David McGee

http://mit.edu/davidmcg/www

Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, 2009 , M.S., Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, 2006 , M.A., Teaching, Chatham College, 2003 , B.A., Geology (summa cum laude), Carleton College, 1997

David McGee’s research focuses on understanding the atmosphere’s response to past climate changes. By documenting past changes in precipitation and winds using geochemical measurements of stalagmites, lake deposits and marine sediments and interpreting these records in the light of models and theory, he aims to offer data-based insights into the patterns, pace and magnitude of past hydroclimate changes. His primary tool is measurements of uranium-series isotopes, which provide precise uranium-thorium dates for stalagmites and lake deposits and allow reconstructions of windblown dust emission and transport using marine sediments. McGee joined the faculty in 2012 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship with a joint appointment at the University of Minnesota and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He holds a Ph.D. in Earth and environmental sciences from Columbia University.

D. McGee, G. Winckler, A. Borunda, S. Serno, R.F. Anderson, C. Recasens, A. Bory, D. Gaiero, S.L. Jaccard, M. Kaplan, J.F. McManus, M. Revel, Y. Sun (2016), Tracking eolian dust with helium and thorium: Impacts of grain size and provenance, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 175, 47-67, doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2015.11.023



S. Albani, N.M. Mahowald, L.N. Murphy, R. Raiswell, J.K. Moore, R.F. Anderson, D. McGee, L.I. Bradtmiller, B. Delmonte, P.P. Hesse, P.A. Mayewski (2016), Paleodust variability since the Last Glacial Maximum and implications for iron inputs to the ocean, Geophysical Research Letters 43, doi: 10.1002/2016GL067911



Louisa I. Bradtmiller, David McGee, Mitchell Awalt, Joseph Evers, Haley Yerxa, Christopher W. Kinsley, and Peter B. deMenocal (2016), Changes in biological productivity along the northwest African margin over the past 20,000 years, Paleoceanography, 31, doi: 10.1002/2015PA002862



Stephen J. Burns, Laurie R. Godfrey, Peterson Faina, David McGee, Ben Hardt, Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana, and Jeannot Randrianasy (2016), Rapid human-induced landscape transformation in Madagascar at the end of the first millennium of the Common Era, Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 134, 15 February 2016, Pages 92–99, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.01.007



Albani, S. and Mahowald, N. M. and Winckler, G. and Anderson, R. F., et al. (2015) Twelve thousand years of dust: the Holocene global dust cycle constrained by natural archives Climate of the Past, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 869-903, doi: 10.5194/cp-11-869-2015



Cross, M. and McGee, D. and Broecker, W. S. and Quade, J. and Shakun, J. D. and Cheng, H. and Lu, Y. B. and Edwards, R. L. (2015) Great Basin hydrology, paleoclimate, and connections with the North Atlantic: A speleothem stable isotope and trace element record from Lehman Caves, NV, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 127, pp. 186-198, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.06.016



Steponaitis, E. and Andrews, A. and McGee, D. and Quade, J. and Hsieh, Y. T. and Broecker, W. S. and Shuman, B. N. and Burns, S. J. and Cheng, H. (2015) Mid-Holocene drying of the US Great Basin recorded in Nevada speleothems Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 127, pp. 174-185, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.04.011

Kerr-McGee Career Development Associate Professor (2015-Present) | Ally of Nature Fund, MIT (2013) | Earl Killian and Waidy Lee Fund, MIT (2011) | NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow (2009) | NSF Graduate Teaching Fellow (2008) | NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2005) | Phi Beta Kappa (1996)