Marilyn L. Fogel (September 19, 1952 – May 11, 2022) was an American geo-ecologist and Professor of Geo-ecology at UC Riverside in Riverside, California. She is known for her research using stable isotope mass spectrometry to study a variety of subjects including ancient climates, biogeochemical cycles, animal behavior, ecology, and astrobiology. Fogel served in many leadership roles, including Program Director at the National Science Foundation in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry. She was the second female staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Geophysical Laboratory and the first female recipient of the Alfred Treibs Medal from the Geochemical Society for her achievements in the field of organic geochemistry.
Early life Fogel was born on September 19, 1952, in Moorestown, New Jersey.
In 1970 she enrolled at Pennsylvania State University, where she majored in biology, graduating in 1973 with a BS in biology with honors. Her undergraduate research mentor, Dr. Peter Given, helped her apply to UT-Austin for graduate school. She took a gap year before beginning grad school where she traveled in Europe and developed a small jewelry business making pins from eyeglass lenses.
Academic career At the University of Texas, Austin, Fogel worked with Chase Van Baalen, Patrick Parker, and F. Robert Tabita on her dissertation, titled "Carbon isotope fractionation by ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase from various organisms". She graduated in 1977 with a PhD in Botany and Marine Sciences, and immediately accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow (1977–1979) at the Geophysical Lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science under the mentorship of Thomas C. Hoering. While in graduate school, she also owned an ice cream truck to help cover her expenses. Following her postdoc position, Fogel was hired in 1979 as a Staff Member at the Geophysical Lab, working in biogeochemistry, where she remained until 2012. At that time she was the second female staff member (scientist) in the history of the Geophysical Lab, which was established in 1905. While there, Fogel was also a visiting scientist at Carnegie's Department of Plant Biology (1985–1986), a visiting professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College (1995), a visiting professor at the department of geology at the University of Maryland (2003–2005), and a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Fellow (2003–2009). In 2012, she moved from Washington DC to the University of California, Merced where she accepted a position as a full professor in the School of Natural Sciences and soon became the chair of the Life and Environmental Sciences Unit. There, she taught courses on the fundamentals of ecology, biogeochemistry, stable isotope ecology, field ecology, and the anthropocene. In 2016, she relocated to UC Riverside in Riverside, California, where she assumed several leadership roles: inaugural holder of the Wilbur Mayhew Endowed Chair in Geo-Ecology (2017), first director of the new EDGE Institute (Environmental Dynamics & Geo-Ecology), and professor of Geo-ecology in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department. Her research there focused on geo-ecology, astrobiology, paleontology, and anthropology. She also supervised two PhD students and served on the committees of other graduate students.
Research Stable isotope ratios vary as a result of many biological and abiotic processes in the environment, changing over time, location, organism, and environment. The field of isotope geochemistry largely relies upon these natural variations, and can be incorporated into biological, ecological, chemical, and geological studies. Using isotope ratios, often 2H/1H, 𝛿13C, the 15N/14N ratio, and 18O/16O, Fogel has studied modern and ancient ecosystems, and has begun to apply the same techniques to study extraterrestrial material in martian meteorites, helping to advance the field of astrobiology.
Paleo-ecology and climate change Fogel used isotope ratios in ancient sediments and fossils to trace climate, diet, and species presence over time.
In one study, she and collaborators used eggshell fragments from Genyornis newtoni (a large, extinct flightless bird) in Australia that ranged in age from 100,000 to 50,000 years to show that the bird's extinction 50,000 years ago was likely due to human impact rather than climate changes. 40,000 years ago, Australia went through a dry period, as recorded in Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) egg shells, but the extinction of Genyornis 50,000 years ago rather than 40,000 suggests that their extinction was likely unrelated to the drying. Using stable carbon isotopes, her group determined that Genyornis consumed nearly exclusively C3 plants, and that their cranial morphology indicated a browser reliant upon shrubland. Because it seems that the Genyornis diet is fairly restrictive, it is likely that the arrival of humans around 55,000 years ago and their burning of land may have caused some megafauna extinction as it changed the vegetation. She has used similar techniques to study amino acids in the elephant birds of Madagascar and measure the isotope ratios in modern ostrich eggshells as a calibration tool for paleoenvironmental studies of Africa.
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