Meet Dr. Brian Schubert: Interview with a Geology Professor at UL Lafayette
Meet Dr. Brian Schubert, assistant professor in the UL Lafayette School of Geosciences since January 2013. He is one of two geology master杏吧专区檚 program graduate coordinators and heads the stable isotope geochemistry lab (Schubert Lab), where master杏吧专区檚 in geology students study how plants respond to changes in climate and atmospheric chemistry. 
杏吧专区淲e look at how a plant growing outside today is responding to changes in temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide, and we look at relationships between chemical changes within that plant and these different environmental parameters,杏吧专区 Dr. Schubert explains. 杏吧专区淲e杏吧专区檙e trying to figure out ways of determining how these different environmental parameters have changed in the past.杏吧专区
Dr. Schubert杏吧专区檚 research requires digging up fossil plants and using stable isotope measurements to determine their chemical composition. Examining the fossilized plants杏吧专区 chemical composition provides insight about the temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere at the time the plant was fossilized. By studying fossil plants from specific time intervals in the Earth杏吧专区檚 history, his lab can determine the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels up to 400 million years ago.
Most of Dr. Schubert杏吧专区檚 research is conducted in the Arctic, an area that is rapidly changing and is still largely unexplored. He visits former forests in many remote locations around the world, including Alaska, Siberia, and northern Canada to extract these fossils and bring them back to the geology master杏吧专区檚 program at the 杏吧专区 for analysis.
"For my work, you need the fossil plants and you need them to be of the right age for a time period when climate was fundamentally different or carbon dioxide levels were fundamentally different,杏吧专区 he says. 杏吧专区淲hen you find a giant cypress log at 76 north latitude, you know something was fundamentally different that allowed this tree to be here. So then you figure out why, and what that means.杏吧专区
That research has applications for both the energy industry and for additional environmental research.
杏吧专区淎t the fundamental level, we杏吧专区檙e studying organic matter derived from photosynthetic life, and that杏吧专区檚 the same material that makes up our coal, our oil, our energy resources,杏吧专区 he says. 杏吧专区淚n addition to that, models for the next 100 years are based on the geologic evidence that we have. We have temperature records and satellite data, but it only goes back 20 to 30 years so it杏吧专区檚 not long-term records杏吧专区攁nd that makes it hard to see what the trend is when you have such a short snippet of time.杏吧专区
The fusion of energy and environmental research, he says, along with the absence of a doctoral program is what makes the master杏吧专区檚 in geology at UL Lafayette a unique experience for students.
杏吧专区淎 lot of geology graduate programs focus on either the exploration side or they杏吧专区檒l focus on the environmental side, but here it杏吧专区檚 very interdisciplinary, looking across chemistry, physics, and geology,杏吧专区 Dr. Schubert says. 杏吧专区淎nd I think that because we don杏吧专区檛 have a PhD program, it gives the master杏吧专区檚 students an advantage because they杏吧专区檙e the main research engines. That杏吧专区檚 nice, when you杏吧专区檙e a first-year master杏吧专区檚 in geology student and you杏吧专区檙e working on a really integral part of a key project.杏吧专区
Learn more about our geology master杏吧专区檚 program >
