"Ah, there's nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention. Science has it all."

- Dedicated Educator,

Principal Seymour Skinner

About me:

I am a recent Ph.D. at UCLA in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences working with Dr. J. William Schopf. I am interested in Precambrian paleobiology and methods of determining the presence of early life on Earth and how this could be applied to detecting evidence of life on extraterrestrial bodies (i.e. Mars, Europa, Titan, …). My thesis involved the determination of chemical changes that occur to plants during fossilization using microchemical techniques, such as laser Raman spectroscopy, ¹³C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. I am also a CSEOL (Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life) Fellow (2000-2002) and a member of the UCLA Center for Astrobiology which is one of the lead teams of the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

Education:

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2006: Geology (concentration: Paleobiology)

Thesis title: Characterization of the geochemical alteration of permineralized fossil plants based on macromolecular structure and composition

Chair: J. William Schopf

B.S., University of Connecticut, 1998: Environmental Science and Biology

While an undergrad and for a while afterward, I worked as a research technician in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the labs of Drs. Zoe Cardon, Cindi Jones, and Robin Chazdon.

Courses Taught:

Winter 2005 ESS 116: Paleontology

à Dr. Michael Vendrasco, Professor

Fall 2004 ESS 1: Introduction to Earth Science

à Dr. Peter Bird, Professor

Spring 2004 ESS 17: Dinosaurs and Their Relatives

à Dr. Mark Webster, Professor

Fall 2003 ESS 1: Introduction to Earth Science

à Dr. Craig Manning, Professor

Fall 2002 ESS 116: Paleontology

à Dr. Bruce Runnegar, Professor

Winter 2002 ESS 16: Major Events in The History Of Life

à Dr. J. William Schopf, Professor

Fall 2001 OBEE 152: Functional Plant Anatomy

à Dr. Arthur Gibson, Professor

Fall 2000 HC70B: Non-Life To Life, Microbes To Man: Nature Is Not Compartmentalized

à Dr. J. William Schopf, Professor

Publications:

SCHOPF, J. W., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., CZAJA, A. D., and TRIPATHI, A. B. (in press) Evidence of Archean life: stromatolites and microfossils. Precambrian Research.

CZAJA, A. D., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and SCHOPF, J. W. (2006) New method for the microscopic, nondestructive acquisition of ultraviolet resonance Raman spectra from plant cell walls. Applied Spectroscopy, 60: 352–355.

SCHOPF, J. W., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., AGRESTI, D. G., CZAJA, A. D., and WDOWIAK, T .J. (2005) Raman Imagery: a new approach to assess the geochemical maturity and biogenicity of permineralized Precambrian microscopic fossils. Astrobiology, 5: 333-371.

JONES, C. S., CARDON, Z. G., and CZAJA, A. D. (2003) A phylogenetic view of low level CAM in Pelargonium (Geraniaceae). American Journal of Botany, 90: 135-142

CARDON, Z. G., CZAJA, A. D., FUNK, J. L., and VITT, P. L. (2002). Periodic carbon flushing to roots of Quercus rubra seedlings affects soil respiration and rhizosphere microbial biomass. Oecologia, 133: 215-223.

SCHOPF, J. W., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., AGRESTI, D. G., WDOWIAK, T. J., and CZAJA, A. D. (2002) Images of Earth’s earliest fossils? – Reply. Nature 420: 477.

SCHOPF, J. W., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., AGRESTI, D. G., WDOWIAK, T. J., and CZAJA, A. D. (2002). Laser-Raman imagery of Earth’s earliest fossils. Nature, 416, 73-76.

CZAJA, A. D. (1998). Effects of debris-avalanches on surrounding Betula cordifolia in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire. Senior honor’s thesis, University of Connecticut, Storrs. 33 pp.

Abstracts-Posters-Presentations:

CZAJA, A. D. and KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B. (2006) Raman spectroscopic characterization of the thermal history of permineralized fossils. Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon). Washington, DC.

