Areas of Research

Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, Geobiology

Research Interests

Geochemistry: Computational chemistry and electronic structure modeling of natural materials and pollutants. Stable isotope fractionation theory.

Development of new proxies for ancient climates and environmental conditions. Equilibrium isotope separation at high pressures and temperatures. Current areas of study and collaboration include species-dependent isotopic signatures in dissolved iron, spectroscopic signatures and thermodynamic properties of dissolved silica, non-mass dependent isotopic fractionation in heavy elements, calibration of the 13C-18O clumping paleothermometer, and the possibility of silicon as an alloying element in the Earth’s core.

Education

A.B. 1994 University of Chicago
Ph.D. 2002 California Institute of Technology

Dr. Robert Schiestl’s work focuses on basic mechanisms, genetic control and inducibility by carcinogens of homologous and illegitimate recombination, as well as molecular events involved in carcinogenesis. Experiments are carried out in yeast, human cells and in transgenic mice.