After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Romanek accepted a National Research Council Post-doctoral Associateship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he formulated a program on low temperature minerals in extraterrestrial materials. This research earned him a top ten ranking on the list of the most influential researchers on Mars (http://www.esi-topics.com/mars/index.html), and resulted in numerous feature articles in the popular press. From there, Dr. Romanek moved to the University of Georgia, where he worked on environmental problems at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site, and he developed a program in the emerging field of geomicrobiology (www.exploratorium.edu/kamchatka). In 2009, Dr. Romanek accepted a position at the University of Kentucky, where he established several analytical laboratories and continued his Mars research with NASA’s Astrobiology Institute (http://geoscience.wisc.edu/astrobiology). In 2015, Dr. Romanek returned to Furman University as a Research faculty member in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science where he continues his NASA-funded research today.
Dr. Romanek has published over one hundred peer reviewed articles and book chapters, garnered over five million dollars in competitive research grants, and mentored over forty students. He has been an invited speaker at over fifty universities, held editorial positions for several academic journals, and served as a reviewer and panel member for various government agencies.
Honors
- H-Index of 29 on Web of Science
- 1997 Inducted into the J.L. Mann High School Academic Hall of Fame
- 1996 Letter of Recognition, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
- 1996 Space Pioneer Award, National Space Society
- 1996 Stellar Award, Rotary National Award for Space Achievement
- 1996 Laurel Award, Aviation Week
- 1996 Best science story of 1996, Time Magazine
- 1996 Top science story, Discovery Magazine
- 1996 The Best of What’s New, Grand Award Winner, Popular Science Magazine
- 1996 Certificate of Recognition, NASA/AASE
- 1985 Grant-in-Aid of Research, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
- 1984 Outstanding Achievement in Research, University of Florida
Education
- Ph.D., Texas A&M University
- M.S., University of Florida
- B.S., Furman University
Research
Dr. Romanek’s specialty is low-temperature and aqueous geochemistry, with special emphasis on the stable isotope systematics that play key roles in biogeochemical processes. He has an active research program that spans a broad array of disciplines in the earth, environmental and ecological sciences.
Publications
- Li W., Chakraborty S., Beard B.L., Romanek C.S. and Johnson C.M. 2012 Temperature-dependent Mg isotope fractionation during precipitation of inorganic calcite under laboratory conditions. Earth Planet. Sci. Let., 333, 304-316
- Jimenez-Lopez C., Rodriguez-Navarro C., Perez Gonzalez T., Rodriguez-Navarro A., Bazylinski D.A. and Romanek C.S 2012 Signatures in magnetite formed by (Ca,Mg,Fe)CO3,thermal decomposition: Terrestrial and extraterrestrial implications. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 87, 69-80
- Romanek C.S., Morse J.W. and Grossman E.L. 2011 Aragonite precipitation kinetics in dilute solutions. Aquatic Geochemistry 17, 339-356
- Jimenez-Lopez C., Romanek C.S. and Bazylinski D.A. 2010 Magnetite as a Prokaryotic Biomarker. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeoscience, 115, G00G03
- Romanek C.S., Beard B. Anbar A. and *Andrus C.T.F. 2010 Non-traditional stable isotopes in the environmental sciences. In Environmental Isotopes in Bioremediation and Microbial Degradation Processes, (eds.) C.M. Aelion, P. Hohener, D. Hunkeler and R. Aravena. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL, 385-435
- Romanek C.S., *Jimenez-Lopez C., Rodriguez Navarro* A., Sanchez-Roman* M, Sahai N. and Coleman M. 2009 Inorganic synthesis of Fe-Ca-Mg carbonates at low temperature. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 73, 5361-5376.