Prof Ries is a marine geologist in the Department of Marine Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill.  His research program investigates a wide range of subjects in the Marine Sciences including global climate change, paleoceanography, paleobiology carbonate sedimentology, sulfur isotope, geochemistry, biomineralization and carbon sequestration.  The common thread throughout Prof Ries work is oceanic change which he investigates over broad temporal scales  By combining field studies with complementary laboratory experiments. Prof Ries is able to directly explore the biogeochemical processes that have changed the state of our oceans throughout the geologic past as well as those that will drive critical changes in the immediate future. Prof Ries is a marine geologist in the Department of Marine Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill.  His research program investigates a wide range of subjects in the Marine Sciences including global climate change, paleoceanography, paleobiology carbonate sedimentology, sulfur isotope, geochemistry, biomineralization and carbon sequestration.  The common thread throughout Prof Ries work is oceanic change which he investigates over broad temporal scales  By combining field studies with complementary laboratory experiments. Prof Ries is able to directly explore the biogeochemical processes that have changed the state of our oceans throughout the geologic past as well as those that will drive critical changes in the immediate future.

Prof. Ries field sites include Namibia, Honduras, Belize, Canada, Western US, Valley and Ridge Province of Eastern US, Florida Keys, and Scotland.  His laboratory resources include his base laboratory at UNC CH, the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences in eastern N. Carolina, the Marine Calcification Laboratory at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences in Honduras, and the Long Marine Lab at UC-Santa Cruz..