The Harvard/MIT Astrobiology team comprises a diverse group of microbiologists, dynamicists, paleontologists, sedimentary geologists, geochemists, and planetary geologists. Our interactions are rooted in the common goal of understanding the co-evolution of life and environments in Earth history. The focus of our team is on integrated field, laboratory-based, and theoretical investigations interpreted in the context of insights drawn from comparative biology and research on contemporary geological and biogeochemical processes. Our research on the co-evolution of Earth and its biota is founded on a careful analysis of the rock record that accumulated during critical intervals of biospheric change. Focal points of this research are:

The Proterozoic (2500-543 Ma) oxidation of the Earth's surface when ocean chemistry moved from being anoxic and iron rich, to sulfidic to fully ventilated with oxygen.

Neoproterozoic-Cambrian (1000-543 Ma) environmental change and evolution comprising paleontology, geochronology, tectonics, sedimentology and environmental changes of this period, looking for models of integrated change in the Earth system.

The Snowball Earth Hypothesis and the impact of extreme climate on the history of life.

The Permo-Triassic Boundary (251 Ma) including causes and biological consequences of the mass extinction which removed some 90 percent of Earth's species diversity and permanently altering the course of evolution.

Molecular and isotopic approaches to microbial ecology and biogeochemistry including isotopic characterization of molecular biosignatures to understand the functional and systematic relationships of microorganisms in natural ecosystems.

Geobiology of hematitic sedimentary rocks including studies of iron-rich sedimentary rocks (Banded Iron Formations and associated sediments) and research on Neogene iron deposits (Rio Tinto system, Spain)

Molecular evolution and phylogeny to understand the relationship between molecular clock and paleontological estimates of evolutionary divergence times and deconvolute biological from geological signals in Phanerozoic marine diversity studies.