Photo by: unknown
Don DePaolo on UC Berkeley class field trip to Northern Arizona.
Welcome ESD's Director, Don DePaolo
After nearly a year-long search, Dr. Donald J. DePaolo, UC Berkeley Professor of Geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, and the Director of the LBNL/UCB joint research Center for Isotope Geochemistry, was officially announced as the Earth Sciences Division Director. Already in his third week in office, Don has completed the Directorate's Division Peer Review which, this year, included the ESD's Geophysics Department.
Don served previously as the ESD's Geochemistry Department Head.
His widespread research interests focus on using naturally occurring isotopes to explore questions such as:
- origin of the deep-source Hawaiian plume and other hotspots and theories on mantle dynamics
- tracking fluids moving through groundwater systems, with application to tracing contaminants
- understanding isotopic fractionation of molten materials
- magma chamber processes and life cycles of volcanoes
- isotopic evidence that may lead to detecting life on other planets
- chronology studies of of both difficult-to-date young volcanic rocks and ancient continental rocks
- isotopic composition of old ocean sediments, with implications for climate shifts