Burdige Speaking at Biogeochemistry Symposium in Philadelphia

March 21, 2013

David Burdige

David Burdige, an expert in biogeochemical oceanography and an Old Dominion University professor and eminent scholar of ocean, earth and atmospheric sciences, is one of five scientists in his field to be chosen to speak at a special symposium in April in Philadelphia.

The symposium, titled "Biogeochemistry of Earth Processes," is being held in honor of Robert Berner, an emeritus professor at Yale University who is the 2013 recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science.

The medal, which is presented by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, recognizes Berner's 55 years of research showing how chemical principles can be applied to a wide variety of geological problems.

Co-hosting the symposium with the Franklin Institute is The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, also in Philadelphia. David Velinsky, vice president for academy science at the academy, and whose doctorate is from the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at ODU, organized the symposium.

The symposium will be held the morning of April 24 at The Academy.

Burdige's talk will be on shallow-water carbonates. His research focuses on biogeochemical processes in estuarine and marine sediments. He is the author of the textbook "Geochemistry of Marine Sediments," published in 2006 by Princeton University Press.

Burdige said he was delighted and honored to be asked to present his research at the seminar honoring Berner. "Bob Berner is one of the major figures in my field and his work has had a major influence on my research since my days as a graduate student," Burdige explained. "In writing my textbook on sediment geochemistry I tried to think of it as the 'second edition,' in a sense, of his classic text, 'Early Diagenesis,' published in 1980."

Other seminar presenters will be Robert Aller, Stony Brook University; Steve Petsch, University of Massachusetts; Dana Royer, Wesleyan University; and Berner.