Elizabeth Niespolo, Assistant Professor of Geosciences
Research Summary: Niespolo combines field work with applications in isotope geochemistry to anchor climatic, fossil, and archaeological records to precise timescales and in relation to environmental changes. The “tool kit” of her group emphasizes radioisotopic dating with additional activities in light stable isotope geochemistry, petrology, field geology, and archaeological excavation. A major focus of her research addresses outstanding questions on the timing and tempo of human evolution, including the development of modern human behaviors and the timing of global-scale human colonization. Other research foci include using petrology and isotopes to understand paleoenvironments, crustal processes, development of new isotopic applications, and in situ measurements to investigate geochemical heterogeneity in natural materials. Niespolo is setting up a laser ablation ICP-MS and U-series geochronology laboratory at Princeton.
Elizabeth Niespolo
Assistant Professor of Geosciences
Biography: Elizabeth Niespolo is an Assistant Professor in Geosciences. She is also Associated Faculty of the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), a member of the Executive Committee for the Certificate in Archaeology program (Art & Archaeology), and is a Research Associate with the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) based at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). Elizabeth completed her undergraduate study (2009) at the University of California Berkeley with a double major in Astrophysics and Classics. After traveling for field work, and teaching, she returned to school to complete a M.S. (2014) in Geology at California State University Long Beach and a Ph.D. (2019) in Earth & Planetary Science at Berkeley. She is from Oakland, California
Related News:
What Dinosaur eggshells can teach us about forgotten ecosystems Princeton Research (2022)
Discarded ostrich shells provide timeline for our early African ancestors, The Leakey Foundation (2021)
How a geochronologist learns to “read rocks,” The Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) (2020)
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More recent articles
The warming trend in global temperature continued in 2022, which was the sixth-warmest year on record, according to a recent report from the NOAA. But a viral tweet — using just a small segment of a NOAA graph — wrongly claimed the agency had announced a “global cooling” trend. Professor of geosciences Gabriel Vecchi explains…
Congratulations to Dr. John Geary Murphy on successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis! The title of his thesis was "Carbonate Archives of Seawater Lithium: Element and Isotope Ratios, Diagenesis, and the History of Seawater Chemistry."
Congratulations to Dr. Ellen Ai on successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis! The title of her thesis was "On the Role of the Southern Ocean in the Glacial-Interglacial Cycles of the Past 460,000 Years: Changes in Wind-Driven Upwelling and Ocean Front Position Revealed by Reconstructed Surface Ocean Nutrient Conditions and Temperatures."
Princeton scientists found that the Bering Land Bridge, the strip of land that once connected Asia to Alaska, emerged far later during the last ice age than previously thought. (Sigman, Farmer, Pico ’14 mention)
The work of climate modelers informs public policy and influences strategies for mitigating risks and adapting to change.