Welcome to Bao Group
Our research and educational activities are relevant to energy, environment, and human well-being.
PhD: Princeton University, 1998
Stable isotope geochemistry
OASICers' field camp (2011)
A common thread of our research has been the use of high-dimensional stable isotope systems to "read" geological, biological, and environmental records, with a special interest in the history of our evolving atmosphere.
The tools that we use include gas-source isotopic ratio mass spectrometry (dual-inlet and conflo), laser-fluorination systems, vacuum lines, GC, IC, ICP-ES, SEM, XRD, and wet- and photo-chemistry lab facilities. My students and I have built up a unique stable isotope laboratory that is specialized in the isotope-ratio measurements of most elements in water-soluble oxy-anions such as sulfate, nitrate, perchlorate, phosphate, and hydroxide. The Oxy-Anion Stable Isotope Consortium (OASIC) is capable of chemical preparation and measurement of δD, δ15N, δ18O, δ17O, δ34S, δ33S, and δ36S values of SO42-, NO3-, ClO4-, and PO43-with the best precisions in the community.
Group members are trained to walk on "four legs": (1) Field observation/sampling, (2) laboratory experiments, (3) modeling, and (4) theoretical analysis. We demand solid physical-chemistry background and quantitative skills. Our active fieldwork sites are all over the world, including Antarctic Dry Valleys, Australia, China, Chile, South Africa, Europe, and USA.
Active Research Projects
I. Stable Isotope Kinetics
II. Atmosphere-Biosphere condition associated with Neoproterozoic global glaciations
III. Sulfur oxidation and sulfate reduction
IV. Atmospheric deposition and post-depositional migration of ions in hyperarid deserts
V. Antarctica, Early Earth, and Mars
I teach introductory-level Physical Geology (Geol-1001) and Historical Geology (Geol-1003) for majors and non-majors. My upper-level graduate courses include "Geol7081-- Stable Isotope Geochemistry", "Carbonates: Geochemistry, petrology, & sedimentology", and "Advanced Topics in Stable Isotope Geochemistry".
Cao, Xiaobin* and Bao, Huiming, 2013, Dynamic model constraints on oxygen-17 depletion in atmospheric O2 after a snowball Earth. PNAS, July 2013; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1302972110.
Bryan A. Killingsworth*, Justin A. Hayles*, Chuanming Zhou, and Huiming Bao, 2013, Sedimentary Constraints on the Duration of the Marinoan Oxygen-17 Depletion (MOSD) Event. PNAS, Feb. 6, 2013
Sun, T*. & Bao, H.M., 2011. Thermal-gradient-induced non-mass-dependent isotope fractionation. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 25, 765-773.
Bao, Huiming, Yu, Shaocai, and Tong, Daniel Q., 2010, Massive volcanic SO2 oxidation and sulphate aerosol deposition in Cenozoic North America. Nature, doi:10.1038/nature09100
Bao, Huiming, Ian J. Fairchild, Peter M. Wynn, and Christoph Spotl, 2009, Stretching the Envelope of Past Surface Environments: Neoproterozoic Glacial Lakes from Svalbard, Science, 323, 119-122; DOI: 10.1126/science.1165373
Bao, Huiming, Jim Lyons, and Chuanming Zhou, May 2008, Triple oxygen isotope evidence for elevated CO2 levels after a Neoproterozoic glaciation, Nature, 453 (7194), 504-506; DOI: 10.1038/nature06959.
Bao, Huiming, Sun, T., Kohl, I., and Peng, Y.-P., 2008, Comments on "Early Archaean microorganisms preferred elemental sulfur, not sulfate", Science, v. 319 (5868), p. 1336.
Bao, Huiming and Gu, Baohua, 2004, Natural perchlorate has a unique oxygen isotope signature. Environmental Science and Technology, 38(19): 5073-5077.; 10.1021/es049516z
Bao Huiming, Douglas A. Campbell, James G. Bockheim, Mark H. Thiemens, 2000, Origin of sulfate in Antarctic Dry Valley soils as deduced from anomalous 17O compositions. Nature 407, 499-502.
Bao, Huiming et al. 2000, Anomalous 17O compositions in massive sulphate deposits on the Earth. Nature 406, 176-178.
Selected photos of fieldwork from 2001-2012
2001: The Atacama Desert, Northern Chile (2001) (2007-1)
2001: Xinjiang, northwestern China (2001) (2002)
2002: Nebraska, USA (-1, -2)
2002: The Antarctic Dry Valleys (2002-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6)
2005: Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, USA (-1,-2, -3, -4)
2006: Nebraska, Wyoming, USA (1) and northern China (-1, -2)
2007: southern China (-1, -2, -3)