Amy Leventer is an American

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

researcher specialising in micropaleontology, with specific research interests in marine geology,

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. Leventer has made over a dozen journeys to the Antarctic, which began at the age of 24 and led to the pursuit of her PhD.

Early life and education

Leventer grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, and Congers, New York. As a child she collected seashells, pebbles, insects, leaves and flowers. She always tried to organise things by what they looked like and order the items that she saw around her. Leventer attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

to study a Bachelors of science in aquatic biology in 1979, followed by a Masters at the University of South Carolina in 1982 and a PhD in geology from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

in 1988.

Career and impact

Leventer started her post-doctoral research at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

(1989–92) where she received the Byrd Postdoctoral Fellowship, and she continued with research and teaching appointments at Otterbein College (1990–94) and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

(1994–97). She was appointed a Visiting Assistant Professor at

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

in 1997, promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and to Full Professor in 2013. She served as Chair of the Department of Geology from 2009 to 2012 and is currently the chair of Colgate's Research Council. Her teaching impact has been recognised by nomination for the Phi Eta Sigma student award on three occasions, and she has mentored more than 50 research and independent study students. Leventer specialises in marine geology, biological oceanography, and

paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

. Her research involves the study of

over geological time through analysis of the sedimentary fossil record from Antarctica, where she has travelled many times since 1983. She was Chief Scientist on a 2014 international research cruise to Antarctica to evaluate the recent and longer-term behavior of glacial systems. Among almost 50 scientific publications, Leventer has three co-authored articles in the prestigious journal Nature.

Awards and honors

* 1998: Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Queen's University, Kingston Canada * 1989: Byrd Postdoctoral Fellowship, Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University * 2019: Goldthwait Polar Medal

Selected works

* Leventer, Amy, et al. "Productivity cycles of 200–300 years in the Antarctic Peninsula region: understanding linkages among the sun, atmosphere, oceans, sea ice, and biota." ''Geological Society of America Bulletin'' 108.12 (1996): 1626–1644. * Smith, Raymond C., et al. "Marine Ecosystem Sensitivity to Climate Change Historical observations and paleoecological records reveal ecological transitions in the Antarctic Peninsula region." ''BioScience'' 49.5 (1999): 393–404. * Leventer, Amy. et al., "Marine sediment record from the East Antarctic margin reveals dynamics of ice sheet recession." "GSA Today" 16.12 (2006): 4-10. * Mackintosh, Andrew, et al., "Retreat history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum." "Quaternary Science Reviews" 100.15 (2014): 10–30.

References

External links

Amy Leventer's webpage

Amy Leventer
on

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Amy Leventer
on

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leventer, Amy American women scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American Antarctic scientists Women Antarctic scientists Rice University alumni Micropaleontologists University of South Carolina alumni Brown University alumni 21st-century American women