Martin Stute

Martin Stute

Alena Wels Hirschorn '58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor in Environmental and Applied Sciences and Co-Chair, Environmental Science Department

Department

Urban Studies, Environmental Science

Office

404F Altschul Hall

Contact

Martin Stute, Professor of Environmental Science, began teaching at Barnard in 1993 and became a full-time faculty member in 1995. He  serves as Co-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 og 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."

  • BS, University of Münster, Germany
  • MA, PhD, University of Heidelberg, Germany

  • Environmental science
  • Sustainable development
  • Paleoclimate
  • Water resources
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Hydrology
  • Environmental isotopes

 Ali, S., Stute, M., Torgersen, T., Winckler, G., and Kennedy, B. M. (2011) Helium measurements of pore fluids obtained from the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD, USA) drill cores, Hydrogeology Journal 19, 237-247.

Gislason, S.R., Wolff-Boenisch, D., Stefansson, A., Oelkers, E.H., Gunnlaugsson, E., Holmfridur S., Sigfusson, B., Broecker, W.S., Matter, J.M., Stute, M. Axelsson, G.,Fredrikson, T. (2010) Mineral sequestration of carbon dioxide in basalt: A pre-injection overview of the CarbFix project. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 4, 3, 537-545.

Stute, M., Y. Zheng, P. Schlosser, A. Horneman, R. K. Dhar, S. Datta, M. A. Hoque, A. A. Seddique, M. Shamsudduha, K. M. Ahmed & A. van Geen, (2007) Hydrological control of As concentrations in Bangladesh groundwater. Water Resour. Res. 43, doi: 10.1029/2005WR004499.

Lippmann J., Stute M., Torgersen T., Moser, D.P., Hall, J. Lin, L., Borcsik, M., Bellamy, R.E.S., and Onstott, T.C.  (2003)  Dating ultra-deep mine waters with noble gases and Cl-36, Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa Geochmica et Cosmochimica Acta, 67(23): 4597-4619.

Stute, M., J. Deák, K. Revesz, J.K. Böhlke, E. Deseö, R. Weppernig, and P. Schlosser (1997) Tritium/3He dating of river infiltration: An example from the Danube in the Szigetköz area, Hungary. Ground Water, 35, 905-911.

Stute, M., M. Forster, H. Frischkorn, A. Serejo, J.F. Clark, P. Schlosser, W.S. Broecker, and G. Bonani (1995) Cooling of tropical Brazil (50C) during the last glacial maximum. Science, 269, 379-383.

Ekwurzel, B., P. Schlosser, W.M. Smethie, Jr., L.N. Plummer, E. Busenberg, R.L. Michel, Weppernig, and M. Stute (1994) Dating of shallow groundwater: Comparison of the transient tracers 3H/3He, Chlorofluorcarbons and 85Kr. Water Res. Res., 30, 1693-1708.

Stute, M., C. Sonntag, J. Deák, and P. Schlosser (1992) Helium in deep circulating groundwater in the Great Hungarian Plain: Flow dynamics and crustal and mantle He fluxes. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 56, 2051-2067

Schlosser, P., M. Stute, H. Dörr, C. Sonntag, and K.O. Münnich (1988) Tritium/3He dating of shallow groundwater. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 89, 353-362.

  • EESC BC3025, Hydrology
  • EESC BC3300, Workshop in Sustainable Development
  • EESC BC3800/3801, Senior Thesis Seminar
  • EESC BC3999, Independent Study

    Courses Previously Taught:
  • EESC BC33017, Data Analysis

In The News

The Barnard Year of Science’s spring signature event marked World Water Day on March 22, 2022.

 

 

March 23, 2022

Renowned climate scientist and environmental science professor Martin Stute discusses his game-changing new paper in Nature and what scientists have been getting wrong about the Earth’s changing climate.

September 13, 2021