Professional Titles

• Director of Research & Collections, Curator of Earth Sciences, Virginia Museum of Natural History
• Adjunct Professor of Geology at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Education

• Ph.D. in Geology, Univ. of California, Davis, 1985 
• B.S. in Geology, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1978

Research Interests

• Origin and evolution of granitoid rocks in continental and oceanic settings
• Mineralogy of metamorphosed manganese deposits
• High temperature metamorphism and partial melting
• Serpentinization and low-T metamorphism in oceanic environments
• Geochemical characteristics of Lägestatten

Professional Service

• Member, shipboard scientific party, Ocean Drilling Program Leg 173 (1997) and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Exp. 305 (2005)
• Session organizer and chair, igneous and metamorphic petrology, Goldschimdt Conference, 2001
• Organizer, Ragland Symposium, SE GSA, Spring 2006
• MSA representative to GSA Joint Technical Program Committee, 2002-

Selected Publications

• Hopkinson, L., Beard, J.S., and Boulter, C. (2004) The hydrothermal plumbing of a serpentinite-hosted detachment:  Evidence from the West Iberia non-volcanic rifted continental margin. Marine Geology, v.204, p.301-315.
• Beard, J.S., Ragland, P.C., and Rushmer, T. (2004) Hydration Crystallization reactions between anhydrous minerals and hydrous melt to yield amphibole and biotite in igneous rocks: description and implications. Journal of Geology, v.112, p.617-621.
• Beard, J.S., Ragland, P.C., and Crawford, M.L. (2005) Reactive bulk assimilation: a model for crust-mantle mixing in silicic magmas. Geology, v.33, p.681-684.
• Beard, J.S., Ragland, P.C., and Crawford, M.L. (2005) Using incongruent, equilibrium hydration reactions to model latter-stage crystallization in plutons: examples from the Bell Island tonalite, Alaska.  Journal of Geology, v.113, p.589-599.
• Beard, J.S., Sorensen, S.S., and Giere, R. (2006) REE Zoning in Allanite Related to Changing Partition Coefficients During Crystallization: Implications for REE Behavior in an Epidote-Bearing Tonalite. Mineralogical Magazine, v.70, p.419-435.
• Ildefonse, B., Blackman, D.K., John, B.E., Ohara, Y., Miller, D.J., MacLeod, C.J., Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions 304/305 Science Party (2007) Oceanic core complexes and crustal accretion at slow-spreading ridges. Geology, v.35, p. 623-626.
• Frost, B.R. and Beard, J.S. (2007) On silica activity and serpentinization. Journal of Petrology, v.48, p.1351-1368.
• Beard, J.S. (in review) Crystal-melt separation and the development of isotopic heterogeneity in hybrid magmas. Submitted to Journal of Petrology.
• Beard, J.S. (in review) Plutonic Rocks of the Western and Central Piedmont. Chapter in Geology of Virginia, Hibbard et al. eds.
• Severs, M.J., Mutchler, S.R., Bodnar, R.J., and Beard, J.S. (in review) Distribution of trace elements (REE. Sr, Ba, Y, Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb, Pb) between dacitic melt, plagioclase, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene: evidence from silicate melt inclusions. Submitted to Chemical Geology.
• Beard, J.S., Luitkus, C.M.,  Fraser, N.C., and Ragland, P.C. (in review) Use of fine scale stratigraphy and chemostratigraphy to evaluate conditions of deposition and preservation in a Triassic lagerstätte, south-central Virginia. Submitted to Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.