Donald DePaolo
Faculty

Donald DePaolo
Application of mass spectrometry, radiogenic isotope geochemistry, and principles of physics and chemistry to fundamental problems in geology.
Don DePaolo has been teaching and conducting research at University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1988. He is the Director of the Center for Isotope Geochemistry, a joint-institution research center at both UC Berkeley and LBNL, and holds the Class of 1951 Chair as professor of geochemistry.
Over Don's academic career he has mentored more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to rewarding careers in academia, industry, and government.
He also serves as a senior manager at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory--currently Director of the Earth Sciences Division and Associate Laboratory Director for Energy and Environmental Sciences and the Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences (read more about his LBNL roles).
Don's research interests:
- Understanding how isotopes of elements like Ca, Mg, C, O, and Li are fractionated as minerals like calcite precipitate from natural waters.
- Measuring the past environmental conditions in the oceans and atmosphere with isotopes
- How magma is generated in the Earth and how magma generation controls the behavior of volcanoes.
- The origin of mantle plumes such as the Hawaiian plume and what it reveals about the deep Earth
- How continental crust is formed and modified in continental collision zones, focusing on the most dramatic of active continental collisions on the Earth (the Himalaya and Tibet)
- Observing fluids as they flow through groundwater systems and interact with surrounding rock (also applied to studying contaminants traveling in groundwater)
- Using U-series isotopes to measure the origin and transport history of sediments
- Examining isotopic compositions of old ocean sediments and their pore fluids to understand how to interpret evidence about ancient climate
- Studying difficult-to-date rocks, from young lavas to ancient continental rocks, to determine their age using novel methods of geochronology
Please check the Earth and Planetary Science Department's course webpages for current course offerings. Don usually teaches the EPS Freshman/Sophomore seminar course EPS 39a "Geological Influences in California Society Today" (5 lectures, field trip and paper), or the EPS 119 Geologic Field Studies (5 lectures, field trip and paper).
Graduate Students supervised and current affiliation where now
Sarah Aciego - U Michigan
Ethan Baxter - Boston U
Vickie Bennett - Australian National University
Rosemary Capo - U Pittsburgh
John N. Christensen - LBNL
Ellen Daley - Alaska Div Mines
Allen Dodson
Jennifer Druhan - Stanford University
Matthew Fantle - Penn State U
G. Lang Farmer - U Colorado
Maureen Feineman - Penn State U
Lisa Hammersley - Cal State U Sacramento
Melissa Hendricks
Thomas Johnson - U Illinois Urbana-Champaign
John C Lassiter - U Texas Austin
Victoria Lee - British Embassy, San Francisco
Anne M. Linn - National Research Council NAS
Katharine Maher - Stanford U
Brian D. Marshall - USGS Denver
Sean McCauley
Bruce K Nelson - U Washington
Laura Nielsen - U.C. Berkeley
Frank V. Perry - LANL
Brook Peterson
Daniel Schrag - Harvard University
Justin Simon - Lunar & Planetary Institute
Kenneth Sims - U. Wyoming
Joseph Skulan - U Wisconsin Madison
Brian Stewart - U Pittsburgh
James Watkins - U. Oregon
Eric Wendlandt
Shuo Zhang - Saudi Aramco, Houston
Current:
Elizabeth Mitnick UC Berkeley
Michael Antonelli UC Berkeley
Shaun Brown UC Berkeley/LBNL
Masters only:
Steven Semken (MS)
Hyunchae Cynn (MS)
Don Musselwhite (MS)
Megan Smith (MS)
Postdocs (15 total)
Scott Borg - NSF
Julie Bryce - U New Hampshire
Christina De La Rocha - U Cambridge UK
Nicola Swinburne
Stephen Getty
Jo Lin
Chang-Hwa Chen - Acad. Sinica Taiwan (deceased)
Garret Hart - Washington State U
Michael Singleton – LLNL
Sasha Turchyn - U Cambridge
Stephanie Ewing - Montana State University
In last 5 years (with current affiliation):
Justin Simon – Lunar & Planetary Institute
Anirban Basu - UC Berkeley
Alexander Gagnon - U. Washington
Amy Hofmann – Franklin & Marshall
Education
BS with Honors (Geology), SUNY Binghamton 1973
Positions Held
Director, Earth Sciences Division, LBNL 2007-2013
Class of 1951 Professor of Geochemistry, 1998-
Director, Center for Isotope Geochemistry, UC Berkeley & LBNL, 1988-
University of California, Berkeley: Professor of Geochemistry, 1988- ; Chair, Department of Geology and Geophysics. 1990-93
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division: Faculty Scientist, 1988- ; Geochemistry Department Head, 1998-2006
University of California, Los Angeles: Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Geology and Geochemistry, 1978-88
Professional Service
Most recent
Past
American Geophysical Union: Fellows Committee, 1984-86, 1993-95; (VGP Section) 1993-95; H.H. Hess Award Comm., Chair, 1984-85, 1996-98; MacElwane Award Comm. , 1984-86; Secretary, VGP Section, 1986-88; Program Comm. ,1986-88; GRL Directions & Rev. Comm., Chair, 1995-96
Visiting/Review Committees University Earth Science departments: MIT Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Dept. 1989-98; Harvard Dept. Earth and Planetary Sci., 1990-95, Chair 1992-95; U. Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Tech., 1992; Purdue Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sci., 1993, Chair, 1998; U. Michigan Dept. Geological Sci., 1995; U.C. Santa Barbara Dept. Geological Sciences, 1997; U. Minnesota Dept. Geol. Sciences, Chair, 1997; Caltech Div. Geological and Planetary Sci., 2001-; Inst. Earth Sciences, Taiwan Academy of Sciences, Chair 2001, 2003; U. Oklahoma, 2004.
