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Zachary Florentino Murguía Burton

Adjunct Lecturer, Earth & Planetary Sciences
My research spans the impacts of climate change on ocean and sedimentary basin depositional systems, formation and destruction of marine methane hydrate systems, and Earth analogs for aqueous alteration and volcanism on Mars and the Moon. I apply diverse analytical methods in the field, in the lab, via computational modeling, via remote sensing, and via rigorous syntheses and meta-analyses of published data and literature.

I fund my research with support from NASA, NSF, USDOE, USNPS, AAPG, CMS, GRC, GSA, Stanford, and industry.

I've published 11 peer-reviewed papers (9 as first author) since 2018, plus 19 trade pubs and op-eds. My research—published in Science Advances, Nature’s Scientific Reports, GRL, and others—has been featured by ABC, CNN, NBC, Daily Mail, Nature, Popular Science, New Scientist, Eos.org, Phys.org, Space.com, GSA Today, Elements, IODP, NASA, USGS, universities (incl. Stanford, Cornell, U. Hawaiʻi, Umeå U., U. Wien), and media outlets in 40+ countries (incl. Asian News Internat'l, Austria Press Agency, Europa Press, Telecinco). I’ve been invited to speak and share my research by TEDx, the U.S. State Dept., Vail Global Energy Forum, Cleantech Open at PG&E, JOGMEC (Japan), SSERD (India), CSUF, Harvard, Stanford, U. Houston, U. Rhode Isl., Wash. State U., AAPG, AGU, GSA, GRC, LPSC, EUROCLAY (Paris), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers 2021 Nat’l Conv., SACNAS 2023 Nat’l Diversity in STEM Conf., and others.

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I’m an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford and NASA-funded Postdoc Fellow at the U. of Idaho. I’m Assoc Editor of AIPG’s TPG and past Publications Board Member to NES-American Chemical Society. After earning my PhD at Stanford in 2021, I spent a year as an environmental scientist at Exponent. During my PhD, I conducted research as a USDOE Fellow, and with GNS Science (New Zealand), Precourt Inst. for Energy, and SETI/NASA Astrobiology Inst. I completed research internships with two major E&P firms and Stanford GSB in India. I love teaching and mentoring, and I’ve taught for Stanford, Bowdoin, USDOD in Germany, and others, and lecture and speak widely as well as volunteer as mentor via platforms for student advancement and professional development. I’ve mentored research projects by students from Stanford, Bowdoin, Williams, and (via NSF REU) RPI and UCLA.

Diversity enhances scientific innovation (Hofstra et al., 2020, PNAS)—what’s more, promoting belonging and access is simply the right thing to do (and geoscience has lots of catching up to do, e.g., Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018, Nature Geosci). I am passionate about advancing diversity and inclusion in Earth science, academia, and our broader society. I volunteer for orgs including SACNAS, GeoLatinas, and SSERD-India, and previously as Exponent HBCU recruiting co-lead, Women of Aeronautics & Astronautics advisor, and Stanford Medicine BLM Project team lead. My efforts advancing DEI have been recognized by Stanford Earth DEI Office’s 2019–2021 Service Award, Exponent’s 2021 DEI Spotlight, NASPA’s 2022 Excellence Awards, and more. I’m also highly involved in promoting inclusion around mental health. I created and lead The Manic Monologues (award-winning mental health stories performed across 4 continents and 11 U.S. states), and I’m co-chair to Yale's Latino Recovery Colectivo and board member to batyr-Australia, CAPMH-Kenya, Columbia-WHO Center for Global MH, Harvard Business Review, and others.

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Recent publications:

Burton, Bishop, et al. (2023) A shallow salt pond analog for aqueous alteration on ancient Mars […]. American Mineralogist 108.

Burton & Dafov (2023) Salt diapir-driven recycling of gas hydrate. Geochem Geophys Geosystems 24.

Burton, McHargue, et al. (2023) Peak Cenozoic warmth enabled deep-sea sand deposition. Scientific Reports 13.

Burton & Cao (2022) Navigating mental health challenges in graduate school. Nature Reviews Materials 7.