Curriculum Vitae for
Rob Rye
University of Southern California
Department of Earth Sciences
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740
Phone (213) 821-2267
FAX: (213) 740-8801
rye@usc.edu
EDUCATION
Harvard University, Ph. D. in Geology. March 1999.
Dissertation: Soil-Atmosphere Relationships Until the Rise of Oxygen.
Advisor: Heinrich D. Holland
Stanford University, A.B. in History, 1990.
EXPERIENCE
Research Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California,
October 2001 to present.
Lead Scientist of Geology and Biology Components of Virtual Planetary Laboratory,
NAI node based at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, March 2001 to present.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology, California State University of Northridge,
October 2000 to January 2003.
Senior Research Assistant, California Institute of Technology, May 2001 to
September 2001.
Postdoctoral Scholar of Geobiology, California Institute of Technology, May 1999 to
May 2001.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, February 1999 to May 1999.
Graduate Fellow, Harvard University, August 1992 to January 1999
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, 5 semesters September 1992 to January 1998
Research Assistant, to Prof. Aaron Wildavsky, University of California, Berkeley,
Survey Research Center, June 1991 to August 1992.
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Stable Isotope Lab Manager Yale University, August 1990 to June 1991.
PUBLICATIONS
Holland, H.D., P.H. Kuo, and R.O. Rye., 1994, O2 and CO2 in the late Archaean and
early Proterozoic atmosphere, V. M. Goldschmidt Conference extended abstracts,
Mineralogical Magazine, 58A, 424-425.
Rye, R., P.H. Kuo, and H.D. Holland, 1995, Atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations before 2.2 billion years ago, Nature, 378, 603-605.
Tanaka, N., D.M. Rye, R. Rye, H. Avak, and T. Yoshinari, 1995, High precision mass
spectrometric analysis of isotopic abundance ratios in nitrous oxide by direct
injection of N2O, International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes,
142, 163-175.
Rye, R.O. and A. Wildavsky, 1995, CFCs and ozone depletion: Are they as bad as
people think?, chapter 10 in But is it True? A Citizen's Guide to
Environmental Health and Safety Issues by Aaron Wildavsky: Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, p. 304-339.
Rye, R.O. and A. Wildavsky, 1995, Detecting Errors in Environmental and Safety
Studies, chapter 14 in But is it True? A Citizen's Guide to Environmental
Health and Safety Issues by Aaron Wildavsky: Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press, p. 410-426.
Rye, R.O. and A. Wildavsky, 1995, The effects of acid rain on the United States (with
and excursion to Europe), chapter 9 in But is it True? A Citizen's Guide to
Environmental Health and Safety Issues by Aaron Wildavsky: Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, p. 274-303.
Holland, H.D. and R. Rye., 1997, Evidence in pre-2.2 Ga paleosols for the early
evolution of atmospheric oxygen and terrestrial biota: Comment and Reply,
Geology, 25, 857-858.
Rye, R., 1998, Highly negative 13C values in organic carbon in the Mt. Roe #2
paleosol: terrestrial life at 2.765 Ga, Mineralogical Magazine, 62A, 1308-1309.
Steefel, C.I. and R. Rye, 1998, Constraints on Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic pO2
levels based on multicomponent reactive transport modeling of chemical
weathering in the Hekpoort palaeosol, Mineralogical Magazine, 62A, 1447-1448.
Rye, R. and H.D. Holland, 1998, Paleosols and the evolution of atmospheric oxygen:
A critical review, American Journal of Science, 298, 621-672.
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Rye, R. and H.D. Holland, 2000, Geology and geochemistry of paleosols developed
on the Hekpoort Basalt, Pretoria Group, South Africa, American Journal of
Science, 300, 85-141.
Rye, R. and H.D. Holland, 2000, Life associated with the 2.76 billion year old Mt.
Roe #2 paleosol, Western Australia, Geology, 28, 483-486.
Yang, W., H.D. Holland and R. Rye, 2002, Evidence for low or no oxygen in the late
Archean atmosphere from the ~2.76 Ga Mt. Roe #2 paleosol, Western Australia:
Part 3 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 66, 3707-3718.
Nealson, K.H. and R. Rye, 2003, Evolution of metabolism, in Turekian, K.K. and
H.D. Holland (Eds.), Treatise on Geochemistry: Volume 8 Biogeochemistry
William H. Schlesinger, ed.) Pergamon Press, Oxford, 41-61.
Baross, J., K.H. Nealson, R. Rye, Potential atmospheric biosignatures on Mars,
Proceedings for the MACA Workshop Dec 2001.
