Bradley Sageman

University of Birmingham Scholar Award, University of Birmingham - Geology

I am a professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University, where I have conducted research and taught courses in the fields of stratigraphy and geochemistry for the past 27 years. I am most proud of the diversity of my research contributions, spanning many subdisciplines, my 12 years of service as department chair, which achieved a renaissance in our unit and my devotion to excellence in teaching. When I was awarded my first Fulbright for a year of research at Universität Tubingen, the experience was transformative. This time around, the motivation to apply was a bit more personal: at the memorial for a very close friend who succumbed to cancer several years ago, I met a faculty member from the University of Birmingham. He had recently come to know and admire my late friend, a professor of geology at Yale, through their shared interest in paleoclimate studies. Because paleoclimate reconstruction is also a focus of my research (motivated by concern for the future of Earth’s climate system), the possibility for new collaborative work was born out of deep loss. My new colleague encouraged me to apply for a Birmingham-Fulbright award, and the rest is history! The work we will complete together will be dedicated to the memory of Professor Mark Pagani.