Rate My Professor David Barbeau

David Barbeau is an Associate Professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of South Carolina, where he leads the Geology and Geophysics program and serves as Geology Field Camp Director. He earned a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Arizona in 2003, an M.S. in Geology from the same institution in 2000, and a B.A. cum laude in Geology from Carleton College in 1997. His professional career encompasses service as Graduate Director for the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment from 2010 to 2012 and in Fall 2019, Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina from 2004 to 2009, Principal Investigator on United States Antarctic Program research cruises LMG 09-11 and LMG 11-02 in 2009-2011, Co-Chief Scientist on LMG 07-17 in 2007, Visiting Geologist at British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research Station in 2008-2009, and Research Geologist at ExxonMobil in summers 2000-2002. Barbeau directs the Center for Elemental Mass Spectrometry and the Rock Preparation Facility at the University of South Carolina.

Barbeau's research focuses on clastic sedimentology, tectonics and sedimentation, and basin analysis, employing field geology and laser-ablation U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology to reconstruct the evolution of tectonic plates, mountain belts, ocean and atmospheric circulation, climate, and biogeography over geologic timescales. His influential publications include "A flexural model for the Paradox Basin: implications for the tectonics of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains" (Basin Research, 2003), "Progressive Cenozoic cooling and the demise of Antarctica’s last refugium" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011), "Application of foreland basin detrital-zircon geochronology to the reconstruction of the southern and central Appalachian orogen" (Journal of Geology, 2010), "Detrital-zircon geochronology of the eastern Magallanes foreland basin: Implications for Eocene kinematics of the northern Scotia Arc and Drake Passage" (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2009), and more recent works such as "Detrital zircon provenance and transport pathways of Pleistocene-Holocene eolian sediment in the Pampean Plains, Argentina" (Geological Society of America Bulletin, 2023) and "A westerly wind dominated Puna Plateau during deposition of upper Pleistocene loessic sediments in the subtropical Andes, South America" (Nature Communications, 2022). With over 1,500 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions have advanced understanding in sedimentary provenance and paleotectonics. Barbeau received the Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2017 and served as Pearce Faculty Fellow of the South Carolina Honors College from 2017 to 2023, as well as on the Editorial Board of Geology from 2013-2015 and 2018-2020. He teaches field-based introductory geology for geoscience majors, undergraduate sedimentary geology, geology field camp, and a graduate course in regional tectonics.