Fisher Professor of Natural History and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Andy Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in Geology from Lehigh University in 1973 and his Ph.D., also in Geology, from Harvard in 1977.... Read more about Andrew H. Knoll
Before joining the Knoll Group, Drew received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Geosciences from Virginia Tech. As a paleontologist and geobiologist, his work focuses on fossils of complex eukaryotes in the late Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic interval (~1000-450 Ma) of the geologic record. By studying the paleobiology and paleoenvironments of these fossils, his work aims to understand the rise of animal life and its impact on the Earth system.
I received my PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara; my MS from University of California, Los Angeles and my B.S. in Geology from Louisiana Tech University. I joined Andy Knoll's Lab in August of 2015 as a NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow.
I study the most interesting billion years of life's history- the Neoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic Eras (~1600 to 540 million years ago). This is when eukaryotes (cells with nuclei) became more diverse and abundant and I want to understand more about how that happened and why it happened when it did. During this time there were also major changes in the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and there were at least two global glaciations. With my research I am working to understand life's role in that changing world.... Read more about Leigh Anne Riedman
Post-Doctoral Fellow Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows Knoll - Pierce - Lauder Groups
Elizabeth is both a paleontologist and biological oceanographer. She is broadly interested in the evolution, structure, and function of ocean ecosystems. She uses a multi-proxy approach to study how the open ocean ecosystem has changed through time, with a focus on how it has responded to climate and biotic events in the past. Elizabeth works primarily with ichthyoliths, microfossil fish teeth and shark scales found in deep-sea sediments world wide, which preserve an unparalleled record of fish diversity, abundance, and community structure through geologic time.
