Curriculum Vitae

JESSICA HOPE WHITESIDE

 

 

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

of Columbia University

61 Rt. 9W

Palisades, NY 10964

Phone: 845.365.8621

E-mail: jhw@ldeo.columbia.edu

 

PERSONAL DETAILS

 

Date of Birth:  1979, Phoenix, AZ

 

EDUCATION

 

Ph.D. Candidate, Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2001-Present, Columbia University  (at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), New York, NY. Thesis advisor: Prof. Paul E. Olsen.

 

M.A. Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2003, Columbia University  (at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), New York, NY.

 

B.A. (Magna cum Laude), 2001, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, Geology, Advisors Mark M.A.S. McMenamin and Prof. Lynn Margulis (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)

 J.H. Whiteside

Field work in the Deep River Triassic rift basin: March 2003.

 

INTERESTS

 

Biosphere evolution and ecology, especially mass extinction analysis, the integration of life and physical sciences (e.g., climatology, carbon cycling, and ecosystem thermodynamics), classical natural history (i.e., fossil identification and systematics), and the global and local effects of symbiosis (including the development of a "medical symbiotics" that rethinks pathogenicity on an evolutionary model of disease).


(go to Triassic/Jurassic Research Group)

 


PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

 

Sept., 2001 to present: Faculty Fellow, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY.

 

Sept., 2000 to Sept., 2001: Research Assistant to Prof. Lynn Margulis, Department of Geosciences and Graduate Program in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

 

Oct., 1999 to June 2000: Trilobite curator for Prof. Euan Clarkson, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Edinburgh and the Royal Museum of Scotland, U.K.

 

Aug., 1999 to Oct.,1999: Micropaleontologist/biostratigrapher (Student Conservation Association Diversity Intern), Minerals Management Service, US Interior Department, New Orleans, LA.

June 1999 to Aug., 1999: Aquatic ecologist/limnologist (DOE Energy Undergraduate Research Fellow), Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN.


Jan.,1999 to Feb.,1999: Micropaleontologist, Minerals Management Service, US Interior Department, New Orleans, LA. 

 

June 1998 to Aug., 1998: Aquatic ecologist/limnologist (DOE Energy Undergraduate Research Fellow), Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN.

 


SERVICE TO COMMUNITY

 

Brynes, L., Margulis, L., Benson, J.B., Dolan, M. and Whiteside, J.H., 2001, Living Sands: Mapping Time and Space with Forams.  Teaching unit and poster. NeoSci.

 

March 2000 to June 2000: Field trip leader, Royal Museum of Scotland, UK, in conjunction with British Geological Association.

 

Aug., 1999 to Oct., 1999: Coastal cleanup organizer, West Ship Island, Southeastern LA.

 

Reviewed manuscript for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 


TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Feb., 2003: Discussion leader, Aldo Leopold, "The Land Ethic," and Garret Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons."Great Books Foundation Winter Sonoran Desert Institute and College of the Humanities and Sciences, Tempe, Arizona. Biosphere 2 Center, Oracle, AZ.

 

Jan., 2002 to May 2003: Teaching Assistant (undergraduates), The Earth System: Life System, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY.

 

Feb., 2002: Discussion leader, The Nature of Life: Readings in Biology, Great Books Foundation Winter Sonoran Desert Institute and College of the Humanities and Sciences, Tempe, Arizona. Biosphere 2 Center, Oracle, AZ.


Jan., 1999 to June 1999: Teaching Assistant (undergraduates), History of Life, Department of Earth and Environment, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

 


PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

 

Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma XI, International Symbiosis Society, Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, American Association of Petroleum Geology, The Paleontological Society

 


GRANTS, ACADEMIC HONORS, AND AWARDS

 

2003: Magnitude and duration of a Triassic-Jurassic supergreenhouse, Sigma Xi ($1,000)

 

2003: CO2 super greenhouse at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary? Climate Center grant, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (J.H. Whiteside and P.E. Olsen) ($6,000); International Symbiosis Society NSF-sponsored travel grant; GSA travel grant

 

2001: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship; Sigma XI award; Phi Beta Kappa


2000: EJ Murphy Coastal Marine Science Fellowship; Who's Who Among Students inColleges; Summer Mount Holyoke College Research Fellowship, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Costa Rica; Harry S. Truman Foundation Finalist; AGU Travel Grant

 

1999: Sarah Williston Scholar (top 15% of junior class); Laurel Fellowship for Overseas Studies; Morris K. Udall Scholarship; Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship; Student Conservation Association Leadership Workshop, Arlington, VA; DOI Student Conservation Diversity Intern, Minerals Management Services, New Orleans, LA; DOE Energy Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Oak Ridge National Lab, TN

 

1998: DOE Energy Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Oak Ridge National Lab, TN

 

1997: Heilig-Meyers Foundation Scholarship; ITW-Paslode Foundation Scholarship; National Collegiate Natural Science Awards Winner; Hot Springs Rotary Club Scholarship

 


FIELD EXPERIENCE

 

Summer 2002, 2003, Spring 2004: Triassic-Jurassic rift basin (eastern North America, Morocco, Italy) paleontological/geochemical sample collection; Spring 2001: Death Valley, CA, field mapping. Summer 2000, Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica, biodiversity inventories. Spring 2000. Pentland Hills, Scotland, carbon and nitrogen cycling analysis. April 2000, Northwest England, field mappin. Summer 1999, Tennessee stream beds, UV-absorbing compounds in periphyton studies. Summer 1998, Oak Ridge, TN, toxicity tests; limiting nutrient studies for Jacobs Engineering, Inc. and the Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, MA (with A.J. Stewart and R. Wilkerson)

 


CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

 

Whiteside, J.H., Olsen, P.E., and Sambrotto, R.N., Cornet, B., 2004, Negative δ13C anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in the Pangean arid tropics. International Geological Congress (invited; in press).