CZAJA, A. D., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and CODY, G. D. (2005) Toward a Better Understanding of the Paleontological Afterlife: A Spectroscopic Comparison of Modern and Permineralized Plant Axes. Oral presentation at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

CZAJA, A. D., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and CODY, G. D. (2005) Spectroscopic analysis of the thermal alteration of permineralized organic matter. Poster presentation at the 14^th International Conference on the Origin of Life and 11th International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) Meeting, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PRC.

CZAJA, A. D., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and CODY, G. D. (2005) Raman spectroscopic analysis of the thermal alteration of permineralized organic matter. Poster presentation at the NASA Astrobiology Institute Conference, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO. Gerald Soffen Student Poster Competition Award finalist.

CZAJA, A. D., CODY, G. D., and SCHOPF, J. W. Turning ferns into fossils: biogeochemical alchemy. GSA Conference, November 2004.

CZAJA, A. D., CODY, G. D., and SCHOPF, J. W. Illuminating the black box that is fossil kerogen. NASA Astrobiology Institute, Forum for Astrobiological Research seminar series, 14 June, 2004.

CZAJA, A. D., CODY, G. D., and SCHOPF, J. W. Turning ferns into fossils: biogeochemical alchemy. PaleoBios, Volume 24, Supplement to Number 1 (Abstracts from the 2004 California Paleontology Conference), April, 2004, p. 1-2.

CZAJA, A. D., CODY, G. D., and SCHOPF, J. W. Turning ferns into fossils: biogeochemical alchemy. International Journal of Astrobiology, Supplement 1 (Abstracts from the Astrobiology Science Conference 2004), March, 2004, p. 27.

CZAJA, A. D., SCHOPF, J. W., STORRIE-LOMBARDI, M. C., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and BHARTIA, R. (2002) Laser Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Chemical Changes Caused by Fossilization (Poster presentation at the 13^th Annual International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) Conference, Oaxaca, Mexico, 30 June – 5 July 2002)

CZAJA, A. D., SCHOPF, J. W., STORRIE-LOMBARDI, M. C., KUDRYAVTSEV, A. B., and BHARTIA, R. (2002) Laser Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Biochemical Changes Caused by Fossilization (Poster presentation at the NASA Astrobiology Institute Science Conference 2002, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA, 7-11 April 2002)

CZAJA, A. D. (2001) Laser-Raman Spectroscopy: Adventures in High-Tech Paleontology. (Oral Presentation at the 6^th Annual ESSSO Student Symposium, UCLA, 3 December 2001)

CZAJA, A. D. (1999) Effects of Landslides on Surrounding Heart-leaved Birch (Betula cordifolia, Regel) in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire. (Oral presentation at the 17th Annual Undergraduate Honors Research Colloquium, University of Connecticut, May 1999.)

CZAJA, A. D. and CARDON, Z. G. (1999) Effects of Landslides on Surrounding Heart-leaved Birch (Betula cordifolia, Regel) in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire. (Produced a poster of dendrochronology/landslide project for presentation at Frontiers in Undergraduate Research, Arts, Sciences and Humanities (FURASH), a program that showcases undergraduate research projects at the University of Connecticut, May 1999.)

CARDON, Z. G., FUNK, J. L., CZAJA, A. D., and VITT, P. (1999) Periodic carbon flushing to roots of Quercus rubra seedlings affects soil respiration and rhizosphere microbial biomass. Supplement to Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, p. 63.

Assorted Links

Find other grad students in the ESS department and check out their websites.

Want to find out more about me? Want to find out if you are related to me? Check out my family's website:
Butler Family Website

My cats, Beaker and Bunsen.

Want to help find extraterrestrial intelligence? Join with the SETI Institute and let them "borrow" your computer! They have this great project, called SETI@home where you download a program that lets you process their radio telescope data while your computer is in screensaver mode. To download the program or just learn more click on the link!

Last updated: 15 May, 2007

"Ah, there's nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention. Science has it all." - Dedicated Educator, Principal Seymour Skinner About me: