Sidney Hemming is an analytical geochemist known for her work documenting Earth's history through analysis of sediments and sedimentary rocks. She is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University.

Education and career

Hemming earned a BS from

Midwestern University Midwestern University (MWU) is a private medical and professional school with campuses in Downers Grove, Illinois and Glendale, Arizona. As of the 2020-21 academic year, a total of 2,987 students were enrolled at the Downers Grove campus and 3, ...

in 1983 and an MS from Tulane University in 1986. In 1994 she earned her PhD from Stony Brook where she studied lead isotopes in sedimentary rocks. In 1994, Hemming started a postdoc with

Wally Broecker Wallace "Wally" Smith Broecker (November 29, 1931 – February 18, 2019) was an American geochemist. He was the Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, a scientist at Columbia's Lamont–D ...

at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. As of 2021, Hemming is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2018, Hemming was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union who cited her "for the development of geochemical and isotopic tracers for sediments to reveal geological processes and events through Earth's history". In 2021, Hemming received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

which she plans to use to study the time period between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene.

Research

Hemming's research documents changes in Earth's history using the chemical signals in sedimentary rocks and sediments. She uses geochronology to obtain age estimates of events occurring in the ocean thereby tracking changes in water circulation, winds, and glaciers. She has used neodymium isotopes to track rapid changes in

Antarctic Intermediate Water Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) is a cold, relatively low salinity water mass found mostly at intermediate depths in the Southern Ocean. The AAIW is formed at the ocean surface in the Antarctic Convergence zone or more commonly called the Ant ...

and changes in North Atlantic Deep Water. In the southern Ocean, Hemming has used strontium isotopes in sediments to track changes in the strength of the Agulhas current during the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...

and constrained the location of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. In California, her research on past climate conditions at Mono Lake revealed chemical signatures in the sediments recorded the

Laschamp event The Laschamp or Laschamps event was a geomagnetic excursion (a short reversal of the Earth's magnetic field). It occurred between 42,200 and 41,500 years ago, during the end of the Last Glacial Period. It was discovered from geomagnetic anomalie ...

, a global geomagnetic shift. In the North Atlantic Ocean, Hemming's research on

Heinrich events A Heinrich event is a natural phenomenon in which large groups of icebergs break off from glaciers and traverse the North Atlantic. First described by marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich (Heinrich, H., 1988), they occurred during five of the last ...

has constrained the amount of ice-rafted debris moved by icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

* Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2018) *Fellow, Geological Society of America (2018) *Fellow, Geochemical Society (2020) *Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2021)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hemming, Sidney Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Midwestern State University alumni Tulane University alumni Stony Brook University alumni Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people Women geochemists Paleoclimatologists Women geologists Columbia University faculty