Samuel A. Bowring

Robert Shrock Professor of Geology. Bowring is a geochemist and geologist who uses radiogenic isotopes to investigate the nature and timing of geologic processes. His work has led to fundamental advances on three different problems: 1) determining the duration and rate of the rapid diversification of animal life known as the Cambrian explosion, thought by many to be the most important evolutionary event in Earth history, 2) discovering and determining the age of the oldest known continental crust - the 4.03 Ga Acasta gneisses, and 3) determining the age and duration of the most severe extinction in earth history, the end-Permian extinction. He has also spent much of his career integrating geochronology, isotope geochemistry, and geology to document the processes and history of events that have led to the assembly and stabilization of the Earth's continental crust. In addition, Bowring leads a very successful, international community effort to improve the accuracy and precision of different geochronological methods. Fellow, Geological Society of America, Fellow, American Geophysical Union, Fellow, The Geochemical Society, and Recipient of the Norman L. Bowen Award of the American Geophysical Union.