Dr. Spero, a Professor at the University of California – Davis, and current Chair of the Department of Geology, has also served at the National Science Foundation, Marine Geology & Geophysics, Division of Ocean Sciences in Washington, D.C. Dr. Spero specializes in paleoclimatology which is the study of past climates throughout geologic and historic time (paleoclimates), and the causes of their variations.
His research focuses on the biological and environmental parameters that affect the stable isotope and trace metal geochemistry of the shells of recent and fossil organisms; paleoclimatology, marine micropaleontology, and paleoceanography. An ongoing multi-year field research program involving undergraduate and graduate students has been studying living planktonic foraminifera in the Southern California Borderland and the Caribbean. The results of this study are being used to interpret fossil foraminifera stable isotope data from Indian and Atlantic Ocean deep sea cores in order to reconstruct paleoenvironmental sea surface temperatures, nutrient levels and CO2 concentrations during the Pleistocene.
Dr. Spero received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1986. He received his M.Sc. in Oceanography from Texas A & M University in 1979, his B.A. in Biology-Geology, Magna cum Laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975.
