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Jessica E. Tierney (born 1982) is an American
paleoclimatologist 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 ...
who has worked with geochemical proxies such as
marine sediment Marine sediment, or ocean sediment, or seafloor sediment, are deposits of insoluble particles that have accumulated on the seafloor. These particles have their origins in soil and rocks and have been transported from the land to the sea, mai ...
s, mud, and TEX86, to study past climate in East Africa. Her papers have been cited more than 2,500 times; her most cited work is ''Northern Hemisphere Controls on Tropical Southeast African Climate During the Past 60,000 Years''. Tierney is currently an associate professor of geosciences and the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Integrative Science at the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...
and faculty affiliate in the University of Arizona School of Geography, Development and Environment Tierney is the first climatologist to win NSF's Alan T Waterman Award (2022) since its inception in 1975.


Early life and education

Tierney was born in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
, and grew up in
Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is a ...
. Tierney completed her bachelor's degree in geology in 2005 at Brown University, where she researched trace elements in Peru Margin sediments for her thesis. She completed her Masters and PhD in geology at Brown University with a focus in
paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology (American and British English spelling differences, 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 ...
and organic geochemistry under the advisement of James M. Russell. At Brown, she also worked closely with Yongsong Huang. Sediment cores from
Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. T ...
allowed Tierney to examine changes in precipitation and temperature during the past glacial cycle in East Africa. She completed her postdoctoral work at
Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is the scientific research center of the Columbia Climate School, and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. It focuses on climate and earth sciences and is located on a 189-acre (64 ...
with paleo-oceanographer Peter deMenocal. Tierney worked as an assistant scientist at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...
before arriving at the
University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...
where she is an associate professor.


Research

Tierney is notable in paleoclimatology for her climate research using organic
biomarker In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, p ...
s. Her career studying past climate change was driven by her passion for both history and science. Tierney, along with Peter deMenocal and Paul Zander, studied the past climate of the Horn of Africa. They took cores of marine sediment, testing for alkenones, and concluded that about 70,000 years ago this region experienced a change from a wet climate to a dry, cold climate. Tierney and the co-authors determine this climate shift, which coincides with climate change and human activity, to be the force behind human migration. In addition, Tierney uses mud and leaf wax to learn about precipitation and the evolution of monsoons. Tierney also uses
TEX86 TEX86 is an organic paleothermometer based upon the membrane lipids of mesophilic marine Nitrososphaerota (formerly Marine Group 1 Crenarchaeota). Basics The membrane lipids of Nitrososphaerota are composed of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetrae ...
, a biomarker that tracks temperature, to study past climate in the tropics on decadal and interannual scales; for example, examining the relationship Indo-Pacific variability and East African rainfall.


Awards

* NSF's
Alan T. Waterman Award The Alan T. Waterman Award, named after Alan Tower Waterman, is the United States's highest honorary award for scientists no older than 40, or no more than 10 years past receipt of their Ph.D. It is awarded on a yearly basis by the National Scienc ...
(2022) * A lead author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2021 * Packard Science and Engineering Fellowship (2015–2020) * Pieter Schenk Award (2015) * James B. Macelwane Medal (2014)


Selected publications

* ''Northern hemisphere controls on tropical southeast African climate during the past 60,000 years,''
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
, 2008 * ''Distributions of branched GDGTs in a tropical lake system: implications for lacustrine application of the MBT/CBT paleoproxy'',
Organic Geochemistry Organic geochemistry is the study of the impacts and processes that organisms have had on the Earth. It is mainly concerned with the composition and mode of origin of organic matter in rocks and in bodies of water. The study of organic geochemistr ...
, 2009 * ''Environmental controls on branched tetraether lipid distributions in tropical East African lake sediments'',
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta ''Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta'' (GCA, for, , Latin, Geochemical and Cosmochemical Journal) is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1950 and is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Me ...
, 2010 * ''Multidecadal variability in East African hydroclimate controlled by the Indian Ocean'',
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
, 2013 * ''Late-twentieth-century warming in Lake Tanganyika unprecedented since AD 500'',
Nature Geoscience ''Nature Geoscience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. The Chief Editor is Tamara Goldin, who took over from Heike Langenberg in February 2020. It was established in January 2008. Scope The ...
, 2010 * ''Late Quaternary behavior of the East African monsoon and the importance of the Congo Air Boundary'',
Quaternary Science Reviews ''Quaternary Science Reviews'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering quaternary science. It was established in 1982 by Pergamon Press and is currently published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is C.V. Murray Wallace ( University of Wo ...
, 2011 * ''Abrupt Shifts in Horn of Africa Hydroclimate Since the Last Glacial Maximum'',
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
, 2013 * ''Coordinated hydrological regimes in the Indo- Pacific region during the past two millennia'',
Paleoceanography Paleoceanography is the study of the history of the oceans in the geologic past with regard to circulation, chemistry, biology, geology and patterns of sedimentation and biological productivity. Paleoceanographic studies using environment models ...
, 2010 * ''A molecular perspective on Late Quaternary climate and vegetation change in the Lake Tanganyika basin, East Africa'',
Quaternary Science Reviews ''Quaternary Science Reviews'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering quaternary science. It was established in 1982 by Pergamon Press and is currently published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is C.V. Murray Wallace ( University of Wo ...
, 2010


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tierney, Jessica 1982 births Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area Brown University alumni Paleoclimatologists American women scientists Living people 21st-century American women