Photo of Professor Zachos looking straight at the camera with a outdoor background.
James Zachos, Professor

Education: 1982 B.Sci., SUNY College at Oneonta; 1984 M.Sci., U of S. Carolina; 1988, Ph.D. Grad. School of Oceanography, U of Rhode Island

Positions: 1988-1990 Post Doctoral Scholar, U of Michigan; 1990-1992, Research Scientist, U of Michigan


Current Graduate Students

Xiadong “Daisy” Zhang, Ph.D. Student

Education: 2011 B.Sci, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao; 2017 M.Sci. Texas A&M

Research Interests: I’m passionate about the potential of science & technology to help society and our environment. I’m interested in studying climate in the past and future, generating new
records, and delivering solutions to the community. I’m especially interested in investigating
transient greenhouse warming events in the Paleogene to help understand anthropogenic
related global warming in the present.

Select Publication: Zhang, X., Tipple, B., Zhu, J., Rush, W., Shields, C., Novak, J., Zachos, J. 2024, Responses of Coastal California Hydroclimate to the PETM, Climate of the Past (in review)

Magali Siri, Visiting Grad

Education: 2023 B.Sci, Utecht University

Research interests: The impact of the PETM on the biological carbon pump.

Current Post Doctoral Scholars

Dr. Daniel Gaskell

Education: 2015 B.Sci, Baylor University; 2022 Ph.D., Yale University

Research Interests: Climate Extremes – Biogeochemical cycles and feedbacks during climate extremes, Impacts of climate change on marine microbial ecosystems, Co-evolution of ecosystems, climate, and environment;
Proxy Methodologies, Vital effects – improving proxies by better integrating the recorder’s biology and ecology, Large-dataset and multi-proxy statistical techniques for paleoclimate reconstruction, Emerging proxy archives such as ichthyoliths and micron-scale shell chemistry

Select Publication: Gaskell, Daniel E., Matthew Huber, Charlotte L. O’Brien, Gordon N. Inglis, R. Paul Acosta, Christopher J. Poulsen, Pincelli M. Hull, 2022. The latitudinal temperature gradient and its climate dependence as inferred from foraminiferal δ18O over the past 95 million years. PNAS 119-11 (e2111332119). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111332119

Former Graduate Students

Former Post Docs

  • Dr. Benjamin Flower, U of S. Florida
  • Dr. Cedric John, U College of London
  • Dr. Stephen Schellenberg, San Diego State U.
  • Dr. Mark Pagani, Yale U.
  • Dr. Kate Littler, Exeter U.
  • Dr. Pratigya Polissar, UCSC
  • Dr. Tali Babila, Case Western U.
  • Dr. Juan Li, Nanjing