Andrew H. Knoll

Andrew H. Knoll ( born 1951 in West Reading, Berks County) is an American planetary scientist and paleontologist. He holds the Fisher Professor of Natural History and is a professor of Geosciences and Planetary Sciences ( Earth and Planetary Sciences) at Harvard University. He is also the curator of the palaeobotanical collection of the University.

Life

Knoll graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lehigh University. In 1977 he obtained the degree of Ph.D. at Harvard University with a thesis on the paleontology of the Archean and early Proterozoic ( Studies in Archean and Early Proterozoic Paleontology ). Knoll taught five years at Oberlin College, before returning in 1982 as a professor at Harvard.

Knoll is best known for his work on Precambrian microfossils and using stable isotopes at the age assignment of rock layers ( stratigraphic correlation). Additional research areas are Geobiology, the Paleobotany and the planetary evolution of Mars. In addition to his membership in the Faculty of Harvard, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Awards and Honors

In 1987 he was awarded the Charles Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society as a promising paleontologist under 40 and in the same year the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences. Since 1996 he is honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. He was awarded by the Paleontological Society Paleontological Society Medal, the 2005. 2007 awarded him the Geological Society of London with the Wollaston Medal. In 2012 he was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.

  • 2007 - The Evolution of Primary Producers in the Sea. Falkowski, P. and A. H. Knoll, eds ( Elsevier ).
  • 2004 - Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth. ( Princeton University Press). ISBN 0-691-12029-3 ( with the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award )

Scholarly articles

  • N. J. Tosca, A. H. Knoll, S. M. McLennan: Water activity and the challenge for life on early Mars. In: Science. 320, 2008, pp. 1204-1207.
  • J.P Wilson, A. H. Knoll, N.M Holbrook, C. R. Marshall: Modeling fluid flow plans in medullosa at anatomically unusual Paleozoic seed. In: Paleobiology. 34, 2008, pp. 472-493.
  • A. H. Knoll, R. K. Bambach, J. Payne, S. Pruss, W. Fischer: A paleophysiological perspective on the end- Permian mass extinction and its aftermath. In: Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 256, 2007, pp. 295-313.
  • A. Tomitani, A. H. Knoll, C. M. Cavanaugh, T. Ohno: The evolutionary diversification of cyanobacteria: molecular phylogenetic and paleontological perspectives. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 103, 2006, pp. 5442-5447.
  • A. H. Knoll, E. J. Javaux, D. Hewitt, P. Cohen: Eukaryotic organisms in Proterozoic oceans. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London. 361B, 2006, pp. 1023-1028.
  • A. H. Knoll, M. R. Walter, G. M. Narbonne, N. Christie -Blick: A New Period for the Geologic Time Scale. In: Science. 305, 2004, p 621
  • A.D. Anbar, A. H. Knoll: Proterozoic ocean chemistry and evolution: a Bioinorganic Bridge? . In: Science. 297, 2002, pp. 1137-1142.
  • A. H. Knoll, S. B. Carroll: The early evolution of animals: emerging views from comparative biology and geology. In: Science. 284, 1999, pp. 2129-2137.
  • A. H. Knoll: The early evolution of eukaryotic organisms: a geological perspective. In: Science. 256, 1992, pp. 622-627.
Berks County, Pennsylvania Stratigraphy PBS Integrated Authority File
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