Rate My Professor Mike McCormick

Mike McCormick serves as Chair of the Geosciences Department, Professor of Biology, and Joel W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Science at Hamilton College, where he has been on the faculty since 2003. A member of the Biology Department, he holds a shared teaching appointment in the Geosciences Department. He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Michigan, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship there. McCormick discovered his passion for teaching as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, West Africa.

McCormick's research focuses on the microbial ecology of geochemical gradients, electron transfer processes between bacteria and solid surfaces, and the role of microbes in silicate mineral weathering as a potential mechanism for marine CO2 reduction. His expertise includes environmental geomicrobiology, cell/mineral interactions, the fate of environmental contaminants, solid-state respiration by bacteria, and molecular microbial ecology. He has received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award (2007), CH2M-Hill Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (2003), U.S. Antarctic Service Medal (2010), and grants from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (2007), Department of Energy (2010), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2023), and Joint Genome Institute Community Science Program (2025). Select publications are: Cohen et al., "Vertical microbial fluxes in a modern permanently redox-stratified lake provide insights into organic carbon sequestration and benthic–pelagic coupling during the Proterozoic Eon" (Limnology and Oceanography, 2025); Cohen et al., "Preserved particulate organic carbon is likely derived from the subsurface sulfidic photic zone of the Proterozoic Ocean: evidence from a modern, oxygen-deficient lake" (Geobiology, 2024); Chen et al., "Anoxic depositional overprinting of 238U/235U in calcite: When do carbonates tell black shale tales?" (Geology, 2021); Havig et al., "Water column and sediment carbon isotope geochemistry of permanently redox-stratified Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, USA" (Limnology and Oceanography, 2017). McCormick serves as Faculty Athletics Representative since 2023.