Dr. Jennifer "Jen" Latimer

Dr. Jennifer "Jen" Latimer
Chair & Professor
Earth and Environmental Systems, Department of
Arts and Sciences, College of
S 159 G
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812-237-2254

Education

  • Other - Law (MJ), Indiana University - 2018
  • Ph.D. - Geological Sciences, Indiana University - 2004
  • M.S. - Geology, Indiana University, Indianapolis - 1998
  • B.S. - Chemistry, Purdue University, Indianapolis - 1995

Awards and Honors

  • Faculty Sustainability Leadership Award - 2019
  • Distinguished Supervisor Award for Student Professional Development - 2015
  • Theodore Dreiser Distinguished Research/Creativity Award - 2021

Licensures and Certifications

Teaching Interests

  • Geochemistry, Oceanography, Environmental Geology, Medical Geology, Environmental Science, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Geochemistry, Environmental Justice

Intellectual Contributions

  • Solar irradiance and ENSO impacts food security in Lake Tanganyika, a major African inland fishery - Science Advances - 2020
  • Onset of Antarctic Circumpolar Current 30 million years ago as Tasmanian Gateway aligned with westerlies - Nature - 2015
  • Landscape–lake interactions in the Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming: a 350-year fire history reconstruction - Journal of Paleolimnology - 2020
  • Soil Lead Testing at a High Spatial Resolution in an Urban Community Garden: A case study in relict lead in Terre Haute, Indiana - Journal of Environmental Health - 2016
  • Lead poisoning and medical geology: an unfinished story - GSA Today - 2005

Presentations

  • Soil Lead in the Context of Redlining: The Racist Legacy of Pollution in 3 Ohio Cities & Implications for Action. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2022.
  • Transport of Mercury through Food Webs in Rivers. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2022.
  • Assessment of heavy metals in sediment from a river transect in the Wouri Estuary. Geological Society of American Annual Meeting, 2021.
  • Communities of practice support scientists and community through trust-building. Geological Society of American Annual Meeting, 2021.
  • Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of trace metals in freshwater food webs in Indiana. Beyond Boundaries - Indiana Academies Symposium, 2021.

Contract, Fellowship, Grant or Sponsored Research

  • Grant: Collaborative Research: BoCP-Implementation: The impact of climate change on functional biodiversity across spatiotemporal scales at Lake Tanganyika, Africa - National Science Foundation 2022 Funded - $414,264
  • Grant: BD4ISU: Big Data for Indiana State University - National Institute of Health (NIH) 2017 - 2023. Funded - $1,200,000

Research Interests

  • Paleoceanography, Marine Geology, Paleoclimatology, Environmental Geochemistry, Low-Temperature Geochemistry, Medical Geology

University Service

  • Role: Member - Assessing Academic Programs Taskforce 2021 - 2022
  • Role: Member - University Research Committee 2019 - 2021

Professional Service

  • Role: Other - Council on Undergraduate Research 2014 - 2020

Public/Community Service

  • Role: Program Coordinator - Terre Haute Lead Project 2012

Research Interests:  biogeochemistry, sediment geochemistry, paleoceanography, environmental geology, medical geology

Research Profile:  My research focuses on the biogeochemistry of nutrients and metals in the environment, including marine and lake sediments from recent to ancient, urban soils, and areas impacted by acid mine drainage. I am interested in how sediments record past environmental change and how those changes are related to climate.  I am also interested in early diagenesis in marine sediments, especially marine sediments with high biogenic opal content and fluvial sediments impacted by acid mine drainage. I am especially interested in the relationships between heavy metals in the environment and human health.  Student projects have focused on Southern Ocean and Bering Sea biogeochemistry on glacial/interglacial time scales and longer Neogene time scales, phosphorus burial and diagenesis during ocean anoxic events, the distribution of heavy metals in surface soils and lake sediments in Indiana, and metal speciation in fluvial sediments.

ENVI110/110L: Introduction to Environmental Science
ENVI361: Oceanography
ENVI457/557: Environmental Geology
ENVI481/581: Geochemistry
ENVI479/579: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
ENVI488/588: Research Methods
ENVI461: Environmental Justice

Ph.D., Indiana University, 2004

M.J., Indiana University, McKinney School of Law, 2018

Published Journal Articles:

Wang, Y., Hendy, I.L., Latimer, J.C., Bilardello, D., Napier, T.J., 2019. Diagenesis and iron paleo-redox proxies: new perspectives from magnetic and iron speciation analyses in the Santa Barbara Basin, Chemical Geology, 519, 95-109.

