This course is targeted for non-science majors and deals with important current problems such as water allocation and pollution, air quality, soil and coastal erosion, fossil fuels and alternative energies. I have also made a conscious effort to bring these issues home for the students and actively involve them in the discussions. As part of the course, each student is required to research and present a specific example of earth resource use in South Carolina. Prior to my arrival at the university, the department of geological sciences lacked a course in this important area of geochemistry. For that reason, I developed this new course, which is now a critical component of the revised curriculum.
Organic geochemistry deals with the sources and cycling of organic matter in the geosphere.
As such, its applications extend to many scientific fields, including marine sciences, environmental chemistry, petroleum exploration, ecology. I teach the course at a very high level and from a definite oceanographic bend. I present and discuss issues related to the global carbon cycle, analytical techniques and biomarker applications, aquatic organic geochemistry, sedimentary organic geochemistry and environmental organic geochemistry. The course has attracted a wide variety of M.S. and Ph.D. students from the Geological Sciences, Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry departments, the Marine Science Program and the School of Public Health. Chemical Oceanography is a required course in the Marine Science curriculum and is an important course for many students in the Departments of Geological Sciences, Biological Sciences and Chemistry and Biochemistry.