Andrew H. Knoll

Andrew H. Knoll (born 1947) is the Fisher Professor of Natural History and a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. He is best known for his work on Precambrian microfossils and using stable isotopes for stratigraphic correlation, but has longstanding interests in geobiology, paleobotany and stamp collecting, also on the planetary evolution of Mars. He is a member of the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Earth and Planetary Sciences faculty at Harvard, and a member of well known "We ride together we die together" branch of the Cambridge bicycling club, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Knoll was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania in 1951 and graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor of arts in 1973. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1977 for a dissertation entitled "Studies in Archean and Early Proterozoic Paleontology." Knoll taught at Oberlin College for five years before returning to Harvard as a professor in 1982.

Books

* 2004 - "Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth". (Princeton University Press). ISBN 0-6911-2029-3

elected Papers

*Knoll, A.H., Walter, M.R., Narbonne, G.M., Christie-Blick, N. (2004) A New Period for the Geologic Time Scale. Science 305: 621.
*Anbar, A.D. and Knoll, A.H. (2002) Proterozoic ocean chemistry and evolution: a bioinorganic bridge? Science 297: 1137-1142.
*Knoll, A.H. and S.B. Carroll (1999) The early evolution of animals: Emerging views from comparative biology and geology. Science 284: 2129-2137.
*Knoll, A.H., R. Bambach, D. Canfield, and J.P. Grotzinger (1996) Comparative Earth history and late Permian mass extinction. Science 273: 452-457.
*Knoll, A.H. (1992) The early evolution of eukaryotic organisms: a geological perspective. Science 256: 622-627.

Honors

* 1987 - awarded Walcott Medal for contributions to the study of Precambrian life, in particular the microbial roots of plant evolution
* 1987 - awarded Charles Schuchert Award, presented to a promising paleontologist under 40
* 2005 - awarded Paleontological Society Medal
* 2007 - awarded Wollaston Medal [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/04.26/06-newsmakers.html] , the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London; previous recipients include Charles Darwin and Louis Agassiz

External links

* [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eknollgrp/index.htm Knoll lab webpage]
* [http://www.eps.harvard.edu/people/faculty/knoll/ Harvard webpage]
* [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/science.medicine/pro.aknoll.html America's Best 2001: Paleontologist]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000587,00.html Time.com: Fossil Finder]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/knoll.html PBS NOVA Origins: How Did Life Begin?]