CSI Brown Bag Seminar
Fall 2025 Schedule
The Fall 2025 CSI Seminar will be held in PAIS 1010 on Mondays from noon - 1pm
August 25th – Organizational Meeting to determine speaker schedule
September 1st - LABOR DAY
September 8th - Zachary Sharp (EPS): Amazing Equisetum
September 15th - Curt Mowry (Chem): Mass Spectrometry (MS) and MS/MS techniques for determining position-specific 13C in amino acids, peptides, and other small molecules
September 22nd - Austin Murrell (Bio): Reconstructing the Historical Foraging Ecology of Southern Ocean Cetaceans from Tierra del Fuego: Expanding Insights with Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis
September 29th - Catt Peshek (EPS):
October 6th - Payal Banerjee (EPS): Unraveling 400,000 Years of Hydroclimate Variability in the Basin of Mexico with Triple Oxygen Isotopes
October 13th - LIGHTNING TALKS (Anejelique/Cloe/Matt): Water in unexpected places (Cloe), Death Becomes Dinner: Vulture Microbes to the Rescue (Anejelique)
October 20th - no seminar
October 27th - Quentin (EPS):
November 3rd - tbd
November 10th - Shayne Halter (Bio): A physiological balancing act: Lipid oxidation and water balance in hummingbirds
November 17th - Elva (EPS):
November 24th - Joshua Cortez (Bio):
December 1st - LIGHTNING TALKS (Miles/Ian/Irvin):
Training Programs and Courses
- Graduate Student Assistantships: 2 graduate assistantships per semester (one in Earth & Planetary Sciences and another in Biology) are offered to train graduate students in the daily operation of instrumentation, instrument maintenance, QA/QC protocols and data reduction.
- Courses: targeted to motivated undergraduates, graduates and postdoctoral researchers interested in learning more about the application of stable isotope analysis in the planetary, life and medical sciences. The laboratory experience will include full access and training on how to operate and maintain isotope ratio mass spectrometers.
- Stable Isotope Geochemistry (EPS 405): The aim of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of stable isotope geochemistry, and it’s application in the geosciences. In particular, lectures will focus on applications to paleoclimate reconstruction, metamorphic and igneous petrology, atmospheric science and meteoritics.
- Elemental Ecology (BIO 402/502): This aim of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the application of stable isotope measurements in ecology and environmental science. Lectures will address the theory underlying the application of stable isotopes at natural abundance levels as tracers and integrators of important ecological and environmental processes.
- Class website: http://sethnewsome.org/ee.html
- Stable Isotope Seminar (ANTH 502, BIOL 402/502, EPS 400): The CSI brown bag seminar is offered as a one credit course in the Anthropology, Biology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences departments.