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Edward Boyle is a marine geochemist and professor of ocean geochemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the director of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering. His research with the Trace Metal Group under the MIT department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences focuses on trace metal probes and isotopic ratios in bodies of water and ice cores, intended to function as indicators of both the historic and current ocean biogeochemistry.

He was the 2014 recipient of the European Association of Geochemistry Urey Award which is presented to individuals for “outstanding contributions advancing geochemistry over a career”. According to his research statement for the award, his work “involves devising new sampling techniques for contamination-free sampling of trace metals in the ocean, and more efficient methods for trace metal analyses on small samples”.

Early Life and Education
Boyle obtained his B.A. in Chemistry with highest honors from the University of California, San Diego in 1971. He was a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellow from 1971-1975 and received his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT/WHOI) in 1976. He was a NATO postdoctoral fellow from 1976-1977.

MITESS
Boyle co-designed a device alongside Jory Bell and Joe Betts for sampling trace elements on deep-sea moorings lasting six months or longer. He also operated as the corresponding author on the publication “MITESS: a moored in situ trace element serial sampler for deep-sea moorings” which details the device design and test data. MITESS allows for clean collection of 500 milliliter samples by allowing seawater to passively fill chambers which first contain mildly acidified distilled water. A modifications to MITESS called the automated trace element sampler (ATE) allows “trace metal clean near-surface samples to be collected by personnel not trained in trace element sampling”.

Research
Boyle has over 356 published articles. He has authored papers from 1974-2017. Boyle is acknowledged for his work in marine geochemistry associated with the study of the oceanic dispersal of anthropogenic emissions and climate evolution of the earth. Moreover, he is also a distinguished member of the National Academy of Sciences, and his National Research Council experience includes membership on the Ocean Studies Board from 2010 to 2015, the 2013 Alexander Agassiz Medal Selection Committee, and the Committee on an Ocean Infrastructure Strategy for U.S. Ocean Research and the Marine Chemistry Study Panel.

Dr. Edward Boyle’s research group at MIT, also known as the PAOC chemical oceanography group, focuses on trace metals and trace metal isotope ratios in the oceans, rivers, ice cores, and estuaries. Some of his prominent research work includes: The Global Anthropogenic Lead Experiment, Iron in The Ocean, Geotraces, CMORE, CENSAM-Singapore, and KFAS-Kuwait. Professor Boyle’s main interest lies in the areas of paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and the chemistry of environmental waters. His research investigates past ocean circulation patterns based on climatological studies and infers on fossil chemistry of oceanic sediments. Additionally, he is also involved in the study of oceanic trace metal variability and the transport of anthropogenic emissions and natural mineral dust into the ocean.

As a geochemist, professor Boyle investigates the differentiability of oceanic trace metals related to atmospheric transport of anthropogenic emissions and mineral dust. His significant contribution to climatological studies paved way for the development of various new proxy tracers for paleoenvironmental processes. This critical innovation allowed him to be the first scientist to provide an accurate quantitative assessment of chemical changes in the deep ocean that occured during ice ages. His most recent publication detailed the helium and thorium isotope constraints on African dust transport to the Bahamas. In this study, his team analyzed the four-fold substantial increase in dust production in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the regional extent of this dust increase and the exact reason has been unproven, his study shows that it might be potentially due to the onset of Sahelian agriculture two hundred years ago. Furthermore, his research attempted to characterize the potential linkages with North Atlantic climate that might have had an effect on the variability in Saharan dust transport.

Presently, Dr. Boyle has not published any recent articles and has not developed new research projects but he is still part of MIT’s teaching faculty in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences.