Howie Scher is an assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina in the Department of Geological Sciences and Marine Science program. His research interests encompass a wide range of questions about how the oceans operated in the past, and how the oceans contribute and respond to climate change on all time scales. Using novel geochemical techniques, he examines marine sediment cores for changes in trace metal and isotopic tracers of terrigenous input, ocean circulation, past productivity, and ocean chemistry. Howie graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Environmental Sciences in 1999, and received a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Florida in 2005. From 2005-2006 Howie taught courses in Environmental Sciences at his alma mater, University of Rochester, as a Visiting Assistant Professor. For the last two years he was the Institute of Marine Science Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he examined the trace metal and isotopic signature of several early Cenozoic abrupt climate events.