Graduate
“Ocean Sedimentation and Stratigraphy” EESC W4937y – (Spring 2005). Introduces the physical and chemical processes which govern how and where ocean sediments accumulate. Major topics addressed are: modes of biogenic, terrigenous, and authigenic sedimentation, depositional environments, pore fluids and sediment geochemistry, diagenesis, major events in Cenozoic paleoceanography, and sediment stratigraphic principles and methods. Syllabus
Seminar in Geochemistry: "Pliocene Climate and The Onset of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation" (G9802). Fall, 2002. Peter deMenocal, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, Mark Cane. Graduate students are responsible for leading a half-hour presentation with appropriate figures, which critically reviews "how we know what we know" concerning fundamental, emerging problems in the evolution of fundamental ocean and atmosphere circulation changes during the Pliocene. Syllabus
Seminar in Stratigraphy: "Records of Past Climate from Cave Deposits", Fall, 2003. Peter deMenocal, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, Mark Cane. Graduate students are responsible for leading a half-hour presentation with appropriate figures, which critically reviews "how we know what we know" concerning the development of paleoclimate records using geochemical tracers in cave deposits. Syllabus
Undergraduate
"Frontiers of Science" For more than eighty years, Columbia College has sustained an extensive Core Curriculum, required of all students, which serves as an intensive introduction to the great ideas of western literature, art, music, and philosophy. In the University's 250th year, we are launching a complementary course in science: Frontiers of Science. The course is designed both to introduce students to exciting ideas at the forefront of scientific research, as well as to inculcate in them the habits of mind common to a scientific approach to the world. Each semester, four scientists in different disciplines deliver a series of three lectures each describing the background, context, and current state of an area of research; readings and other activities supplement the lectures. Consistent with the Core tradition, the course also includes small seminar sections in which these topics are discussed by students.Course Website
"Science and Society": (V1003). Columbia University, co-taught with Wally Broecker, Klaus Lackner, David Downie, Geoff Heal, and others. This course explores the interface between science and society in the study of environmental risks and risk management. Developed for first- and second-year undergraduates, the course investigates the complex - but increasingly relevant - interactions between the scientific enterprise, which quantifies and monitors climate change, and political entities which seek to mitigate socioeconomic risks resulting from climate changes.Syllabus | Spring 2003 Posters | Spring 2004 Posters
Previously taught courses
"Environmental Science for Decision Makers": (U4735). 2000-2001, Columbia University, co-taught with Jim Simpson, Walter Pitman, and Steve Payner. The focus of this course is on learning basic quantitative techniques for analyzing environmental problems in three domains: water, energy, and climate. In the one-point tutorial that serves as a companion to the course, our goal will be to extend this focus by exploring more deeply both the techniques of quantitative analysis and their application for framing public policy decisions. Syllabus
"Introduction to Earth Systems: The Climate System" (2100X). 1998-1999, Columbia University, co-taught with Jim Hays, Yochanan Kushnir, Arnold Gordon. Advanced undergraduate course on biogeochemical systems and earth climate evolution. Origin and development of the atmosphere and oceans and reasons for changes through geologic time. Ocean carbon cycling, chemical and physical effects of tectonic uplift on climate, global warming. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, data analysis and modeling. Syllabus
"The Design and Maintainance of a Habitable Planet", co-taught with Dr. Wally Broecker. Spring, 2000, Columbia University. Advanced undergraduate course covering topics from stellar formation of elements, origin of the solar system, origin of life, planetary accretion and segregation, climatic evolution, Milankovitch theory, ocean-atmosphere coupling, interannual climate variability, and the consequences and fate of anthropogenic incresaes in carbon dioxide. Syllabus
"New World Environmental Change and Cultural Interactions since the Late Pleistocene", a graduate/advanced-undergraduate level course addressing patterns and linkages between Holocene climate and social change in the New World. Co-taught with Dr. David Lentz. Fall, 1999, 199., Columbia University.