Lyle Nelson named Kerr-McGee Career Development Professor
Lyle Nelson was recently recognized with a Kerr-McGee Career Development Professorship, effective January 16, 2026. This named faculty chair provides additional support for research and career development.
Nelson is a sedimentary geologist, interested in the co-evolution of life and surface environments across pivotal transitions in Earth’s history. Out in the field, he maps and studies ancient ocean basins that have been uplifted into mountain belts, exposing the early history of surface environments from over 500 million years ago. From these records, he can look at the physical properties, chemical compositions and fossils in the rocks to determine what the oceans and atmosphere were like at that point in time, what lived there, and the rates and scale at which they changed. He joined the EAPS faculty in 2024.
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