Geological Approaches to Diverse Questions
— From Primordial Soup to Oregon Wine

Chris Oze, Bryn Mawr's new assistant professor of geology, is a firm believer in collaboration, both within his field and with researchers in other scientific disciplines. Trained in diverse geoscientific specialties — mineralogy, petrology, geochemical thermodynamics and kinetics, biogeochemistry and soil chemistry — he has investigated the possibility (or lack thereof) of life on Mars, the relationship between vineyard soil and wine quality, and the effect of environmental factors on breast cancer incidence, among many other topics. He has taught a volcanology course in Hawaii and evaluated thermodynamic hydrochemistry for submarine hydrothermal systems as an invited scientist on a scientific cruise off the Oregon coast.

“I've always been a question asker,” Oze says.

Before coming to Bryn Mawr, Oze was the Joseph Obering Postdoctoral Fellow and a research assistant professor/lecturer in the department of earth sciences at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. in 2003 from Stanford University and his B.A. in geology and chemistry in 1997 from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. He worked as a geology technician and researcher at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., in 1997-98 and as a geology consultant assessing chromium hazards in the Santa Clara Basin with the U.S. Geological Survey from 2001 to 2003.

Oze traces his interest in geology to a childhood trip to the renowned mineral-and-rock convention in Tucson, Ariz. Yet, he notes, “I didn't know that geology was a career path until I took a geology course.”

Organic and Abiotic Studies

Oze conducted a petrologic analysis of pahoehoe lava on Hawaii's Kalapana flow field for his Whitman thesis and originally planned to be a volcanologist. But at Stanford, he became interested in the potential of rocks and soils to yield answers to fundamental questions.

He is currently investigating the geological conditions necessary for the formation of sugars and proteins — “the building blocks of life” — through water-rock interactions. He is conducting studies on the abiotic formation of organic molecules, using geochemical modeling and surface chemistry to find the source of the hydrogen that drives the reactions. “We're essentially trying to create the primordial soup,” Oze explains.

Oze is also studying the effects on human health of trace and heavy metals in the hydrosphere and biosphere. One of these studies assesses the relationship between exposure to serpentinites and the incidence of breast cancer in Marin County, Calif. The region's serpentinites (rocks composed primarily of hydrous magnesium iron silicate minerals) contain high concentrations of several toxic and carcinogenic elements. Interestingly, one such chemical is chromium-6 — which played a starring role in the film Erin Brockovich, as a drinking water contaminant, Oze notes.

Oze uses geochemistry and geographic imaging systems (GIS) to evaluate the data.

Oze has also collaborated with Yale University's H. Catherine Skinner in studies of the effect of serpentinite environments on plant life. Despite the toxic elements in serpentine soils, some plant species have adapted well to this environment.

In collaboration with Whitman College's Kevin Pogue, Oze will be studying the soil cover in the Walla Walla Valley's wine region. “ Geochemical “fingerprints” of the soil can yield information on trace elements that give the wine grapes their distinctive taste. .

Many of Oze's investigations involve the role of bacteria — affectionately called “bugs” by scientists — in producing reactions. “It all goes back to biology,” he notes. “It's not just a straight geologic process.”

Yet working with Dartmouth's Mukul Sharma, Oze found that methane gas present on Mars could have been produced by inorganic processes rather than by bacteria — a finding that indicates there may not necessarily be life on the red planet. “I play for both sides — against and for the bugs,” Oze quips.

Student Interactions

At Bryn Mawr, Oze says, “I've been very impressed by the quality of the students. Of course they're very bright, but what I really love about teaching them is that they are so enthusiastic about the work they're doing here.”

Oze says he enjoys teaching: “Undergraduates are open to new ideas. They're not sure what they want to do yet. Hopefully, they can find something that will excite them; that's what I'm here to help them do.”

Geology department chairman W. Bruce Saunders notes that Oze's specialty, mineralogy and petrology, “has been a traditional strength at Bryn Mawr.” Saunders says that Oze offered “a breadth that we felt would be advantageous to our small size. We're a very small department, and breadth is definitely a plus.” In addition, Saunders says, “he had experience in a liberal-arts environment and expressed a commitment to liberal-arts education, which we also found a good fit.”

Oze will be able to pursue his interest in interdisciplinary collaboration in the College's Environmental Studies Program, where he is currently co-teaching a course with another new faculty member, Assistant Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities Ellen Stroud, whose academic training is primarily in history. "It's a very interesting relationship," Oze notes. I'm very scientific in my approach, and she has a humnanist's perspective of the big picture — the politics and history of why I'm studying what I'm studying. It works really well, and our students seem to enjoy the interchange very much."

“My teaching style can be described as quirky,” Oze says. In his teaching as well as in his research, he likes to ask a lot of questions, he explains. If he sees an aluminum soda can on a student's desk, for example, he might ask, “How did that aluminum can get on your desk?” — which might spark a wide-ranging discussion of how aluminum was discovered.

“I want them to discover things by their own reasoning, think creatively, prove me wrong and see problems out there,” Oze says. “I want them to tie the material to fields outside of geology, and see things in a new light.”

— By Barbara Spector for Bryn Mawr S&T

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