Heather Wall	Ph.D. Student Advisor: Linda Ivany
	Department of Earth Sciences 204 Heroy Geology Laboratory Syracuse University Syracuse, NY 13244-1070 USA Office: 215 Heroy Geology Laboratory Department: 315.443.2672 Fax: 315.443.3363 Email: hlbaugh@syr.edu
	Office Hours: for Fall 2007 none

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BIOGRAPHY and RESEARCH INTERESTS

• My research focuses on a potential molluscan extinction that occurred between the middle and late Eocene in the U.S. Gulf Coast.  It is hypothesized that this turnover was due to climate change.  I am evaluating this hypothesis and investigating the ecological and evolutionary responses of mollusks to this turnover.  To do this I am collecting species abundance data from bulk samples taken from middle and late Eocene formations that outcrop in Alabama and Mississippi.  In addition, I am working with undergraduate Caitlin Keating-Bitonti to reconstruct the climate history of this interval. 

GRANTS

• Geological Society of America Student Research Grant, 2005

  Paleontological Society Stephen J. Gould Student Research Grant, 2005

  GSA, Southeast section travel grant, 2003

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate travel grant, 2003

FIELD PHOTOS

When snails attack	Gosport Bluff, Alabama	late Eocene echinoid	late Eocene shell bed, Mississippi	Garland Creek, Mississippi

Click on thumbnails for larger image.

Currently a number of other graduate students and I are consulting on a new geology exhibit being constructed at the Museum of Science and Technology here in Syracuse. I am helping to develop text and visuals for the fossil exhibit.

Last spring I helped to organize the Central New York Earth Sciences Student Symposium. This is an annual event hosted by our department and organized by students. It features guest speakers and student poster sessions.

In addition, I am involved in a couple of science outreach programs. I work for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Science Horizons summer program for middle school students and Frontiers of Science for high school students. Both of these programs are enrichment opportunities for gifted students from across Syracuse and Onondaga County.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brett, C.E., Ivany, L.C., Baugh, H.L., Wall, P.D. Coordinated stasis revisited: Taxonomic and ecologic stability in the Devonian of New York State. (in review)

Baugh, H.L., Ivany, L.C. 2006. The paleoecology of turnover: preliminary results from the middle-late Eocene, U.S. Gulf Coast.  Climate and Biota of the Early Paleogene. Volume of Abstracts

Baugh, H.L., Brett,C.E., Ivany, L.C. 2005 Can we see the forest for the trees?  Faunal stability and spatio-temporal scale in the Hamilton Group, New York State.  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 37.

Lockwood, R. and Baugh, H.L. 2003. Rarity and extinction during background intervals: Are ecological patterns preserved in the fossil record?  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 35:417.

Baugh, H.L. and Lockwood, R. 2003. Does abundance promote survivorship during background extinction intervals? A case study using bivalve species from the Yorktown Formation.  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 35:69.

updated 8/31/07 MMC