Steiger, T.L., Latimer, J.C., Aldrich, S., Speer, J., 2016. Partnering with the state for environmental monitoring produces meaningful research experiences for first-year students. CURQ on the Web, 37(2), 4-10.

Latimer, J.C., Van Halen, D., Speer, J., Krull, S., Weaver, P., Pettit, J., Foxx, H., 2016. Soil Lead Testing at a High Spatial Resolution in an Urban Community Garden: A case study in relict lead in Terre Haute, Indiana, Journal of Environmental Health, 79, 28-35.

Scher, H., Whittaker, J.M., Williams, S., Latimer, J.C., Kordesch, W., Delaney, M.L., in press (anticipated publication 7/30/15). Antarctic Circumpolar Current onset 30 Myr ago as Tasman gateway aligned with Westerlies, Nature, 523, 580-583, doi:10.1038/nature14598.

Flores, J.-A., Filippelli, G.M., Sierro, F.J., Latimer, J.C., 2012.  The “White Ocean” hypothesis: a late Pleistocene Southern Ocean governed by Coccolithophores and driven by phosphorus, Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology, 3: 1-13.

Filippelli, G.M., Latimer, J.C., Murray, R.W., Flores, J.A., 2007.  Productivity records from the Southern Ocean and the equatorial Pacific Ocean: Testing the Glacial Shelf-Nutrient Hypothesis, Deep-Sea Research II, 54:2443-2452, Editor's Choice, Science, November 2007.

Latimer, J.C., Filippelli, G,M., 2007.  Sedimentary Iron Records from the Cape Basin, Deep-Sea Research II, 54: 2422-2431.

Latimer, J.C., Filippelli, G.M., Hendy, I.L., Newkirk, D.R., 2006.  Opal-associated phosphorus: Implications for the marine P cycle, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 70: 3843-3854.

Latimer, J.C., Filippelli, G.M., Hendy, I.L., Gleason, J.D., Blum, J.D., 2006.  Terrigenous provenance in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, Geology, 34: 545-548.

Rea, D.K., Lyle, M.W., Liberty, L.M., Hovan, S.A., Bolyn, M.P., Gleason, J.D., Hendy, I.L., Latimer, J.C., Murphy, B.M., Owen, R.M., Paul, C.F., Rea, T.H.C., Stancin, A.M., Thomas, D.J., 2006.  Broad region of no sediment in the Southwest Pacific Basin, Geology, 34: 873-876.

Filippelli, G.M., Laidlaw, M., Latimer, J., Raftis, R., 2005.  Lead poisoning and medical geology: an unfinished story. GSA Today, 15: 4-11.

Huerta-Diaz, M.A., Tovar-Sanchez, A., Filippelli, G., Latimer, J., Sanudo-Wilhelmy, S.A., 2005.  A combined CDB-MAGIC method for the determination of phosphorus associated with sedimentary iron oxyhydroxides.  Applied Geochemistry, 20: 2108-2115.

Filippelli, G.M., Sierro, F.J., Flores, J.A., Vazquez, A., Utrilla, R., Perez-Folgado, M., Latimer, J.C., 2003.  A sediment-nutrient-oxygen feedback responsible for productivity variations in late Miocene sapropel sequences of the western Mediterranean.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 190: 335-348.

Latimer, J.C. and Filippelli, G.M, 2002.  Eocene to Miocene terrigenous inputs and paleoproductivity:  Geochemical evidence from ODP Leg 177, Site 1090. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 182: 151-164.

Latimer, J.C. and Filippelli, G.M., 2001. Terrigenous input and paleoproductivity in the Southern Ocean.  Paleoceanography, 16(6): 627-643.  Editor's Choice, Science, 295, January 11, 2002.  Science News, 161, January 5, 2002.  News Notes, Geotimes, March 2002. 

Recent Abstracts (*denotes graduate student, **denotes undergraduate student directly supervised)

**Gaines, R., Carr, G., Latimer, J.C., Stone, J.R., 2019. Detailed Phosphorus Geochemistry of Sediments Collected from Lake Tanganyika, Indiana Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

*Lower, B., Latimer, J.C., Veldhuizen, H., 2019. Soil lead bioavailability in an urban community severely impacted by legacy pollution. Indiana Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

*Mudica, K., Latimer, J.C., 2019. Bioaccumulation of legacy pollutants in freshwater systems using Lontra canadensis (North American river otter) as a bioindicator, Indiana Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

**Bierly, H.E., Latimer, J.C., Stone, J.R., 2019. An investigation of environmental disturbances associated with Hurricane Harvey recorded in cores collected from Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Kennesaw, GA.

