions between Earth and the biosphere

Geobiology is a field of scientific research that explores the interactions between the physical Earth and the biosphere. It is a relatively young field, and its borders are fluid. There is considerable overlap with the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, microbiology, paleontology, and particularly soil science and biogeochemistry. Geobiology applies the principles and methods of biology, geology, and soil science to the study of the ancient history of the co-evolution of life and Earth as well as the role of life in the modern world. Geobiologic studies tend to be focused on microorganisms, and on the role that life plays in altering the chemical and physical environment of the pedosphere, which exists at the intersection of the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and/or cryosphere. It differs from biogeochemistry in that the focus is on processes and organisms over space and time rather than on global chemical cycles.

George Wetherill was a physicist and geologist and the director emeritus of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, US.

An isotopic signature is a ratio of non-radiogenic 'stable isotopes', stable radiogenic isotopes, or unstable radioactive isotopes of particular elements in an investigated material. The ratios of isotopes in a sample material are measured by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry against an isotopic reference material. This process is called isotope analysis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Oxidation Event</span> Paleoproterozoic surge in atmospheric oxygen

The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), also called the Great Oxygenation Event, the Oxygen Catastrophe, the Oxygen Revolution, the Oxygen Crisis, or the Oxygen Holocaust, was a time interval during the Early Earth's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere and the shallow ocean first experienced a rise in the concentration of oxygen. This began approximately 2.460–2.426 Ga (billion years) ago, during the Siderian period, and ended approximately 2.060 Ga, during the Rhyacian. Geological, isotopic, and chemical evidence suggests that biologically-produced molecular oxygen (dioxygen or O2) started to accumulate in Earth's atmosphere and changed it from a weakly reducing atmosphere practically devoid of oxygen into an oxidizing one containing abundant free oxygen, with oxygen levels being as high as 10% of their present atmospheric level by the end of the GOE.

In geochemistry, paleoclimatology and paleoceanography δ18O or delta-O-18 is a measure of the ratio of stable isotopes oxygen-18 (18O) and oxygen-16 (16O). It is commonly used as a measure of the temperature of precipitation, as a measure of groundwater/mineral interactions, and as an indicator of processes that show isotopic fractionation, like methanogenesis. In paleosciences, 18O:16O data from corals, foraminifera and ice cores are used as a proxy for temperature.

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Euxinia or euxinic conditions occur when water is both anoxic and sulfidic. This means that there is no oxygen (O2) and a raised level of free hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Euxinic bodies of water are frequently strongly stratified, have an oxic, highly productive, thin surface layer, and have anoxic, sulfidic bottom water. The word euxinia is derived from the Greek name for the Black Sea (Εὔξεινος Πόντος (Euxeinos Pontos)) which translates to "hospitable sea". Euxinic deep water is a key component of the Canfield ocean, a model of oceans during the Proterozoic period (known as the Boring Billion) proposed by Donald Canfield, an American geologist, in 1998. There is still debate within the scientific community on both the duration and frequency of euxinic conditions in the ancient oceans. Euxinia is relatively rare in modern bodies of water, but does still happen in places like the Black Sea and certain fjords.

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Marilyn L. Fogel was an American geo-ecologist and Professor of Geo-ecology at UC Riverside in Riverside, California. She is known for her research using stable isotope mass spectrometry to study a variety of subjects including ancient climates, biogeochemical cycles, animal behavior, ecology, and astrobiology. Fogel served in many leadership roles, including Program Director at the National Science Foundation in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry.

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Tanja Bosak is a Croatian-American experimental geobiologist who is currently an associate professor in the Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her awards include the Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award from the Geological Society of America (2007), the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (2011), and was elected an AGU fellow (2011). Bosak is recognized for her work understanding stromatolite genesis, in addition to her work in broader geobiology and geochemistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Eigenbrode</span> American astrobiologist

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References

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  3. Anbar, A.D.; Holland, H.D. (1992). "The photochemistry of manganese and the origin of banded iron formations". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 56 (7): 2595–2603. Bibcode:1992GeCoA..56.2595A. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(92)90346-K. ISSN   0016-7037. PMID   11537803.
  4. Anbar, Ariel D.; Rouxel, Olivier (2007). "Metal Stable Isotopes in Paleoceanography". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 35 (1): 717–746. Bibcode:2007AREPS..35..717A. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.34.031405.125029. ISSN   0084-6597.
  5. Barling, J.; Arnold, G.L.; Anbar, A.D. (2001). "Natural mass-dependent variations in the isotopic composition of molybdenum". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 193 (3–4): 447–457. Bibcode:2001E&PSL.193..447B. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(01)00514-3. ISSN   0012-821X.
  6. Barling, J.; Anbar, A.D. (2004). "Molybdenum isotope fractionation during adsorption by manganese oxides". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 217 (3–4): 315–329. Bibcode:2004E&PSL.217..315B. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00608-3. ISSN   0012-821X.
  7. Arnold, G. L.; Anbar, A. D.; Barling, J.; Lyons, T. W. (2004). "Molybdenum Isotope Evidence for Widespread Anoxia in Mid-Proterozoic Oceans". Science. 304 (5667): 87–90. Bibcode:2004Sci...304...87A. doi:10.1126/science.1091785. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   15066776. S2CID   130579844.
  8. Anbar, Ariel D.; Duan, Yun; Lyons, Timothy W.; Arnold, Gail L.; Kendall, Brian; Creaser, Robert A.; Kaufman, Alan J.; Gordon, Gwyneth W.; Scott, Clinton; Garvin, Jessica; Buick, Roger (2007). "A Whiff of Oxygen Before the Great Oxidation Event?". Science. 317 (5846): 1903–1906. Bibcode:2007Sci...317.1903A. doi:10.1126/science.1140325. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17901330. S2CID   25260892.
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  10. Anbar, A. D.; Roe, J. E.; Barling, J.; Nealson, K. H. (2000). "Nonbiological Fractionation of Iron Isotopes". Science. 288 (5463): 126–128. Bibcode:2000Sci...288..126A. doi:10.1126/science.288.5463.126. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   10753114.
  11. Romaniello, S.J.; Herrmann, A.D.; Anbar, A.D. (2013). "Uranium concentrations and 238U/235U isotope ratios in modern carbonates from the Bahamas: Assessing a novel paleoredox proxy". Chemical Geology. 362: 305–316. Bibcode:2013ChGeo.362..305R. doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2013.10.002. ISSN   0009-2541.
  12. Morgan, Jennifer L. L.; Skulan, Joseph L.; Gordon, Gwyneth W.; Romaniello, Stephen J.; Smith, Scott M.; Anbar, Ariel D. (2012). "Rapidly assessing changes in bone mineral balance using natural stable calcium isotopes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (25): 9989–9994. Bibcode:2012PNAS..109.9989M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1119587109 . PMC   3382538 . PMID   22652567.
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