A-Z index - Search
OASIS - myUSF

Matthew Pasek
Visiting Assistant Professor

Contact

Office: SCA 533
Phone: 813/975-8979
Email: mpasek@cas.usf.edu

Links

• Curriculum Vitae

Education

Ph.D., Planetary Science- University of Arizona , 2006

B.S., Geology + Chemistry, College of William and Mary, 2002

Research

Understanding the origin of life from the perspective of meteorites, metabolism, and phosphorus.  Determining potentially prebiotic pathways leading to the origin of life using phosphorus redox cosmobiogeochemistry.

Cosmochemical studies of planetary systems as constrained by thermodynamic equilibrium models.  Cosmochemistry of meteorites and placing constraints on the impact history of the inner solar system.

Constraining redox processes in the modern phosphorus biogeochemical cycle, including the role of lightning and meteoritic impacts. 

Recent Publications

Pasek, M.A., and Block, K., 2009, Lightning Reduction of Phosphate: Implications for Phosphorus Biogeochemistry.  Nature Geoscience, in review.

Pasek, M.A., Kee, T.P., Bryant, D.E., Pavlov, A.A., and Lunine, J.I., 2008, Production of potentially prebiotic condensed phosphates by phosphorus redox chemistry.  Angewandte Chemie International Edition 47, 7918-7920.

Mousis, O., Lunine, J.I., Thomas, C., Pasek, M., Marbouef, U., Alibert, Y., Ballenegger, V., Cordier, D., Ellinger, Y., Pauzat, F., and Picaud, S., 2009, Clathration of volatiles in the solar nebula and implications for the origin of Titan’s atmosphere. Astrophysical Journal 691, 1780-1786.

David E. Bryant, David Greenfield, Richard D. Walshaw, Suzanne M. Evans, Alexander E. Nimmo, Caroline Smith, Liming Wang, Matthew A. Pasek, and Terence P. Kee. 2009.  Electrochemical studies of iron meteorites.  Phosphorus redox chemistry on the early Earth.  International Journal of Astrobiology, doi: 10.1017/S1473550408004345.

Pasek, M.A., 2008, Rethinking early Earth phosphorus geochemistry.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105, 853-858.

Pasek, M.A. and Lauretta, D.S. 2008, Extraterrestrial flux of potentially prebiotic C, N, and P to the early Earth.  Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 38, 5-21.

Pasek, M.A., Dworkin, J.P., and Lauretta, D.S., 2007, A radical pathway for organic phosphorylation during schreibersite corrosion with implications for the origin of life.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71, 1721-1736.

Owens, B.E. and Pasek, M.A., 2007, Kyanite quartzites in the Piedmont Province of Virginia:  evidence for protolith production in a high-sulfidation hydrothermal system.  Economic Geology 102, 495-509.

Pasek, M.A., Milsom, J.A., Ciesla, F.J., Lauretta, D.S., Sharp, C., and Lunine, D.S., 2005  Sulfur chemistry in protoplanetary nebulae with time-varying oxygen abundances.  Icarus 175, 1-14.

Pasek, M.A. and Lauretta, D.S., 2005.  Aqueous corrosion of phosphide minerals from iron meteorites: a highly reactive source of prebiotic phosphorus on the surface of the early Earth.  Astrobiology 5, 515-535.