Martin Stute

Martin Stute, Alena Wels Hirschorn'58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor in Environmental and Applied Sciences began teaching at Barnard in 1993 and became a full-time faculty member in 1995. He serves as Co-Chair (or Chair) of Barnard's Department of Environmental Science.

Professor Stute holds a concurrent position as Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and is a member of the faculty of Columbia's Department of Earth and Environmental Science. Professor Stute teaches such courses as Environmental Data Analysis, Hydrology, Workshop in Sustainable Development and leads the joint Columbia/Barnard Senior Research Seminar, the capstone experience for our majors.

His research interests include water resources, contaminant transport in groundwater, Carbon sequestration, unconventional gas production, paleoclimate, mathematical modeling of environmental phenomena, and the social and economic impact of global environmental change.

Regarding his development as an environmental scientist, Professor Stute says, "I knew early on that I wanted to dedicate my career to environmental issues and studied physics, because there was no such thing as environmental science to study at a university back then. My PhD thesis research topic at the University of Heidelberg focused on novel tracer techniques to study the dynamics of ground water flow, and the use of ground water as an archive of paleoclimate. I have been interested in water issues ever since and can still hardly resist to take a plunge into a thermal spring I encounter or take a sip from a well that might tap an interesting aquifer. I believe that water will play an increasingly important role in our attempts to achieve a sustainable global development."

Fields of Interest

  • Isotope Hydrology & Tracers: He uses noble gases and radioactive isotopes (like tritium and carbon-14) as "clocks" and "thermometers" to study groundwater dynamics and reconstruct past climate conditions. 

  • Paleoclimate Reconstruction: By measuring noble gas concentrations in ancient groundwater, Stute reconstructs past surface temperatures, in particular for the last glacial period. He demonstrated that the Earth (especially in low latitudes) during the Last Glacial Maximum was significantly colder than previously thought, suggesting that the climate is more sensitive to CO₂ than earlier models predicted.

  • Carbon Sequestration: He is involved in carbon capture and storage (CCS) research. Notably, he was a key scientist in the CarbFix project in Iceland, which pioneered the technique of dissolving CO₂ in water and injecting it into basaltic rocks, where it rapidly turns into solid carbonate minerals. He ccurrently works on similar questions in Oman.

  • Groundwater Contamination: Stute studies the transport of contaminants in aquifers. This includes work on arsenic contamination in Bangladesh's groundwater and the environmental impacts of unconventional gas production (hydraulic fracturing/fracking).

 

Education

  • BS equivalent, University of Münster, Germany
  • MS equivalent, PhD, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Google Scholar Profile for Martin Stute