Peter Crockford, Assistant Professor in Carleton University’s Department of Earth Sciences, has been awarded a 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Earth System Science—one of the most prestigious honours for early-career researchers in North America.
Recognizing the exceptional impact of his work in geochemistry and Earth history, Crockford is one of 10 Earth System Science scholars to receive the 2025 fellowship, joining an elite group of scientists whose discoveries have shaped our understanding of the natural world.
Carleton University researcher Peter Crockford
The Sloan Research Fellowships, awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognize outstanding early-career scholars across science and engineering. With past recipients including Nobel laureates and leading experts in their fields, the fellowship is a significant marker of future impact. The fellowship includes a two-year, $75,000 research grant, offering recipients the flexibility to advance their work in meaningful ways.
Crockford’s nomination for the fellowship came from Paul Hoffman, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology Emeritus at Harvard University, a distinguished scientist known for his contributions to Earth system science. This endorsement highlights the significance of Crockford’s research and its potential to drive new discoveries in the field.
At Carleton, Crockford leads a research team focused on exploring the co-evolution of life and Earth’s surface environment throughout history. His work seeks to answer fundamental questions, such as a how much life has ever existed on Earth, what caused dramatic climate shifts like Snowball Earth glaciations during the Proterozoic Eon, and how to extract meaningful information about ancient seawater chemistry from highly altered sedimentary records.
By integrating isotope geochemistry, geobiology, field geology and insights from modern chemical oceanography, Crockford is helping to redefine our understanding of Earth’s past and its future.
“I’m honoured to be named a Sloan Research Fellow,” said Crockford.
“This fellowship will help advance our understanding of the interactions between biology and geology over billions of years. I am grateful for the support of my colleagues and the broader scientific community, and extend my deepest appreciation to Dr. Hoffman for his nomination as well as Drs. Andrew H. Knoll, Timothy Lyons and Galen Halverson for their letters of support.”
Crockford’s research has been widely published in leading scientific journals and has garnered international recognition. His work not only advances knowledge in geochemistry and Earth history but also has implications for understanding climate change and the evolution of life on our planet.
Carleton’s increasing recognition through prestigious distinctions like the Sloan Research Fellowship reflects its reputation as a research-intensive, interdisciplinary institution that fosters excellence in scientific discovery. Strengthened by strategic partnerships with government and industry, Carleton remains at the forefront of innovation and global knowledge advancement.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025 in Campus News
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