"How and when did plate tectonics start on Earth, what came before, and why does it matter?"

Robert Stern, a research scientist in the geosciences department at The University of Texas at Dallas and current Merle A. Tuve Senior Fellow at DTM, gave his Tuve Lecture titled "How and when did plate tectonics start on Earth, what came before, and why does it matter?" at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 13 May 2015, in the Greenewalt Lecture Hall.

Stern received his Ph.D. in Earth sciences from the University of California at San Diego in 1979. After finishing his Ph.D, Stern became a postdoctoral fellow at DTM from 1979-1982. His research interests include:

- Evolution of the continental crust as approached by tectonic, chemical, and isotopic studies of modern processes and ancient products.

- Geographic foci of such studies include Izu-Bonin-Mariana island arc system in the Western Pacific and Neoproterozoic crust of northeast Africa. These processes and products are studied using a wide range of analytical techniques, including major and trace element analyses, radiogenic isotopic compositions of Sr, Nd, and Pb, and U-Pb zircon geochronology, and Remote Sensing

- Applications of Remote Sensing for understanding the tectonics and resources of arid regions. Special focus is given to using synthetic aperture radar and Landsat-TM imagery to mapping basement structures and river systems and exploring for water, gold, and oil deposits in arid regions

- Geology of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex

- Geography, resources, and environment of Latin America and the Middle East