About

Timothy Schroeder is a Professor of Philosophy at Rice University, having joined the department in the summer of 2015 after working at the University of Manitoba and Ohio State University. He completed his dissertation on the nature of mental representation at Stanford University under Fred Dretske in 1998. Schroeder has authored a book titled 'Three Faces of Desire' (2004), which explores the nature of desiring, wishing, and wanting, integrating philosophy and science. He also co-authored 'In Praise of Desire' (2014) with Nomy Arpaly, uniting the cognitive science of desire with moral psychology. His current research involves a new book on the neuroscience of action and the interpretation of scientific findings through philosophical analysis. Schroeder has written on various topics including consciousness, concepts, pleasure, fictional characters, the metaphysics of ideas, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, addiction, and the Humean theory of practical reason. Additionally, he collaborates with Duke developmental psychologist Tamar Kushner on a project examining certain recursively-characterized aspects of moral thinking in young children. His research areas encompass moral psychology, philosophy of mind, desire, addiction, and consciousness, and he teaches courses in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, epistemology, Chinese philosophy, and ethics.

Research topics

• Geochemistry
• Geology
• Mineralogy
• Geotechnical engineering
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Mineral carbonation of peridotite fueled by magmatic degassing and melt impregnation in an oceanic transform fault

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2024 · 8 citations

  • Geology
  • Geochemistry
  • Mineralogy

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  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mineral carbonation of oceanic peridotite in the St. Paul’s transform fault, equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge

  2023-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Four-dimensional characterization of a PFOA-contaminated fractured rock aquifer (FRA) in Bennington, Vermont, U.S.A

  Frontiers in Water · 2023 · 4 citations

  • Geology
  • Geochemistry
  • Geotechnical engineering

  Between 2016 and 2019, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation discovered that groundwater from over 50% (355/628) of wells and springs in the Bennington area had perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) concentrations > 20 parts/trillion (ppt) (Vermont action level). The distribution of contaminated wells was complex, with very different PFOA concentrations in closely-spaced wells (<100 m apart). PFOA was introduced into the environment by a factory that produced Teflon™-coated fabrics from about 1978–2002. Manufacturing involved PFOA expulsion from smokestacks followed by atmospheric transport, deposition, and downward leaching to the aquifer system. The fractured rock aquifer was characterized through physical components (geologic mapping, spatial analysis of wells, and geophysical logging) to build a Three-dimensional conceptual model and then map the spatial distribution of chemical groundwater tracers (PFOA, major and trace elements, stable isotopes, and and recharge ages), adding a fourth temporal dimension. The field area consists of four imbricated metamorphic rock slices bounded by thrust faults. The dominant fracture sets that overprint these slices control the N-S and E-W topographic “grain.” Geophysical logging divided wells into those completed internal to or on the margins of thrust slices. Major and trace element analysis shows that groundwater can be spatially discriminated into carbonate (TDS, Ca, Mg, HCO 3 ), shaly (Sr, U, SO 4 ), and siliceous (K, Si) groups. Depleted H 2 O stable isotope signatures characterize the siliceous group. Recharge-ages determined from CFC11, 12, and 113 and tritium correlate with geochemical groups and were divided into “older” (~1953–73) and “younger” (1963–88), which predate and are synchronous with factory operation, respectively. Our conceptual model shows recharge from highlands to the west and east flowing toward the Bennington valley where it is locally tapped by wells along thrust faults or fracture zones. This water has older recharge ages and anomalously low PFOA concentrations (<6.7 ppt in 12 of 15 samples, mean = 7.9 ppt) compared to the majority of wells in this region, which are completed in the internal portions of thrust slices. These wells contain groundwater with younger recharge ages and high PFOA concentrations (mean = 290 ppt) and occurrence (>20 ppt in 28/36 samples), indicating mixing of younger and older waters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rapid and Selective Cyclic Voltammetric Measurements of Epinephrine and Norepinephrine as a Method To Measure Secretion from Single Bovine Adrenal Medullary Cells

