Louis A. Derry | Cornell Engineering

Biography

Louis Derry received a B.A. in Geology from Colorado College in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Harvard University in 1990. He also worked in the mineral exploration (Homestake Mining Co.) and petroleum (Chevron) industries. Following his doctoral work, Derry was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CNRS) Nancy, France. He came to Cornell as a Snee Research Fellow in 1994 and joined the faculty in 1996. Derry is a Senior Scientist with the Kohala Center, Hawaii and a Research Scientist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris.

Research Interests

Derry’s research includes studying biogeochemical and Critical Zone processes at multiple time scales, from modern environments to the evolution of couple biogeochemical cycles over Earth history. Recent work includes elemental speciation and cycling in soil-plant-water systems, and coupling between carbon, plants, weathering and hydrologic fluxes, and atmospheric transport of nutrient element including aerosols and bird migration. Longer time scale problems include work to quanitify isotopic and mass balances in the globe carbon cycle, and understand causes of long term changes in atmospheric CO2.

Teaching Interests

I teach biogeochemistry and geochemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Cornell and the Université de Paris Cité. I seek to integrate observation and a system-level understanding of coupled processes with quantitative models (both analytical and numerical) to allow the students to deepen their understanding of biogeochemical processes. By integrating quantitative methods with observations in the field, laboratory, and from the literature, students develop both a better understanding of biogeochemical phenomena as well as a more intuitive understanding of the use of mathematics and simulations to solve diverse problems. I have taught field programs in the U.S. and in Europe.

Select Publications

Cunningham C., Guertin A., Gelin M., Derry L., Bauser H., Minseok K., Druhan J., Saleska S., Troch P., Chorover J. 2025. Carbon dioxide removal during dissolution of granular basalt: A mass balance test of enhanced rock weathering at the hillslope scale. to Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 671:119662. doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119662
Duvall E. S., L. A. Derry, P. B. McIntyre, A.S. Flecker. 2025. Phenology and flight shape the elemental composition of birds. Proceedings of Royal Society B 292:20251276. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1276
Derry, L. A., 2024. Closing the geologic carbon cycle. Proc. National Acad. Sciences USA, 121, e2409333121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2409333121
Perez-Fodich A, L. A. Derry, M. T. Walter, J. Marçais, 2024. The effect of weathering in runoff-to-groundwater partitioning in the Island of Hawai’i: perspectives for landscape evolution. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 635:18687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118687
Derry L.A. 2022. Carbonate weathering, CO2 redistribution and Neogene CCD and pCO2 evolution. Earth & Planetary Science Letters 597:117801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117801

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Select Awards and Honors

Laureate, Make Our Planet Great Again program, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France 2019
GSA Fellow (Geological Society of America) 2020
James M. and Marsha D. McCormick Advising Award (College of Engineering, Cornell University) 2009
Senior Fellow (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) 2009
Top 1 percent of most-cited geoscientists from January 1999 to October 2009 (Thompson-Reuter's Essential Science Indicators (Sciencewatch.com)) 2000
Fellow (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) 1999

Education

B.A. (Geology), Colorado College 1981
Ph.D. (Geology), Harvard University 1990