Julia Wilcots

About My Work

In my research, I use the physical and chemical properties of carbonate sedimentary rocks to infer information about the climates and environments of ancient Earth. I am most interested in the Neoproterozoic Era (1000-540 million years ago), a pivotal time in the history of our planet characterized by global (snowball Earth) glaciations, large amplitude carbon isotope excursions, and the emergence of animal life.

Prior to starting an assistant professorship at the University of Minnesota, I was a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and Future Faculty in the Physical Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University, where I worked with Adam Maloof and the GIRI Lab to develop a quantitative "facies vector" approach to studying environmental change prior to the Neoproterozoic snowball glaciations.

My PhD (MIT, 2022) thesis explored the mineral dolomite and its utility as a paleoenvironmental archive through three methodologically distinct approaches: with micro- to nano-scale crystal orientation mapping (Wilcots and Bergmann et al. 2025); using Macrostrat to quantify the total abundance of dolomite in the North American rock record (pre-print published here); and geochemically, applying the clumped isotope paleothermometer to pre-snowball dolomites to reconstruct climate prior to snowball Earth glaciation (in prep).

At UMN, I am building two lab spaces, a shared clumped isotope laboratory in Tate Hall, and a grinding and imaging lab (à la GIRI) at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. My research will focus on connecting carbonate facies and geochemistry in modern and ancient sediments in order to better understand past and future changes to the Earth system. 

About Me

I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and had every intention of becoming an architect. But, while pursing my undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at Princeton University (2016), I stumbled upon sedimentary geology and became fascinated with Earth history.  That led me to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT, where I worked with Kristin Bergmann and received my PhD (2022). I returned to Princeton for a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship with Adam Maloof and began my assistant professorship at the University of Minnesota in Fall 2025.

I love that my work lets me spend time outside in beautiful and interesting places. When I'm not traveling, hiking, or camping as part of my research, you can find me traveling, hiking, and camping for fun. Since returning to the midwest, I have rekindled a love for cross-country skiing and mountain biking.