Eric Tappa
Research Associate
Marine Sediments Research Lab

Phone: 803.777.7473
FAX:   803.777.4525
E-mail: tappa@geol.sc.edu

I began working in the Marine Sediments Lab in June of 1983.  Reagan was in his first term, M*A*S*H was still on the air, and the megabit chip was still a year from being developed.  I was drafting figures with the use of a  rapidograph and Kroy lettering machine.  I had an Apple IIe on my desk and we bought our first PC ( a year later) for $3000.  It had a 8086 processor, 2 floppy drives and 64K of RAM...a real screamer!

Today the top computers are still $3000 (although they do a bit more...), my rapidographs are all dried up, and we've expanded to 3 labs.  I am a  Research Associate in the Geological Sciences Department here at USC working with Bob Thunell.  My work primarily centers on staging and maintaining our field programs, overseeing the generation and archival of data in the labs (geochemical, sedimentological, stable isotopes), and everything else associated with maintaining a research program.    Presently we have two ongoing field programs: one in the Santa Barbara Basin and the other off the coast of Venezuela in the Cariaco Basin and numerous other research projects.  I run and maintain our JY Ultima-C ICP-AES, and IsoPrime IRMS.  Outside of the lab  I serve on the Judicial Board for the University and am the Webperson for our Department and served on the Advisory Council for the McKissick Museum.  What  keeps me the most busy, or rather who,  are my two children Lucas Kaila'i and Nai'a Claire Tappa.  At 13 and 10 years they are the rulers of  everything. 

Last updated: August, 2009

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