Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting you to submit an abstract to Goldschmidt 2024 session 9e: Biomineralization and Geobiology: The intersection between life and minerals. We hope to bring together researchers working on including but not limited to biominerals, biomineralization processes, interaction of biominerals and geochemical environments, and using biominerals as proxies using field, laboratory, and modeling approaches.

We are also excited to announce our keynote speaker, Clara Chan (University of Delaware).

The deadline for abstract submission is March 29, exactly two weeks from today. We urge you to invite your students, postdocs, and colleagues to submit abstracts. Please feel free to reach out to me (yihang@wustl.edumailto:yihang@wustl.edu) or the other co-convener if you have any questions on this session.

Session information: https://conf.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Session/6330

Session 9e: Biomineralization and Geobiology: The intersection between life and minerals

Since the dawn of life, biological processes and minerals have been inextricably linked and have shaped the story of Earth’s surface. Biominerals, defined as minerals that would otherwise not occur without biological processes at play, serve as skeletons and shells for living organisms, reservoirs of nutrients and elements critical to geochemical cycles, inspiration for materials science, agents for fossilization, and even as hosts for paleoenvironmental proxies. Their importance spans the tree of life across modern and deep time.

This session seeks to bring together biomineralogists, biogeochemists, and geobiologists working an array of topics that speak to this interdisciplinary field, including researchers presenting advances in analytical tools to characterize organic-mineral assemblages, interpretations of biomineral-based proxies, biomineral formation mechanisms, characterization of the diversity and abundance of microorganisms forming minerals, and more.

Sincerely,

Yihang Fang
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis
yihang@wustl.edu
(608)556-5890

NOTE: Abstracts to this session are free of charge and exempt from the
1-abstract rule! You may submit a second first author abstract in
another session.

2024 marks 25 years since the public release of the PetDB and GEOROC
databases for igneous geochemical compositions. To celebrate this
milestone, we are hosting an anniversary session at the Goldschmidt
conference in Chicago.

This session will celebrate the scientific impact of global databases in
igneous geochemistry over the past 25 years, and provide a forum for
envisioning their future potential and evolution. We invite
contributions by anyone who has used GEOROC or PetDB data for their
research and in education, industry and policy; and by other data
systems that were inspired by PetDB’s and GEOROC’s approach and success.
The session will feature introductory talks from the two data systems,
reflecting on the history and the future of big data in geochemistry.

Join us for a celebratory session to share your personal data story and
to learn more about the various ways GEOROC and PetDB data have
contributed to the research landscape in geochemistry and beyond over
the past 25 years. We will also be hosting an evening reception after
the session, to which all contributors will be invited (details to be
confirmed).

Our session is part of Theme 14, which means that abstracts are free of
charge and exempt from the 1-abstract rule: you may submit a second
first author abstract in another session. More details and submission
guidelines: https://conf.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2024/cfp.cgi

We hope to see you in Chicago (or online). Please forward this
invitation to anyone else who might be interested in submitting an
abstract to this session.

Kind regards,
Marthe Klöcking and Kerstin Lehnert

On behalf of Albrecht Hofmann, Charlie Langmuir and Bärbel Sarbas

--
Dr. Kerstin A. Lehnert
Doherty Senior Research Scientist
Director, Geoinformatics Research Group
Director, Astromaterials Data System
Director, Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY, 10964, USA
+1 (845) 365-8506