In 1992, I obtained my B.S. degree in Geology (with high honors) from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA) and began my Ph.D. research with Dr. Katherine Freeman at the Pennsylvania State University. There, I conducted research on environmental and physiological controls on the carbon isotopic composition of free and bound biomarker compounds in modern surface-water samples of the Peru upwelling region and ancient sediments of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (Cenomanian-Turonian boundary) and Taconic foreland basin (Late Ordovician). The common theme of these diverse studies was the development and application of compound-specific carbon isotope analysis as a tool to reconstruct ancient changes in p2 and organic matter inputs to sedimentary basins. As a research assistant I either conducted or assisted with similar studies on waters from the equatorial Pacific and Sargasso Sea and sediments from the Congo Basin (Jurassic) and German Kellwasser horizons (end-Devonian OAE).

Rich is an organic geochemist, biogeochemist and palaeoclimatologist.  Since 2012, he has been Director of the interdisciplinary University of Bristol Cabot Institute which explores how we depend on and shape our planet.  Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU) website I obtained a BSc in Geology from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA) in 1992, and a PhD in Geosciences from Penn State University in 1998.  During my PhD, working with Kate Freeman, I conducted research on how organisms adapt to environmental conditions at the molecular level and how this generates biomarker and isotope signatures that can be preserved in rocks for hundreds of millions of years. In particular, I used recent analytical advances, that allowed the determination of algal lipids’ carbon isotopic compositions, to develop tools for the reconstruction of ancient carbon dioxide concentrations.