Dr. Floyd Nichols

POSTDOCTORAL NETWORK  |   Global Change Center

Postdoctoral Associate

Faculty Mentors:  Dr. Rachel Reid and Dr. Ben Gill

Department of Geosciences

floydnichols@vt.edu

Google Scholar  •  CV

I am a postdoctoral associate who specializes in organic geochemistry and data science in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, working with Dr. Benjamin Gill and Dr. Rachel Reid. My research focuses on understanding biological signatures, specifically lipid biomarkers, in hypersaline environments. I utilize these lipid biomarkers to make inferences about potential life on Mars (past and present). Additionally, I use these same signatures in combination with stable isotopes to make reconstructions of paleohydroclimate from hypersaline environments.

My postdoctoral work continues to investigate lipid biosignatures in diverse hypersaline systems including hypersaline lakes of British Columbia, the Mojave Desert, and the Atacama Desert in tandem with machine learning to provide agnostic insight into the influence of biosignature production and preservation. Additionally, this data serves as a springboard to provide more information about organic carbon turnover in hypersaline systems which are often neglected in climate models despite having a potential large influence on carbon flux into the atmosphere.