Ariel Anbar is an isotope geochemist and President's Professor at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

. He has published over 180 refereed papers on topics ranging from the origins of Earth's atmosphere to detecting life on other worlds to diagnosing human disease.

Education and career

Anbar was born in

Rehovot, Israel Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

and raised in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

and

Amherst, New York Amherst () is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Erie County, New York, Erie County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is a suburb of Buffalo, New York, Buffalo. As of 2020, the town had a total population of 129,595. ...

. He received a A.B. in Geological Sciences and Chemistry from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1989. While at Harvard, he worked under the supervision of Heinrich Holland and conducted experiments that suggested the importance of photochemical oxidation in Archean oceans, especially as a possible source of manganese oxides before the

Great Oxidation Event The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis or Oxygen Holocaust, was a time interval during the Earth's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere an ...

. He received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1996, advised by Gerald Wasserburg, where he developed methods for ultra-sensitive determination of

rhenium Rhenium is a chemical element; it has symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an estimated average concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb), rhenium is one ...

and

iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

in seawater. He was on the faculty of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

from 1996 to 2004. Since 2004, he has been on the faculty in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Molecular Sciences at

Research

Anbar's research group uses multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) to study natural variations in the “non-traditional” stable isotope abundances of transition metals as biomarkers and as probes of ancient ocean oxygenation. His group was the first to report natural fractionation of

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mo (from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'') and atomic number 42. The name derived from Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lead ores. Molybdenum minerals hav ...

isotopes, including how and why molybdenum isotopes fractionate during adsorption to

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

oxides. This work provided a foundation for the use of

isotopes to study ancient ocean redox change. Anbar and colleagues discovered a "whiff of oxygen" fifty million years before the

Anbar's group has also worked on

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

isotopes, demonstrating abiotic fractionation in low and high temperature systems. They have also worked to develop the

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

isotope system as a paleoredox proxy, opening up the

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word "carbonate" may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate group ...

sedimentary record for investigation of changes in ocean oxygenation and their linkages to evolution. Anbar has also been involved in development of method to use

calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

isotopes to study

bone disease Bone disease refers to the medical conditions which affect the bone. Terminology A bone disease is also called an "osteopathy", but because the term osteopathy is often used to refer to an alternative health-care philosophy, use of the term can ...

Leadership

Anbar led the NASA Astrobiology Institute program at

from 2009 to 2015. He served as President-Elect and President of the Biogeosciences Section of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

from 2015 to 2019. He currently directs the Center for Education Through Exploration at

, which is reinventing digital learning around curiosity, exploration, and discovery.

Awards

Anbar is a Fellow of the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hi ...

, the Geochemical Society, the

European Association of Geochemistry The European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) is a pan-European organization founded to promotes geochemical research. The EAG organizes conferences, meetings and educational courses for geochemists in Europe, including the Goldschmidt Conference w ...

, and the

. In 2002, he was awarded the Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal) from the

. In 2014, he was appointed a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

Professor in recognition of his work in

digital learning Digital learning is learning that is supported by technology. It encompasses any type of learning that is accompanied by technology or by instructional practice that makes effective use of technology. It includes a wide array of practices, includ ...

innovation. In 2017, he was named one of 10 “teaching innovators” by the

Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscriptio ...

. He was the Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecturer at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in 2017, and received the Samuel Epstein Science Innovation Award from the

in 2019. He received the Arthur L. Day Medal from the

in 2020. He is a Distinguished Sustainability Scholar in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at

References

External links

Ariel Anbar
publications indexed by

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anbar, Ariel American geochemists Living people Harvard College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Arizona State University faculty