Corals, Oceans & Climate: Past, Present & FutureMaster ClassIn-Person
Wednesday, Dec 17, 2025
8:15 a.m. – 3:00 p.m
Our partner, American Museum of Natural History, is hosting this event.
Coral skeletons record ocean changes much like tree rings record rainfall. Because corals influence the oceans and the oceans shape the climate, Dr. Nathalie Goodkin’s lab at the American Museum of Natural History studies coral geochemistry to reveal how the oceans have changed over time and what that means for Earth’s climate future. In this master class, Dr. Goodkin will discuss why climate reconstructions of the past thousand years matter for predicting climate in the centuries ahead. Together, we’ll explore changes to the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current of the North Atlantic. The day will include visits to the museum’s Hall of Planet Earth, including the Climate Wall, and conclude with a behind-the-scenes tour of Dr. Goodkin’s Paleoclimate Laboratory.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, EARTH SCIENCE
Nathalie Goodkin
Dr. Nathalie Goodkin’s research is focused on understanding and using coral geochemistry to reconstruct ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate behavior, and pollution histories over the past five hundred years. She received her AB in chemistry from Harvard University and her PhD in chemical oceanography from the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. She has held faculty positions at the University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and is currently the division chair of physical sciences at the American Museum of Natural History.