Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences D. Jeffrey Over (Photo provided)
Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences D. Jeffrey Over, as part of a team of researchers, has been awarded a $105K National Science Foundation collaborative research grant for a project titled, “Collaborative Research: Integrated Late Devonian Earth evolution: Diverse perspectives on ocean-climate-biosphere interaction from Laurentia and Gondwana.”
During the three-year project, Over will collaborate with researchers from George Mason University, the lead university on the project, Texas A&M University, and the University of Maryland. Total funding for the project is $860K.
The team of researchers will use a multi-disciplined approach to create a new, integrated geologic framework that links key extinction events and the Devonian black shales of North and South America across time and space. They will use the new framework to test and update an existing database.
Their work will help scientists better understand how biogeochemical changes and extinction events in the Late Devonian period (approximately 370 MYA) comprise an important series of Earth system reorganizations that drove the development of terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the modern world.
The grant includes stipends for two undergraduate research assistants each summer over the three-year award period. Over and the students will conduct fieldwork to collect conodonts—an extinct group of marine vertebrates used to determine time—perform lab work, and analyze the specimens to test the hypotheses in the proposal.
Over earned his PhD in geology from Texas Tech University and completed post-doctoral work as a research associate at Texas A&M University. He has been recognized for excellence in teaching and involvement of students in research that has resulted in numerous publications since joining Geneseo faculty in 1991.