|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth
and environmental sciences, studies fossilized plants and plant physiology.
He started at Wesleyan July 1. |
| |
| Posted 07.13.05 |
Assistant Professor Joins Earth and Environmental Sciences Department
|
|
|
|
Dana Royer has
joined the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department as an assistant
professor on July 1.
His professional interests include global change; paleoclimatology,
paleoecology, carbon cycles, paleobotany; plant physiology and stable
isotope geochemistry.
“I study fossil plants in order to infer something about the paleoclimates
in which they lived, as well as their paleoecologies,” he says. “I also
study modern systems to learn more about the biological basis of these
plant-environment relationships.”
After spending a semester studying wildlife ecology and conservation at the
School for International Training in Arusha, Tanzania, Royer double majored
geology and environmental studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He
received a Ph.D in geology from Yale University. His thesis is titled
“Estimating Latest Cretaceous and Tertiary Atmospheric CO2 from Stomatal
Indices,” and is based on fossil leaves that infer ancient CO2 levels back
to 66 million years ago.
Before coming to Wesleyan, Royer worked as a research associate in the
Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and as a visiting
research associate at the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the
University of Sheffield, in The United Kingdom.
This fall, Royer will teach Geobiology and Introduction to Environmental
Studies in the fall and Global Warming in the spring.
Royer says he’s most impressed by the energy in the E&ES Department, and
Wesleyan’s solid reputation with research.
“I like the dual l emphasis on undergraduate teaching and cutting-edge
research here at Wesleyan,” he says. “Most academic institutions make some
claim to this, but Wesleyan delivers on both fronts better than any other
institution that I know.”
Royer says the students also make Wesleyan an appealing institution to work.
“I was blown away by the students during my interview,” he says. “When I
talk to my colleagues about Wesleyan, invariably the first point that they
raise is the quality of the student body.”
Royer is the co-author of “Correlations of climate and plant ecology to leaf
size and shape: potential proxies for the fossil record,” published in The
American Journal of Botany, 92: 1141-1151, 2005; “Contrasting seasonal
patterns of carbon gain in evergreen and deciduous trees of ancient polar
forests,” published in Paleobiology, 31: 141-150, 2005; and “CO2 as a
primary driver of Phanerozoic climate change,” published in GSA Today,
14(3): 4-10, 2004.
He received an $80,000 grant from the Petroleum Research Fund, American
Chemical Society in 2004 for his research on “Why do leaves have teeth?
Breakthroughs in paleoclimate analysis from biological understanding of leaf
shape.” The grant expires in 2006.
Royer resides in Middletown with his wife, Jenny, a plant ecologist. They
have a 2-year-old son, Cole, and two “lazy” cats. For fun, he participates
in endurance sports including marathons, ultramarathons and bicycling.
|
| By
Olivia Bartlett, The Wesleyan Connection
editor |
|
|
 |
|
|
