Mark Conrad

Biography

Dr. Conrad received his Bachelor’s Degree in Geology from Pomona College in 1979, his Master’s Degree in Geology from Dartmouth College in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Geology from Harvard University in 1990. During that time, he also spent about 3 years total working in mineral exploration for several companies in Mexico, the western United States and Alaska. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College, he joined the Center for Isotope Geochemistry in the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1992. In 2001, he became a Staff Geological Scientist and Head of the Geochemistry Department in 2006. His primary interests include using stable isotope measurements of groundwater and soil gas to identify areas of microbial activity, especially pertaining to bioremediation.

Research Interests

Major research interests include the following areas:

Isotopic tracers of hydrologic processes - Specific research projects have focused on topics entailing determination groundwater source regions, estimation of fluid infiltration rates from the isotopic signatures of vadose zone pore water, and tracking fluid and contaminant migration through the unsaturated zone.
Isotope monitoring of subsurface biologic processes - This work has involved laboratory experiments to determine the magnitude of isotopic fractionation resulting from microbial metabolic processes. There have also been a series of field studies of bioremediation of organic contaminants (including petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents) and methane cycling.
Climate Change - Projects include a study of the isotopic compositions of the different components of the water cycle and a series of investigations of isotopic shifts recorded in the geologic record caused by natural climatic variations.
Crustal fluid-rock interaction - Research in this area has included isotopic studies of the effects of fluids on deep metamorphic processes, hydrothermal systems, and sedimentary basins. Currently, isotopic measurements of water and CO₂ are being used to examine the effects of heating on the chemistry of rocks at Yucca Mountain.