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Dr. Athanasios Koutavas
Adjunct Associate Research Scientist
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Biology and Paleo Environment
202A Core Lab
61 Route 9W - PO Box 1000
Palisades
NY
10964-8000
US
Phone: 
(845) 365-8411
athan@ldeo.columbia.edu
View Website
Fields of interest: 
Paleoclimatology

I investigate global climate variability recorded in natural climate archives such as ocean sediments, corals, speleothems and tree rings. The main focus of my research is on the evolution and dynamics of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean, and on tropical-extratropical climate links over glacial cycles in Earth's past.

Education
List of degrees from highest to lowest:
PhD
Columbia University
02/2003
MS
New York University
05/1997
BS
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
12/1992
Honors & Awards: 
Columbia Frontiers of Science Fellowship, 2004-2005
NOAA-UCAR Climate and Global Change Fellowship, 2003-2004
NSF research award "Reconstructing ENSO with individual foraminifera", 2007-2009
NSF research award "Tracking past shifts of the eastern Pacific ITCZ with oxygen isotopes and Mg paleothermometry", 2004-2008
Educational Activities: 
Assistant Professor, College of Staten Island, City University of New York
Assistant Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Assistant Professor, Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York
Selected Publications: 
Mid-Holocene El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) attenuation revealed by individual foraminifera in eastern tropical Pacific sediments, Koutavas, A.; Demenocal, P. B.; Olive, G. C.; Lynch-Stieglitz, J. , Geology, Dec, Volume 34, Issue 12, p.993-996, (2006)

Climate change - Tropical flip-flop connections, Chiang, J. C. H.; Koutavas, A. , Nature, Dec 9, Volume 432, Issue 7018, p.684-685, (2004), Doi 10.1038/432684a

Glacial-interglacial dynamics of the eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue Intertropical Convergence Zone system reconstructed from oxygen isotope records, Koutavas, A.; Lynch-Stieglitz, J. , Paleoceanography, Dec 4, Volume 18, Issue 4, p.-, (2003), Doi 10.1029/2003pa000894

El Nino-like pattern in ice age tropical Pacific sea surface temperature, Koutavas, A.; Lynch-Stieglitz, J.; Marchitto, T. M.; Sachs, J. P. , Science, Jul 12, Volume 297, Issue 5579, p.226-230, (2002)