Shanan Peters
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Earth & Environmental Science
Rocks hold the minerals, energy and water that society depends on. They also record how carbon, phosphorus and other elements have moved among the land, oceans, atmosphere and living things over Earth's history.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Computer Science
- Topics
macrostratigraphy
Paleobiology Database
PBot
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2028
What they work on
- Compile and standardize the location, age, rock type and thickness of rocks across northern Eurasia and add them to Macrostrat, an open database of Earth's crust.
- Test whether rock-cycling models built from North American data hold for northern Eurasia by measuring how preserved rock volume varies across space and geologic time.
- Assess whether continental flooding and sediment deposition are driven more by regional tectonics, such as nearness to subduction zones, or by global sea-level change, using geospatial and statistical analysis.
- Rebuild the Paleobiology Database's data model and API and merge it with the PBot paleobotany portal, adding specimen images and support for uncertain species identifications.
More about the research
Fossils inside rocks record the history of life. Yet much information about rocks and fossils is scattered across maps, reports and papers that are hard to combine. This research builds open, searchable databases of rocks and fossils and uses them to test ideas about how Earth's surface has changed.
Why it matters
Better-organized rock and fossil data could help geoscientists and biologists study natural resources, past changes in sea level and climate, and the evolution of life. Opening northern Eurasia's geology to Macrostrat and modernizing the Paleobiology Database aim to give researchers, educators, students and the public free, reusable data on Earth history. This could support applied geoscience as well as research on how ecosystems and species changed.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Macrostratigraphy of Northern Laurasia: Testing Models of Rock Cycling and Continental Flooding
NSF · Jan 2027 – Dec 2028
Collaborative Research: Sustained Resources: The Paleobiology Database 2.0: Launching the next decade of education and research in the integrated geological and biological sciences
NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2028
Closest labs
Matthew Clapham
University of California-Santa Cruz, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Overhaul the Paleobiology Database's data model, database and application logic to integrate features from the Integrative Paleobotany Portal (PBot), streamline data entry and improve long-term sustainability.
Daven Quinn
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Earth & Environmental Science
Build data pipelines that move geologic maps, stratigraphic columns and cross-sections from the StraboSpot field app into Macrostrat's multiscale crustal model, keeping supporting records such as photos and measurements.
Christine Regalla
Northern Arizona University, AZ·Earth & Environmental Science
Extend the StraboSpot geologic data system to support group-level workflows, so multiple researchers can collect, store and interpret shared field and laboratory data collaboratively rather than individually.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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