Welcome to Zanna Chase's lab at Oregon State University. Research in the lab focuses on the role of trace elements as recorders and regulators of carbon flux in the ocean. In other words, we work on everything from designing autonomous trace metal sensors, to using long-lived naturally occurring radionuclides to reconstruct past changes in the ocean's biological productivity.
If you'd like to work in the lab...
If you're considering graduate school, I am currently looking for a graduate student to begin in 2008. This would be to work on an exciting new interdisciplinary project aimed at understanding the processes that sequester carbon in coastal upwelling systems. You can read more about it here. My focus is on understanding the role of upwelling in supplying iron to surface waters to fuel the massive productivity observed on the Oregon shelf in summer. We'll be making high-resolution, ship-board measurements of iron, quantifying the flux of dissolved iron from sediments, and determining the reactivity of iron released by sediments. Other COAS faculty involved are Burke Hales, Miguel Goni, Kipp Shearman and Bob Collier. This project will invovle co-supervision with one of these scientists.
If you're an undergraduate at OSU, there are numerous opportunities to work on any of the projects listed under research plus new "top secret" projects. Please contact me if you're interested! If you're an undergraduate anywhere looking for summer research experience, check out COAS's new Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program.
If you're a high school student in Oregon I highly recommend you apply for the Apprenticeship in Science and Engineering. This is a great program that pairs students with an interest in science with mentors in academia and industry. I'll be sponsoring a student again this summer.
