St. Lawrence Geology Alumni

St. Lawrence Geology Alumni

Miriam Katz '81 to recieve honorary degree on May 17, 2009 from St. Lawrence University

Miriam Katz '81

I am honored to be included in the group of SLU alumni who are receiving honorary degrees this year. There is no doubt that the strong undergraduate education I received at SLU built the foundation for my career, with its small class sizes, personalized faculty attention, close-knit group of Geology majors, and undergraduate research projects. My undergraduate honors thesis (“Benthic Foraminifera of the Pleistocene Champlain Sea, St. Lawrence Lowlands”) started me down my career path, which next led to a M.S. from the University of South Carolina, and my thesis “Benthic Foraminiferal Assessment of Bottom Water Conditions Associated with Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Mediterranean Anoxic Events”.
After completing my M.S. in South Carolina, I moved back to the northeast and worked as a benthic foraminiferal specialist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University for 15 years. During this time, I participated in six Ocean Drilling Program expeditions around the world, which along with other opportunities, led to my involvement with a variety of research topics. These all centered around applying micropaleontological techniques to a broader spectrum of topics, such as paleobathymetry, sequence stratigraphy, and paleoceanographic/paleoclimatic reconstructions.
I returned to graduate school in 1998 and completed my Ph.D. in Spring 2001 at Rutgers University (“Uncorking the Bottle: Causes and Effects of the Latest Paleocene Methane Hydrate Release”). My dissertation research focused on the extreme global warming event that occurred 55.5 million years ago, providing the opportunity to examine the system response to climate change that occurred at rates similar to modern change.
After completing my PhD, I stayed on as an Assistant Research Professor at Rutgers University, where I taught several courses, but mostly focussed on research within the framework of a large interdisciplinary research group funded by an NSF Biocomplexity grant to study the evolution of eukaryotic phytoplankton. Specifically, I worked on the interplay between geological and biological processes using proxy records and modelling of long-term biogeochemical cycles (carbon, oxygen, and sulfur), global sea level, and phytoplankton evolution from the Jurassic through the Cenozoic.
I just started a position at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY last year. I’m keeping busy with getting my courses together, setting up my lab, getting students started on resesarch projects, and writing proposals and papers. I’ll be involved in another drilling expedition this year with the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. My current research projects focus on (1) high-resolution reconstructions of the major greenhouse-to-icehouse climate transition that occurred ~40-33 million years ago, with emphasis on understanding the causal relationships among system components of climate change, (2) reconstructing sea-level changes over the past 25 million years, and (3) building on my Biocomplexity research by extending my datasets and models farther back in time to cover the entire Triassic through Cenozoic.

Education:
Ph.D. Rutgers University (Piscataway, N.J.), 2001, Dissertation: Uncorking the Bottle: Causes and Effects of the Latest Paleocene Methane Hydrate Release, K.G. Miller, advisor.
M.S. University of South Carolina (Columbia, S.C.), Thesis: Benthic Foraminiferal Assessment of Bottom Water Conditions Associated with Late Miocene and Early Pliocene Mediterranean Anoxic Events, R.C. Thunell, advisor.
B.S. St. Lawrence University (Canton, N.Y.), (cum laude), Honors Thesis: Benthic Foraminifera of the Pleistocene Champlain Sea, St. Lawrence Lowlands, J.M. Erickson & C.J. Mehrtens, advisors.

Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Aug. 2008-present
Graduate Faculty, Rutgers University, 2004 - present
Visiting Assistant Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Aug. 2007-Aug. 2008
Assistant Research Professor, Rutgers University, July 2003-Aug. 2007
Research Associate, Rutgers University, June 2001- June 2003
Senior Staff Associate-Lamont-Doherty Earth Obs., April 1994-Sept. 1998
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 174A, benthic foraminiferal specialist, 1997
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 171B, sedimentologist, 1997
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 166, benthic foraminiferal specialist, 1996
Staff Associate-Lamont-Doherty Earth Obs., July 1988-March 1994
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 150, benthic foraminiferal specialist, 1993
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 133, benthic foraminiferal specialist, 1990
Staff Research Scientist-Lamont-Doherty Geological Obs., Aug. 1986-June 1988
Cruise-ODP Resolution, Leg 114, benthic foraminiferal specialist, 1987
Cruise-R/V Conrad, 1984
Senior Research Staff Assistant-Lamont-Doherty Geological Obs., 1983-July 1986
Research Assistant-Univ. of South Carolina, 1982-1983
Mineral Exploration-Rocky Mountain Energy Co., Golden, CO., summer, 1980
Research Assistant-Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., summer, 1979
Teaching Assistant-St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y., 1979-1980.
Research Assistant-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., summer, 1978

