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Research
Dr. Freeman’s research group focuses on using stable isotopes and fossil biomolecules (i.e., biomarkers) to study ancient environments and ecosystems. These studies encompass a wide variety of topics, including (but not limited to): biogeochemistry and carbon cycling, paleoclimate, archaeology, microbiology, and high-resolution compound-specific isotope geochemistry. From 2003 to 2007, she directed the Biogeochemistry Research Initiative in Education at Pennsylvania State University, a National Science Foundation graduate student training program. Eigenbrode and Freeman (2006) used stable carbon isotope analyses of kerogen to document the rise of aerobic microbial communities in ~2.7-billion-year old Archean sediments from the Hamersley Province of Western Australia. In 2010, iron isotopes were studied from rocks of the same area to further interpret the environmental and ecological diversity prior to the Great Oxidation Event. Other recent studies have focused on lipid biomarkers and carbon isotope distributions in plants and leaves to understand past and future climate trends. In addition, her research has been further expanded into anthropological studies, such as characterizing the ecosystems and early human habitats of eastern Africa. Freeman has also been involved with, and participated in, several collaborative NASA astrobiology projects advancing the search for life beyond Earth and preservation of microbial biosignatures, and maintains an ongoing research group at Pennsylvania State University with state-of-the-art organic geochemical laboratory equipment and analytical instruments. In her time as a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University, Freeman has supervised more than 30 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.