Sidney R. Hemming

Sidney R. Hemming

Fellow: Awarded 2021
Field of Study: Earth Science

Competition: US & Canada

Sidney Hemming is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, a geochronologist and geochemist who worked with Scott McLennan for her Ph.D. at Stony Brook on questions of tectonics and sedimentation and with Wally Broecker for a post doc at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory on questions of rapid climate changes in the last glacial cycle. Specifically, she tackled the question of where the “Heinrich Events”, major episodes of ice rafted detritus deposition in the North Atlantic, originated. This research introduced her to paleoclimate questions, and most of her current projects are motivated to understand past climate history in different regions. Sidney loves geology and the adventure of figuring out Earth’s history through the study of the sedimentary record. She uses radiogenic isotopes as natural tracers of sediment sources and for dating deposits, and she is particularly keen to understand Antarctica’s ice sheet history and how it is related to other global records of climate and ocean circulation changes. She plans to use the opportunity afforded by the Guggenheim fellowship to develop a deeper understanding of the time interval between 3.3 and 1.8 million years ago.

Photo Credit: International Ocean Discovery Program

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