Jeffery Stone

Jeffery Stone is a Professor of Environmental Geosciences in the Earth & Environmental Systems department within the College of Arts & Sciences at Indiana State University. His research focuses on diatom paleoecology and its applications to understanding environmental and climate change throughout Earth's history, with particular expertise in African Rift lakes and North American lake systems.

Dr. Stone's educational background includes:

• Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2005), with emphases in Paleoclimatology and Paleoecology
• M.S. in Geology from New Mexico Institute of Mines and Technology (1997), with emphases in Carbonate Petrology and Stratigraphy
• B.S. in Honors Geology from the University of Akron (1994), with emphases in Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Micropaleontology

His research program spans multiple critical areas of environmental science:

• Using diatoms as precise indicators of past lake levels and climate conditions across geological time scales
• Documenting diatom evolution and morphological changes in response to environmental shifts
• Applying diatom analysis to archaeological contexts for reconstructing past human-environment interactions
• Investigating climate change impacts on both modern and ancient lake ecosystems
• Conducting biodiversity surveys of diatoms in African Rift lakes and other significant water bodies worldwide

His methodological approach frequently combines traditional paleolimnological techniques with modern geochemical and statistical analyses to produce robust environmental reconstructions.

Analysis of Dr. Stone's most recent publications (2022-2025) reveals a strong emphasis on East African lakes (particularly Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika), Pleistocene paleoenvironments, and the innovative application of diatom analysis to both geological and archaeological questions. His work frequently involves international collaborations with researchers from multiple continents and contributes significantly to our understanding of long-term ecosystem dynamics, climate variability, and human-environment interactions throughout Earth history.

Dr. Stone has mentored numerous graduate students who have become productive researchers in their own right, as evidenced by their frequent co-authorship on his publications. His research has been supported by multiple competitive grants, including collaborative NSF funding for Pliocene paleoclimate research in the North American monsoon belt. His laboratory maintains extensive diatom reference collections and collaborates with researchers worldwide on diatom identification and paleoenvironmental reconstruction projects.

His current research focuses on understanding climate-driven ecological changes in high-altitude lakes, documenting diatom biodiversity in understudied regions, and applying microfossil analysis to address pressing questions in both paleoenvironmental reconstruction and archaeological interpretation. Dr. Stone's team frequently employs multi-proxy approaches that combine diatom analysis with other geochemical and sedimentological methods to produce comprehensive environmental reconstructions with high temporal resolution.