Isabel P. Montañez '81 Honored by U.C. Davis and the Geological Society of America
Isabel P. Montañez '81, a professor in U.C. Davis' Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, has received several recent honors.
At U.C. Davis, Montañez was awarded the honorary designation of Chancellor’s Leadership Professor, The honor recognizes her outstanding scholarship and many academic contributions to the campus.
In July, Montañez was named the new vice president and president-elect of the Geological Society of America.
Montañez is an internationally recognized geochemist and field geologist. Her interests include the periods of major climate change and ecosystem change in Earth’s deep past, such as when complex life first emerged. Montañez’s reconstructions of isotopic records of ancient seawater, coupled with sea-level history, also provide new insights into the role of greenhouse gases in past climate shifts. The findings have implications for predicting how our climate might evolve with continued greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Montañez is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geochemical Society and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Julie Griffin '11 is among the Ph.D. students currently working with Montañez.