Editorial: Associate Ed., J.Geophys. Res., 1985-87; Associate Ed., Isotope Geoscience, 1983-1987; Assistant Ed., J. Petrology, 1986-1992; Guest Assoc. Ed., J. Geophys. Res., 1995-96; Guest Ed., Geochem., Geophysics, Geosystems, 2001-2004; Ed. Board, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1997-99
U.S. Department of Energy: Physical Sci. Advisory Comm., LLNL, 1993-95; Env. Programs Advisory Comm., LLNL, 1995-2006; Geochem. Panel, EMSP, 1997; Earth Sciences Council, BES/Geosciences Program, 1996-2007 (Chair 2000-2007); Co-chair, BES Workshop on Basic Research Needs in Geoscience (2006-07); Basic Energy Sciences/BESAC subcommittee on New Era of Science (2008)
Other: F.W. Clarke Medal Comm. (Geochemical Society), 1984-86 (Chair, 1985-86); Councilor, Geochemical Society, 1986-88; Donath Medal Comm. (GSA) 1989-92; MSA Award Comm., 1995-96; Arthur L Day Prize Comm. (NAS), 1998; Urey Award Comm., EAG, 2001; Epstein Medal Comm, EAG, 2008; Day Medal Committee, GSA (2007-10); Day Prize Comm. NAS, 2010; Program Advisory Comm, DUSEL (2010- 2011); Stanley Miller Medal Committee, NAS (2009-2010);
These papers exemplify Dr. DePaolo's recent research interests:
Payne, J.L., Turchyn, A.V., Paytan, A., DePaolo, D.J., Lehrmann, D.J., Yu, Y., Wei, J., Calcium isotope constraints on the end-Permian mass extinction, Proc. National Acad. Sci. v. 107, no. 19, 8543–8548 (2010) doi:10.1073/pnas.0914065107/-/DCSupplemental
Aciego, S.M., Jourdan, F., DePaolo, D.J., Kennedy, B.M., Renne, P.R., and Sims, K.W.W, Combined U-Th/He and 40Ar/39Ar Geochronology of Post-shield Lavas from the Mauna Kea and Kohala volcanoes, Hawaii. Earth Planetary Science Letters, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74(5): 1620-1635 (2010), doi:10.1016/j.gca.2009.11.020
Watkins, J.M., DePaolo, D.J., Huber, C. and Ryerson, F.J., Isotope fractionation by diffusion of multi-atom chemical species in silicate liquids Liquid composition-dependence of calcium isotope fractionation during diffusion in molten silicates, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 73, 7341–7359 (2009), doi:10.1016/j.gca.2009.09.004
Simon, J., DePaolo, D.J., and Moynier, F., Calcium isotope composition of meteorites, Earth, and Mars, The Astrophysical Journal, v. 702; 707-715 (2009), doi:10.1088/0004-637X/702/1/707
Stolper, E.M., DePaolo, D.J. and Thomas, D.M., Deep Drilling into a Mantle Plume Volcano: The Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project, Scientific Drilling, no. 7, March 2009, doi:10.2204/iodp.sd.7.02.2009
Lu, G., D. J. DePaolo, Q. Kang, and D. Zhang (2009), Lattice Boltzmann simulation of snow crystal growth in clouds, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D07305, doi:10.1029/2008JD011087
Lee, J.-E., Fung, I., DePaolo, D.J., and Otto-Bliesner, B., Water Isotopes during the Last Glacial Maximum: New GCM calculations. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, v.113, D19109 (15pp) (2008), doi:10.1029/2008JD009859
Ewing, S.A. Yang, W., DePaolo, D.J., Michalski, G., Kendall, C., Stewart, B.W., Thiemens, M., and Amundson, R., Non-biological Fractionation of Stable Ca Isotopes in Soils of the Atacama Desert, Chile, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol 72/4 pp 1096-1110 (2008), doi:10.1016/j.gca.2007.10.029
Fantle, M.S. and DePaolo, D.J., Ca isotopes in carbonate sediment and pore fluid from ODP Site 807A: The Ca2+(aq)-calcite equilibrium fractionation factor and calcite recrystallization rates in Pleistocene sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 71, 2524-2546 (2007), doi:10.1016/j.gca.2007.03.006
- Harry H. Hess Medal, American Geophysical Union, 2014
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2009
- Harold Urey Medal, European Association of Geochemistry, 2000
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 2000-2001
- Arthur L. Day Medal, Geol. Soc. America, 1999
- Fellow, Geological Soc. America, 1997
- Geochemistry Fellow, Geochemical Soc. and EAG, 1997
- Miller Research Professor, U.C. Berkeley, 1997-98
- Fulbright Senior Scholar, Australia National University, 1994-95
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1994
- Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1993
- Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, 1992
- Fellow, Mineralogical Society of America, 1987
- Mineralogical Society of America Award, 1987
- Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 1983
- J.B. MacElwane Award, American Geophysical Union, 1983
- F.W. Clarke Medal, Geochemical Society, 1978
For publications before 2010 please see the publication list here. This webpage also includes several links for downloading articles.