Marine Science at the University of Chicago

An overview of researchers affiliated with the University of Chicago who are studying marine systems and organisms.

Despite its distance from the ocean, the University of Chicago has a surprisingly large community of affiliated researchers who study marine ecosystems and the organisms they contain, both in modern and historical times. Research themes range widely and include the interplay of atmosphere and ocean on elemental cycles and climatic changes, diversity and function of marine microbes, patterns of extinction and speciation in the fossil record, the biomechanics of marine organisms, the distribution of marine organisms and their evolutionary relationships, and the ecology and functioning of marine ecosystems. University of Chicago researchers have ties to marine research sites throughout the world, including Tatoosh Island and Friday Harbor Laboratories (Washington), the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), and the National Science Foundation's deep-sea submersible fleet. The Shedd Aquarium, the Brookfield Zoo, and the Field Museum of Natural History also provide helpful local resources for marine research. The University of Chicago marine science community includes the following:

David Archer (Geophysical Sciences): The ocean carbon cycle and its links to global climate change.
Rudiger Bieler (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Molluscan phylogenetics, systematics, and anatomy.
Michael Coates (Organismal Biology & Anatomy/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Diversification and evolutionary history of sharks and fishes. Evolutionary developmental biology.
Maureen Coleman (Geophysical Sciences): Marine microbial diversity and its role in ecosystem functioning. Phage-host interactions and the role that phage play in shaping host genomes.
Albert Colman (Geophysical Sciences): Isotopic signatures of ocean conditions in the past and present.
Michael Foote (Geophysical Sciences/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Patterns of speciation and extinction in the marine fossil record.
Jack Gilbert (Argonne National Laboratory/Ecology & Evolution): Temporal and biogeographic structure of marine microbial communities, microbial metagenomics, microbial effects on ecosystem function.
Lance Grande (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of living and fossil fishes.
David Jablonski (Geophysical Sciences/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Distributional shifts and patterns of change in marine fossil communities. Macroecology, palaeoecology, evolution, and diversification of marine life.
Susan Kidwell (Geophysical Sciences/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Taphonomy and stratigraphy of marine sediments, historical reconstruction of marine communities, evolution of marine organisms.
Michael LaBarbera (Organismal Biology & Anatomy/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Morphological function and evolution of marine organisms. Biomechanics.
Scott Lidgard (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Ecology and evolution of marine communities, particularly fossil and extant bryozoans. Evolutionary paleoecology and the resolution of large-scale patterns in the fossil record.
Catherine Pfister (Ecology & Evolution/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Effects of individual and temporal variability on marine populations and communities, microbial-macrofauna effects on coastal nutrient regimes, ocean acidification, life history and ecology of marine algae and fish.
Olivier Rieppel (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Phylogeny of mesozoic marine reptiles.
Leo Smith (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Molecular and morphological systematics and phylogeny of fishes. Phylogenetic theory. Venomous fishes.
Janet Voight (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Taxonomy and phylogeny of cephalopod mollusks, marine biogeography, deep-sea wood-falls and vents.
Jacob Waldbauer (Geophysical Sciences): Microbial biogeochemistry and evolution; molecular and isotopic records of ancient life and environments.
Mark Webster (Geophysical Sciences/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Ontogeny, phylogeny, and evolutionary processes in Cambrian trilobites.
Mark Westneat (Field Museum of Natural History/Committee on Evolutionary Biology/Organismal Biology & Anatomy): Ecology, evolution, phylogeny, and functional morphology of bony fishes. Coral reefs.
Timothy Wootton (Ecology & Evolution/Committee on Evolutionary Biology): Effects of environmental impacts on marine ecosystems, marine food webs, ocean acidification, causes and consequences of species extinction, species interactions.