Dorothy Pak received an A. B. in Geology from Mount Holyoke College, an M.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Following postdoctoral studies, she joined U C Santa Barbara’s Materials Research Laboratory in 1997 as an Intern Coordinator, and became the Education Director of the UCSB MRL in 2004. Her work at the MRL includes the design and implementation of science education outreach programs for K-12 students, teachers, undergraduates and the public, with a particular focus on providing opportunities for diverse groups of participants.
Research Description
My research focuses on identifying changes in past ocean temperature, salinity and circulation on time scales of hundreds to millions of years. I pursue these studies using foraminiferal trace elements, stable isotopes and faunal assemblages as archives of climate change. Currently, my research focuses on the paleoceanography and paleoclimatology of the California Margin, and current projects include investigation of the history of sea surface temperature changes in the Northeast Pacific through the Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age, identification of millennial-scale changes in temperature and salinity on the California margin associated with Dansgaard-Oeschger events, and investigation of the link between foraminiferal shell morphology and sea surface temperature and pH over the past 200 years in Santa Barbara Basin.