Lüttge, A., R. Rye, and P.G. Conrad (eds.): Quantitative Approaches towards
Biogeochemistry: Processes, Scaling, and Interfaces: American Journal of
Science v. 300(6-8), 449-873.
Rye, R. and V.S. Meadows, Modeling of Extrasolar Planets, Astrobiology 5, 212.
Rye, R. and C.I. Steefel, 2006, Atmospheric oxygen and Proterozoic paleosols:
Lowering the limits, in preparation, to be submitted to Nature
ABSTRACTS
Rye, R. “An upper limit on early atmospheric carbon dioxide levels,” Colston
Research Symposium on The History of Degassing of the Earth, August 29-31,
University of Bristol, England, 1996.
Rye, R. and H.D. Holland. “Carbon dioxide, methane, and oxygen in the early
atmosphere,” Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, 1996.
Rye, R. “Major element distribution in two cores through the Hekpoort paleosol,”
Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, 1997.
Rye, R. “Evidence of Archean (2.75 Ga) terrestrial life in Mt. Roe #2 paleosol,”
Geological Society of America, Annual Meeting, 1998.
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Rye, R. “Major and trace element abundance data in the ca. 2.2 Ga Hekpoort
paleosol,” V.M. Goldschmidt Conference, 1999.
Rye, R., “A Possible Archean Climate Feedback,” Geological Society of America,
Annual Meeting, 2001.
Rye, R. and M. Storrie-Lombardi “Toward a Model for Detecting Life on Extrasolar
Planets” Eos Trans. AGU 82(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract P22B-0553, 2001
Anbar, A.D., R. Rye, A.J. Kaufman, “Explaining the Paleoproterozoic Rise of O2”
Eos Trans. AGU 82(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract P21C-09, 2001
Anbar, A.D., G.L. Arnold, R. Rye, S. Weyer, “Iron isotopes in an Archean paleosol”
V. M. Goldschmidt Conference, 2002.
Steefel, C.I., R. Rye, B.F. Turner, S.L. Brantley, “Interpretation of weathering profiles
from the Paleo-Proterozoic and present using reactive transport modeling,” V.M.
Goldschmidt Conference, 2002.
Souza-Egipsy, V., F. Corsetti, K.H. Nealson, R. Rye “Abiogenic layered carbonates
associated with serpentinization: Why Martian stromatolites might not be fossils”
Third European Workshop on Exo/Astrobiology –Mars, 2003.
Crisp, D. et al (including R. Rye), “The astronomical detection of biosignatures on
extrasolar terrestrial planets: the Virtual Planetary Laboratory” Annual Meeting of
the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, 2003.
Meadows, V.S., R. Rye et al. “Biogeochemical cycles and the search for life beyond
the solar system” Eos Trans. AGU 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl. Abstract U52C-08,
2003.
Meadows, V., Rye, R., “Atmospheric Planetary Science Database for Astrobiology”
NASA Astrobiology Institute Executive Council Retreat, Jackson Hole, October
2003.
Johnson, O.J., R. Rye et al. “Microbial ecology of ultrabasic springs on the actively
serpentinizing Cedars Peridotite, Sonoma County, California” Southern California
Geobiology Symposium, Caltech, 2004.
Rye, R., O.J. Johnson, K.H. Nealson “Biology and water chemistry of several
hyperalkaline springs emerging from mantle-like rock” Astrobiology Science
Conference, NASA Ames, 2004.
MISSION INVOLVEMENT
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Led mission planning for astrobiological studies in the proposed 2007 Scout mission,
MARVEL (PI: Mark Allen). Mission placed 2nd in competition. Will now
recompete for 2011 time slot. Duties in this area will include 1) an assessment of
the likely limits of life on Mars as set by data available prior to the arrival of the
MARVEL package; 2) estimation of likely maxima for fluxes of potential
biogenic gases in both subsurface and endolithic communities based upon such
fluxes in terrestrial systems; 3) providing recommendations re: gases of likely
astrobiological interest, given results of tasks 1) and 2).
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
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NASA Exobiology Review Panel: Member 1999-2001
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Program Committee: Member 2000
Mars Atmospheric Chemistry and Astrobiology Workshop: Rapporteur for
Biosignatures Session, 2001
NASA ASTEP Review Panel: Member 2002
Chaired ‘Co-evolution of the biosphere and geosphere’ session of Origins of Life
Gordon Conference 2002
Chaired ‘Earth History’ session of Origins of Life Gordon Conference 2005
Editor of upcoming special volume of American Journal of Science on
Biogeochemistry (due out in 2005)
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Geochemical Society
American Geophysical Union