Matthews, B, **Veldhuizen, H., Latimer, J.C., Speer, J., 2019. Sediment and water quality of the Otter Creek Watershed, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Kennesaw, GA.

**Sloan, C., Latimer, J.C., 2019. Elemental Geochemistry of Sediments Collected from the Mozambique Channel, Indian Ocean, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Kennesaw, GA.

**Veldhuizen, H., Maupin, A., Johnson, H., Stone, J., Latimer, J.C., 2019. Introduction and abundance of microplastics ingested by freshwater fish in the Wabash River from 1960-2010, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Kennesaw, GA.

**Bierly, H.E., Latimer, J.C., Stone, J.R., 2018. An investigation of environmental disturbances associated with Hurricane Harvey recorded in cores collected from Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

**Jerrell, R.L., Latimer, J.C., Stone, J.R., 2018. Mobility and bioavailability of lead at a niche outdoors shooting range in west central Indiana, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

Latimer, J.C., Pigg, J., Meunier, C., Veldhuizen, H.J., Lower, B.S., Foxx, H., 2018. Lead bioavailability of urban soils estimated using a simulated gastric solution: Examples from Terre Haute, Indianapolis, and East Chicago, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

Matthews, B., Veldhuizen, H.J., Latimer, J.C., Speer, J.H., 2018. Sediment and water quality determination of the Otter Creek Watershed, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

*Mudica, K., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Bioaccumulation of legacy pollutants in freshwater systems using Lontra Canadensis (North American River Otter) as bioindicators, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN. Best Student Oral Presentation Award - Geobiology and Geomicrobiology Division.

Rex, N. Brown, K., Veldhuizen, H., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Tracking heavy metal contaminants along the Monongahela River, Morgantown, West Virginia, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN. Best Student Poster Presentation Award - Environmental and Enginneering Geology Division.

Schmitt, R., Brown, K., Veldhuizen, H., Latimer, J.C., 2018. The distribution and concentration of heavy metal contaminants among public playgrounds in Morgantown, WV, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

Sims, T., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., Smith, E.L., Mudica, K., 2018. Diatom analysis from a reclaimed strip pit, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

Smith, R.L., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., Westover, K., 2018. Analysis of lake sediments to evaluate past influences of coal-fired power plants on freshwater lake ecosystems, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

**Barley, M., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Heavy metal accumulation in sediments recovered from the Wabashiki Wetlands and Izzak Walton Lake, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Edmond, OK.

**Meunier, C., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Analysis of Lead Bioavailability in Urban Soils, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Edmond, OK.

**Mudica, K., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Hook, Line and Sinking Metals, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Edmund, OK.

**Barley, M., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Heavy metal bioavailability in sediments recovered from the Wabashiki Wetlands and Izzak Walton Lake, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN. 

*Bejger, C., Latimer, J.C., 2018. An ecological analysis of benthic foraminifera in the Venice Lagoon, Italy, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.

*Kile, B.L., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., Shapley, M.D., Finney, B.P., 2018. Secrets within the varves: A late Holocene climate reconstruction of Herd Lake, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.

**Meunier, Caroline, Latimer, J.C., 2018. Soil lead bioavailability estimates using a simulated gastric solution, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.  

**Mudica, K., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Hook, line, and sinking metals, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.

*O'Neil, E., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., 2018. Analyzing the water quality of the Wabash River using diatom species assemblages and geochemistry, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.

*Smith, E., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., 2018. A multi-proxy analysis of lake sediments to assess impacts of coal-fired power plants in Indiana, Indiana Academy of Sciences, Indianapolis, IN.

*Kile, B.L., Stone, J.R., Latimer, J.C., Shapley, M.D., Finney, B.P., 2017. Diatoms and phosphorus: Reconstructing convective lake mixing and drought cycles of Herd Lake. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA.

Terre Haute Lead Project

low temperature geochemistry and oceanography/paleoceanography

biogeochemistry, sediment geochemistry, paleoceanography, environmental geology, medical geology