R.V. Krishnamurthy

Photo of R.V. Krishnamurthy
Rama V. Krishnamurthy
Professor, Isotope geochemistry
Office: 
(269) 387-5501
Fax: 
(269) 387-5513
Location: 
1131 Rood Hall, Mail Stop 5241
Mailing address: 
Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5241 USA
Education: 
  • Ph.D., Physical Research Laboratory, Department of Space, Ahmedabad, 1984
  • M.S., Utkal University, 1974
  • B.S., Utkal University, 1970
Research interests: 
  • Stable isotopes
  • Paleoclimates
  • Ground and surface water interactions
Bio: 

Dr. R.V. Krishnamurthy is professor of stable isotope geochemistry in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Western Michigan University. His research emphases are stable isotopes, paleoclimates, carbon cycling in freshwater systems and geochemical fate of contaminants. Krishnamurthy leads a research team focusing on stable isotope research, emphasizing the use of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen isotopes to investigate a variety of environmental and geochemical problems. He supervises the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. This group pioneered the application of hydrogen isotopes in sedimentary organic matter as a climate proxy and developed analytical techniques to extract dissolved organic carbon compounds in water samples for isotopic measurements as well as techniques for carbonate analysis.

Recent Publications

  • Krishnamurthy, R.V., Suryawanshi, Y.R., and Essani, K., 2017, Nitrogen isotopes provide clues to amino acid metabolism in human colorectal cancer cells: Scientific Reports, v. 7, no. 1, doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02793-y.
  • Barnes, N. A., Kehew, A.E., Krishnamurthy, R.V., and Koretsky, C. M. 2011. Redox evolution in glacial drift aquifers: role of diamictons in reduction of Fe(III). Environmental Earth Sciences, 62, 1027-1038.

  • Machavaram, M. and Krishnamurthy, R.V., (1995), Earth Surface Evaporative processes: a case study from the Great Lakes region of the United States based on deuterium excess in precipitation. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 59, 4279-4283.
  • Cronin, J.R., Pizzarello, S., Epstein, S. and Krishnamurthy, R.V., (1993), Molecular and isotopic analysis of the hydroxy acids, dicarboxylic acids and hydroxydicarboxylic acids of the Murchison meteorite. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 57, 4745-4752.
  • Baskaran, M. and Krishnamurthy, R.V., (1993),The d13C in Cave deposits: a proxy indicator of the d13C of atmospheric CO2. Geophys. Res. Lett. 20, 2905-2908.
  • Feng, X., Krishnamurthy, R.V., and Epstein, S., (1993), Determination of D/H ratios of non-exchangeable hydrogen in cellulose:A method based on the cellulose-water exchange reaction. Geochimica Cosmochima Acta 57, 4249-4256.