Chris Scholz

Chris Scholz is Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University, and holds a Ph.D. in Geology from Duke University. His research focus is the evolution of continental rift basins and the sedimentary fill of large lacustrine systems, and over the past 30 years he has undertaken studies of many large lakes and active rifts around the world, including most of the large lakes of Africa, Lake Baikal (Siberia), and the North American Great Lakes. He also studies the paleoclimate record of tropical Africa over time frames of several thousand to several million years. His work is providing the environmental background to hominid evolution, migrations, and population changes, mainly from studies of the sediments found on the bottom of larges lakes in Africa’s Great Rift Valley.