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J. William (“Bill”) Schopf, Professor of Paleobiology & Director of IGPP CSEOL |
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J. William Schopf and his wife, Jane (plant biologist) |
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| Mailing Address: | Department of Earth and Space Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles
595 Charles Young Drive East,
Box 951567
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 |
| Office: | Geology 5687 |
| Telephone: | (310) 825-1170 |
| Fax: | (310) 825-2779 |
| E-mail: | schopf@ess.ucla.edu |
| Web Site: | CSEOL Home Page
CSEOL Web Page |
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Courses Taught |
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| | ESS 16
ESS 257 |
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Current Research Interest |
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Paleobiology-evolution of primitive Precambrian organisms; organic geochemistry of ancient sediments; evolutionary biology; atmospheric evolution, paleobotany. |
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Paleobiology & Astrobiology: Use of cutting-edge techniques – confocal laser scanning microscopy and two- and three-dimensional Raman spectroscopy – to provide new insight into the cellular anatomy and chemistry of fossil plants, animals and microbes, including Precambrian microscopic fossils among the oldest known, and to demonstrate the usefulness of these new techniques for analyses of taphonomy and for distinguishing biologic remnants from non-fossil “look-alikes” (important, particularly, in studies of life’s earliest history and the search for evidence of past life in Mars rocks). |
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Organic Geochemistry: Raman spectroscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and laboratory heating experiments of ancient rock-embedded kerogens – including those comprising fossil plants, animals, and microbes cellularly preserved in cherts and phosphates – to understand the chemistry of cellular permineralization, to define the kinetics of the geochemical maturation of ancient organic matter, and to develop a low-temperature (pre-metamorphic) “geochemical thermometer” of use both in paleobiology and in petroleum exploration. |
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Education |
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| | A.B., 1963, Oberlin College
A.M., 1965, Harvard University
Ph.D., 1968, Harvard University |
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Honors and Awards |
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UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award; Academic Senate Faculty Research Lecturer; Gold Shield Prize for Academic Excellence |
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Member, National Academy of Sciences; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society; American Academy of Achievement |
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Foreign Member, Linnean Society of London; A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry (Russian Academy of Sciences); Curatorium, Geobio- Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München |
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A.T. Waterman Medal (National Science Board); M.C. Thompson Medal (National Academy of Sciences); A.I. Oparin Medal (International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life); Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Senior Research Award; Guggenheim Fellow (1973-74; 1988-89) |
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Selected Publications |
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Schopf, J.W., Kudryavtsev, A.B., Czaja, A.D., and Tripathi, B., Evidence of Archean life: stromatolites and microfossils, Precambrian Research 158, 141-155, 2007. |
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McKeegan, K.D., Kudryavtsev, A.B., and Schopf, J.W., Raman and ion microscopic imagery of graphitic inclusions in apatite from >3830 Ma Akilia supracrustals, West Greenland, Geology 35, 591-594, 2007. |
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Chen, J-Y., Schopf, J.W., Bottjer, D.J., Zhang, C.-Y., Kudryavtsev, A.B., Wang, X.-Q., Yang, Y.-H., and Gao, X., Raman spectra of a Lower Cambrian ctenophore embryo from SW Shaanxi, China, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 6289-6292, 2007.; |
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Schopf, J.W., Fossil evidence of Archaean life, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 361, 869-885, 2006. |
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Schopf, J.W., Tripathi, A., and Kudryavtsev, A. B., Three-dimensional confocal optical microscopy of Precambrian microscopic organisms, Astrobiology 6, 1-16, 2006. |
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Schopf, J.W. and Kudryavtsev, A.B., Three-dimensional Raman imagery of Precambrian microscopic organisms, Geobiology 3, 1-12, 2005.
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| | Schopf, J. W. (Ed.), Life's Origin, The Beginnings of Biological Organization, Univ. Calif. Press, 208 pp., 2002. |
| | Schopf, J.W., Kudryavtsev, A.B., Agresti, D.G., Wdowiak, T.J. and Czaja, A.D., Laser-Raman imagery of Earth's earliest fossils, Nature 416, 73-76, 2002. |
| | Schopf, J.W., Solution to Darwin's dilemma: Discovery of the missing Precambrian fossil record, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 6947-6953, 2000. |
| | Schopf, J.W., Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils, Princeton Univ. Press, 367 pp., 1999. |
| | Schopf, J.W., Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex chert: New evidence of the antiquity of life, Science 260, 640-646, 1993. |
| | Schopf, J.W. (Ed.), Major Events in the History of Life, Jones and Bartlett, 190 pp., 1992. |
| | Schopf, J.W. and Kllein C. (Eds.), The Proterozoic Biosphere, A Multidisciplinary Study, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1348 pp., 1992. |
| | Schopf, J.W. (Ed.), Earth's Earliest Biosphere, Its Origin and Evolution, Princeton Univ. Press, 543 pp., 1983. |
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Graduate Students |
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| | Recent graduates:
Andrew D. Czaja (Ph.D., 2006; currently Post-doctoral Fellow,
University of Wisconsin Center for Astrobiology,
Madison, Wisconsin)
Abhishek B. Tripathi (Ph.D., 2007, currently Scientific Program
Officer, Advanced Projects Office - Constellation Projects
Office, NASA Johnson Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX)
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| | Prof. Schopf currently has space available for two incoming graduate
students, with the possible award to exceptional
students of a CSEOL Fellowship (a $5,000 stipend for
each of the first two years of graduate study, no
strings attached)
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