Larry Edwards

Larry Edwards is an isotope geochemist well-known for his role in the development of modern uranium-thorium (or Th-230) dating methods and his application of these methods to the study of climate history and ocean chemistry. His approaches have improved the accuracy of radiocarbon dating, with the long-sought goal of a complete calibration of the radiocarbon timescale now in sight. Edwards champions cave deposits as recorders of historic and pre-historic climate. Using innovative strategies, he relates his cave climate histories to those from ocean sediments and from ice cores, thereby establishing patterns of changing climate in time and space. His work helps us to understand the causes of abrupt climate change and the causes of the rapid melting of ice sheets at the end of glacial cycles. He is currently a McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota (at the Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth and Environmental Sciences). -from esci.umn.edu