Recent Publications since 1999
Katz, M.E., Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Wade, B., Browning, J.V., Cramer, B.S., and Rosenthal, Y., 2008. Stepwise transition from the Eocene greenhouse to the Oligocene Icehouse. Nature Geoscience 1:329-334.
Pusz, A.E., Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Katz, M.E., Cramer, B.S., and Kent, D.V., in press. Global carbon cycle perturbation associated with Late Eocene impacts. GSA Special Publication, The Late Eocene Earth.
Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Katz, M.E., Wade, B., Browning, J.V., Cramer, B.S., and Rosenthal, Y., in press. Climate threshold at the Eocene-Oligocene transition: the Antarctic ice sheet influences ocean circulation. “The Late Eocene Earth”, GSA Special Publication, The Late Eocene Earth.
Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Katz, M.E., Browning, J.V., Cramer, B.S., Wade, B.S., and Mizintseva, S.F., 2008, A view of Antarctic ice-sheet evolution from sea-level and deep-sea isotope changes during the Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic, in Cooper, A.K., Barrett, P.J., Stagg, H., Storey, B., Stump, E., Wise, W., and the 10th ISAES editorial team, eds., Antarctica: A keystone in a changing world: Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, Washington, DC, The National Academies Press, p. 55-70.
Miller, K.G., Browning, J.V., Aubry, M.-P., Wade, B., Katz, M.E., Kulpecz, A.A., and Wright, J.D., 2008. Eocene-Oligocene Global Climate and Sea-level Changes: St. Stephens Quarry, Alabama. GSA Bulletin 12(1/2):34–53.
Katz, M.E., Fennel, K., and Falkowski, P.G., 2007. Biogeochemical consequences of phytoplankton evolution. In: Evolution of Aquatic Photoautotrophs, Falkowski, P.G. and Knoll, A. (Editors), Academic Press, pp. 405-430.
Finkel, Z.V., Sebbo, J., Feist-Burkhardt, S., Irwin, A.J., Katz, M.E., Schofield, O.M.E., Williams, J., Young, J., and Falkowski, P.G., 2007. A universal driver of macroevolutionary change in the size of marine phytoplankton over the Cenozoic. PNAS 104(51):20416-20420.
Miller, K.G., Wright, J.D., Katz, M.E., Browning, J.V., Cramer, B.S., Wade, B.S., Mizintseva, S.F., A view of Antarctic glaciation from sea-level and deep-sea isotope changes, in press. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, National Academy of Sciences Press.
Katz, M.E., Wright, J.D., Miller, K.G., Cramer, B.S., Fennel, K., and Falkowski, P.G., 2005. Biological overprint of the geological carbon cycle. Marine Geology. 217:323-338.
Miller, K.G., Kominz, M A., Browning, J.V., Wright, J.D., Mountain, G.S., Katz, M.E., Sugarman, P.J., Cramer, B.S., Christie-Blick, N., Pekar, S.F., 2005. The Phanerozoic Record of Global Sea-level Change. Science 310:1293-1298.
Falkowski, P.G., Katz, M.E., Milligan, A., Fennel, K., Cramer, B.S., Aubry, M.P., Berner, R.A., Novacek, M., and Zapole, W.M., 2005. The rise of oxygen over the past 205 million years and the evolution of large placental mammals. Science 309:2202-2204.
Finkel, Z., Katz, M.E., Schofield, O., Wright, J.D., and Falkowski, P.G., 2005. Climatically-driven evolutionary change in the size of diatoms over the Cenozoic. PNAS 102(25):8927-8932.
Grzebyk, D., Katz, M.E., Knoll, A., Quigg, A., Raven, J.A., Schofield, O., Taylor, M., and Falkowski, P.G., 2004. Response to Comment on “The evolutionary history of eukaryotic phytoplankton.” Science, 306:2101c.
van de Schootbrugge, B., Bailey, T.R., Rosenthal, Y., Katz, M.E., Wright, J.D., Feist-Burkhardt, S., Miller, K.G., and Falkowski, P.G., 2005. Early Jurassic climate change and the radiation of organic-walled phytoplankton in the Tethys Ocean. Paleobiology, 31(1):73-97.
Katz, M.E., Finkel, Z., Grzebyk, D., Knoll, A.H., and P.G. Falkowski, 2004. Evolutionary trajectories and biogeochemical impacts of marine eukaryotic phytoplankton. 2004 Annual Reviews of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, vol. 35, p. 523-556.
Falkowski, P.G., Katz, M.E., Knoll, A., Quigg, A., Raven, J.A., Schofield, O., and Taylor, M., 2004. The evolutionary history of eukaryotic phytoplankton. Science 305(5682):354-360.
Falkowski, P.G., Schofield, O., Katz, M.E., van de Schootbrugge, B., and Knoll, A., 2004. Why is the land green and the ocean red? Thierstein, H. and Young, J. (Eds.), Coccolithophores – from Molecular Processes to Global Impact. Elsevier (Amsterdam), 429-453.
Katz, M.E., Tjalsma, R.C., and Miller, K.G., 2003. Oligocene bathyal to abyssal benthic foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean. Micropaleontology, vol. 49, supp. #2, 45 pp.
Katz, M.E., Katz, D.R., Wright, J.D., Miller, K.G., Pak, D.K., Shackleton, N.J., and Thomas, E., 2003. Early Cenozoic benthic foraminiferal isotopes: species reliability and interspecies correction factors. Paleoceanography 18(2), 1024, doi:10.1029/2002PA000798.
Katz, M.E., Miller, K.G., and Mountain, G.S., 2003. Biofacies and lithofacies evidence for paleoenvironmental interpretations of late Neogene sequences on the New Jersey continental shelf (ODP Leg 174A). In: H. C. Olson and M. Leckie (Eds.), Micropaleontological Proxies for Sea-Level Change, SEPM Spec. Publ. 75, 131-146.
Katz, M.E., Cramer, B., Mountain, G.S., Katz, S., and Miller, K.G., 2001. Uncorking the bottle: what triggered the Paleocene/Eocene methane release? Paleoceanography 16(6):549-562.
Katz, M.E., Pak, D.K., and Dickens, G.R., 2000. The LPTM gas hydrate dissociation hypothesis: new evidence from the western North Atlantic. Schmitz, B., Sundquist, B., and Andreasson, F.P. (Eds.), Early Paleogene warm climates and biosphere dynamics, GFF, 122 (1):84-85.
Katz, M.E., 2000. Miocene benthic foraminiferal abundances and dissolution indices, Site 1006, Straits of Florida. Eberli, G.P., Swart, P.K., Malone, M.J., (Eds.), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 166: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program), 129-136.
Katz, M.E., Pak, D.K., Dickens, G.R., and Miller, K.G., 1999. The source and fate of massive carbon input during the Latest Paleocene Thermal Maximum. Science, 286(5444):1531-1533.

Last Updated:
March 31, 2009

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