 

Whiteside, J.H., Olsen, P.E., and Sambrotto, R.N., 2003, Negative δ13C carbon isotopic anomaly in continental strata at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in eastern North America (Newark Basin, Pennsylvania, USA). Geological Society of America, v. 34, no. 7, p. 160.

 

Whiteside, J.H., Olsen, P.E., Cornet, B., and Sambrotto, R.N., 2003, Parallel δ13C and conifer physiognomic trends across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, Supplement, v. 84, no. 46, p. F299. (go to www version of abstract)

 

Whiteside, J.H., Olsen, P.E., and Rasbury, T., 2003, A 230 million year old record of arboreal stromatolites. Fourth International Symbiosis Congress Schedule and Abstracts. Etc. Press, Halifax, Nova Scotia, pp. 173-174.

 

Whiteside, J. H. and Olsen, P. E., 2003, Possible Triassic-Jurassic boundary sections, Hartford basin, Eastern North America. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 35, no. 3, 84. (go to abstract).

 

Olsen, P. E., Et-Touhami, M., and Whiteside, J. H., 2003, The initial CAMP flood basalt event and its relationship to overlying carbonate-rich sequences (North America and Northwest Africa): two options related to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 35, no. 3, p. 89. (go to abstract).

 

Olsen, P.E., Whiteside, J.H., 2003, Evolutionary and ecological sequelae of mass extinctions: examples from the continental Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, Supplement, v. 84, no. 46, p. F335. (go to the www version).

 

Olsen, P.E., Whiteside, J.H., LeTourneau, P.M., and Kent, D.V., 2003, The first half million years of the Jurassic as seen in the stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Newark Supergroup of eastern North America. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, v. 34, no. 7, p. 88. (go to the www version)

 

Whiteside, J.H., 2002, Symbiosis and the mermaid's parasol, VI Congreso Latinoamericano de Ficologia, Ponce, Puerto Rico, Meeting Abstracts, September 22-28, abstract O-20, (invited).

 

Whiteside, J.H., and Clarkson, E.N.K., 2000, Calcium scaffolding, consciousness evolution and the Cambrian explosion. Poster presented at 2nd Chapman Conference, American Geophysical Union, Valencia, Spain, June 19-23, (invited).

 

Whiteside, J.H., Pardiwala, R.N. and Grace, H., 2000, Collembolan activity rates in heathland organic soils in relation to nutrient uptake following fertilization. 2nd Chapman Conference, American Geophysical Union, Valencia, Spain, Meeting Abstracts, June 19-23, p. 27, (invited).

 

Whiteside, J.H., 1996, The effects of extremely low-level frequency microwaves on chlorophyll concentration in Pisum sativum  Arkansas Symposium for Sciences and Humanities, Conway, AR, (invited).

 


PUBLICATIONS


Olsen, P.E., Kent, D.V., and Jessica H. Whiteside, J.H., 2004, The Newark Basin, The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, and the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary. Field Trip for the 8th Annual DOSECC Workshop on Continental Scientific Drilling, May 22-25, 2004. Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey, DOSECC, Salt Lake City, 45 p. (download a .pdf)

Margulis, L., Dolan, M., and Whiteside, J.H., 2004, Origin of the nucleus: Attraction spheres and the chimeric karyomastigont, Paleobiology (in press)

 

Sagan, D., and Whiteside, J.H., 2004, Gradient-Reduction Theory: Thermodynamics and the Purpose of Life, in Crist, E. and Schneider, S. (eds.), Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century, MIT Press, p. 173-186.

 

Sagan, D., and Whiteside, J.H., 2004, Prismatic Progress, in Rothenberg, D. (ed.) Writing the Future:  Progress and Evolution, MIT Press (in press).

 

Wier, A.M., Dolan, M.F., Melnitsky, H., Whiteside, J.H., and Margulis, L., 2004.  Cysts, nuclear and other symbionts of Staurojoenina assimilis Kirby from Neotermes.  European Journal of Protistology (in press)

 

Olsen, P.E., Whiteside, J.H., and Huber, P., 2003, Causes and consequences of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction as seen from the Hartford basin, in Brady, J. B. and Cheney, J.T. (eds.) Guidebook for Field Trips in the Five College Region, 95th New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, Department of Geology, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, p. B5-1 - B5-41.

 

Whiteside, J.H., 2004, Arboreal Stromatolites: A 210-Million Year Record, in Lowman, M.D., and Rinker, B. (eds.), Forest Canopies (Physiological Ecology Series), 2nd edition. Academic Press (in press)

 

Margulis, L., Sagan, D., and Whiteside, J., 2002, The evolution of composite individuality:  From cells to cities, Kosmos, The Humboldt Foundation: Berlin, April, p. 23-25.

 

Sagan, D., and Whiteside, J.H. 2001, Design explained: The Goldilocks paradox. Swift.