Petroleum Research Fund- American Chemical Society, 2003-2006, Secular variations in the chemistry of ancient seawater and the origin of CaCl₂-rich basinal brines and fluid inclusions in diagenetic minerals.

National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences Program, 2004-2006, Antiquity of life in salt deposits? A Rb-Sr age-dating study, Collaboration with Juske Horita and Lee Riciputi, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

National Science Foundation Biogeosciences Program, 2004-2007, Preservation and long-term bacterial survival in Quaternary age salts from Death Valley, Chile, and Bolivia, (Collaboration with Matthew Parker, Department of Biology, Binghamton University and Russell Vreeland & William Rosenzweig, Department of Biological Sciences, West Chester University).