Adjunct Professor
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Northwestern University, Technological Institute
Tel. (847) 491-8790
E-mail: n-blair@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae

B.S. (Chemistry), University of Maryland, 1975

PhD (Organic Chemistry), Stanford University, 1980

TEACHING AND RESEARCH AREAS

Research has focused on the biogeochemical transformations of carbon with an emphasis on process-oriented studies of the fate of organic carbon in surface environments. Methanogenesis, methane oxidation, and the influence of macrofauna on organic carbon diagenesis are some of the processes investigated in field areas ranging from the North Carolina slope to the Amazon shelf. Current projects involve the evolution of organic carbon as particles move from exposed bedrock on land to ultimate burial at sea. Riverine systems in northern California, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are under investigation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

The Persistence of Memory: The Fate of Ancient Sedimentary Organic Carbon in a Modern Sedimentary System. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, (2003) 67: 63-73 (Neal Blair, Elana Leithold, Shawn Ford, Kelly Peeler, Jennifer Holmes and David Perkey).

Patterns of intramolecular carbon isotopic heterogeneity within amino acids of autotrophs and heterotrophs. Oecologia (2004) 121: 178-189 (W.B. Savidge and N.E. Blair).

Early diagenetic remineralization of sedimentary organic C in the Gulf of Papua deltaic complex (Papua New Guinea): net loss of terrestrial C and diagenetic fractionation of C isotopes. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta (2004) 68: 1815-1825 (R.C. Aller and N.E. Blair).

From bedrock to burial: the evolution of particulate organic carbon across coupled watershed-continental margin systems. Mar. Chem. (2004) 92: 141-156 (N.E. Blair, E.L. Leithold and R.C. Aller).

Sedimentation and carbon burial on the northern California continental shelf: the signatures of land-use change. Continent. Shelf Res. (2005) 25: 349-371 (E. Leithold, D.W. Perkey, N.E. Blair. T. Creamer).