Meet Postdoc Lauren O'Connor

Postdoc Lauren O’Connor, a member of the UArizona Department of Geosciences, studies Cretaceous paleoclimatology, the reconstruction of past climate and changes therein. O’Connor came to the University of Arizona after receiving her doctorate at The University of Oxford in Oxford, England. 

O’Connor is working on reconstructing climate in the Late Cretaceous period which lasted from about 100 to 66 million years ago. Through the use of organic geochemistry, she generates records of sea surface temperatures, changes in the carbon cycle, and rainfall patterns. Lauren’s research extends to studies of Milankovitch Cycles, how the changes in Earth’s orbit of the sun affect climate.  

One of the reasons O’Connor enjoys being a postdoc at UArizona is because she was able to propose her own research ideas, “This has allowed me the freedom to choose what I work on, what direction I take the research and learn what I want.” 

Lauren hopes to eventually obtain a faculty position wherein she will be able to teach students about those topics she is passionate about—paleoclimatology, as well as sedimentology and stratigraphy (the studies of sediments and rock layers). No matter where her path takes her, she is confident that she will always be learning new things. When she is not conducting research, Lauren enjoys tending her indoor garden, which she affectionately refers to as her “jungle.”