  UNC Libraries · 2021-08-20

  articleOpen access

  Background-subtracted cyclic voltammetry at a scan rate of 800 V/s with carbon fiber microelectrodes has been used to detect and differentiate between epinephrine and norepinephrine. At very positive potentials (>l V vs. SSCE) in pH 7.4 aqueous buffer, a second oxidation wave is observed for epinephrine, a secondary amine. In contrast, the second oxidation wave is not observed for norepinephrine, a primary amine. The amplitude of the second wave for epinephrine is enhanced when the waveform employed does not allow reduction of the electrogenerated o-quinone back to epinephrine. This indicates that the oxidation process at the second wave must be preceded by adsorption of the o- quinone at the electrode surface. The temporal response of the method was investigated by iontophoretic ejection of catecholamine onto an electrode. The response time was found to be limited by the repetition rate of the cyclic voltammograms (16.7 ms in this work). This electrochemical technique was used to resolve catecholamine release from individual vesicles of cultured bovine adrenal medullary cells. Most of the adrenal medullary cells released either epinephrine or norepinephrine but 17% of the cells released mixtures of these two compounds. In these cells, each secretory vesicle appeared to contain either epinephrine or norepinephrine.

  PublisherDOI

• Time course of release of catecholamines from individual vesicles during exocytosis at adrenal medullary cells

  UNC Libraries · 2020-10-31 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The time course of extrusion of the vesicular contents during exocytosis has been examined at adrenal medullary cells with carbon-fiber microelectrodes. Two electrochemical techniques were used: cyclic voltammetry and amperometry. Spikes obtained by amperometry had a faster time course than those measured by cyclic voltammetry, consistent with the different concentration profiles established by each technique. However, the experimental data obtained with both techniques were temporally broadened with respect to dispersion of an instantaneous point source by diffusion. Measurements with the electrode firmly pressed against the cell surface established that the temporal broadening is a result of a rate-limiting kinetic step associated with extrusion of the vesicular contents at the cell surface. The data do not support a rate-limiting process due to restricted efflux from a small pore. When combined with previous results, the data suggest that the rate-limiting step for chemical secretion from adrenal medullary cells during exocytosis is the dissociation of catecholamines from the vesicular matrix at the surface of the cell.

  PublisherDOI

• Temporally resolved, independent stages of individual exocytotic secretion events

  UNC Libraries · 2020-10-31

  articleOpen access

  The stages of the complex events involved in exocytotic secretion after vesicle-cell membrane fusion have been examined at the level of individual vesicles. Catecholamine flux from single bovine adrenal medullary cells was measured with carbon-fiber microelectrodes firmly touching the cell surface. The data reveal that secretion during exocytotic events has three distinct stages: a small increase in catecholamine flux, a rapid, but not instantaneous, rise to a maximum, followed by an exponential decrease in the flux. These stages are interpreted in the following ways. The initial stage corresponds to catecholamine secretion through a fusion pore. The rate of pore expansion appears to control the rise time of the flux to its maximum value. The final exponential stage is consistent with chemical dissociation of the intravesicular matrix or gel.

  PublisherDOI

• INTEGRATION OF GROUNDWATER GEOCHEMICAL FINGERPRINTING WITH THE STRUCTURE OF A FRACTURED ROCK AQUIFER TO UNDERSTAND THE FATE AND TRANSPORT OF PFOA, BENNINGTON, VERMONT, USA

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2020-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATIONS IN SHALLOW GROUNDWATER PFOA CONTAMINATION IN BENNINGTON, VT: MATRIX DIFFUSION OF PFAS DURING INFILTRATION THROUGH HETEROGENEOUS TILL

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2020-01-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• TRACING INFILTRATION OF PFAS CONTAMINATION FROM SOIL TO A FRACTURED BEDROCK AQUIFER USING TRACE ELEMENT AND ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2019-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Some things we've learned about oceanic core complexes, but were afraid to ask

  AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2019-12-01 · 1 citations

  article
  Publisher

Recent grants

• RII Track-4: Investigating the Effects of Faulting on Chemical Exchange Between Seawater and Earth’s Mantle at Slow Mid-Ocean Ridges

  NSF · $154k · 2021–2025

Frequent coauthors

• M. Roy First

  Providence College

  135 shared

• Philippe Pouletty

  Abivax (France)

  43 shared

• A. Osama Gaber

  Suez Canal University

  43 shared

• Daniel M. Canafax

  Theravance Biopharma (United States)

  37 shared

• Shi-Hui Pan

  Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center

  36 shared

• Rita R. Alloway

  University of Cincinnati

  36 shared

• Richard R. Lopez

  St Vincent Medical Center

  36 shared

• William Irish

  East Carolina University

  36 shared