Overview

Following completion of his doctorate in oceanography, White did postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1977-79) and at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver (1979-80). From 1980 to 1985 he was a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institut f?r Chemie in Mainz, Germany, and then he spent a year as associate professor in the College of Oceanography at Oregon State University. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1986. He spent seven months of 1995 as a visiting professor at the Ecole Normale Sup?rieur de Lyon and the Universit? de Rennes, served as a visiting professor at the Universit? de Brest in 2001-2002, and was a Merle Tuve Senior Fellow at Carnegie Institution of Washington in 2002. White is a fellow of the Geochemical Society and the American Geophysical Union. He served as founding editor of the electronic journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G-cubed) from 1999 to 2005. He currently serves as chairman of the EarthChem Advisory Committee (EarthChem is an international geochemical database initiative).

Research Focus

White's research interests include the large-scale workings and behavior of the Earth's interior and questions of how volcanoes work and how they evolve. The problem that fascinates him is to deduce the processes from the chemical variations that we observe. Current research projects include the Rejuvenescent Volcanism on Mauritius and Chemical Fluxes to the Deep Mantle in Subduction Zones.

Instruction Focus

Geochemistry of the Solid Earth

Additional Links

• William White

Honors, Awards and Appointments

• Director of Graduate Studies, Graduate Field of Geological Sciences - 2005 - present
• Merle Tuve Senior Fellow DTM, Carnegie Institution of Washington - 2002
• Elected Fellow of AGU - 2002
• Elected Fellow of the Geochemical Society - 1996

Professional Activities

• Keynote Presentation: "Geochemical maps of the mantle " presented at 2008 Goldschmidt Conference - 2008
• Presentation: "Are Constant Trace Element Ratios Really Constant? " 2007 Goldschmidt Conference - 2007
• Keynote Presentation: "Hofmann & White 25 years on " presented at Geochemical Advances in the Past 30 Years: An MPI Perspective - 2007

Selected Publications

• Paul, D., W. M. White, and D. L. Turcotte,2003, Constraints on the 232Th/238U ratio of the continental crust. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. paper number 2002GC000497
• Paul, D., W. M. White, and D. L. Turcotte, 2002. Modeling the isotopic evolution of the Earth. Phil. Trans R. Soc. Lond., A, 360: 2433-2474.
• Geist, D., W. M. White, F. Albarede, K. Harpp, R.Reynolds, J. Blichert-Toft., and M. Kurz, 2002. Volcanic evolution in the Gal?pagos: the dissected shield of Volcan Ecuador. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., vol. 3, paper number 2002GC000355.
• Blichert-Toft J. and W. M. White, 2001. Hafnium isotope geochemistry of the Galapagos Islands. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., vol. 2, paper number 2000GC000138
• White, W. M., 1993. 238U/204Pb in MORB and open system evolution of the depleted mantle, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 115: 211-226.
• White, W.M. and B. Dupr?, 1986. Sediment subduction and magma genesis in the Lesser Antilles: isotopic and trace element constraints. J. Geophys. Res., 91: 5927-5942.
• White, W. M., J. Patchett, and D. BenOthman, 1986. Hf isotope ratios of marine sediments and Mn nodules: Evidence for a mantle source of Hf in seawater. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 79: 46-54.
• White, W.M., 1985. Sources of oceanic basalts: radiogenic isotopic evidence. Geology, 13: 115 118.
• Hofmann, A.W. and W.M. White, 1982. Mantle plumes from ancient oceanic crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 57:421-436.

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