Fabien Kenig
Professor,
​Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
Ph.D. 1991,  Université d’Orléans, France
[email protected]

A geologist using organic geochemistry to address issues in Earth sciences 
as well as
environmental and forensic sciences.
Sometimes identified as an organic geochemist or a biogeochemist, I prefer to consider myself a geologist who uses organic geochemistry and biogeochemistry as a  tool to address issues in earth and environmental sciences, as well as astrobiology.  My research funding derives from NASA, with an Exobiology grant and an Astrobiology Institute grant. I founded and I direct the Organic Geochemistry Laboratory at UIC, a laboratory supporting post graduate, graduate and undergraduate research.  
     My research involves biomarkers (lipid molecular fossils) that may be used to provide information on biological processes during the Paleoproterozoic and the Archean. However, we try first to answer the question 'Archean biomarkers, myth or reality?' as contamination issues have marred the studies of Archaean rocks. 
     I also study life in extreme environments and uses metabolites as proxies for bacterial processes (metabolomics) in:
   -  low flow hydrothermal systems of oceanic ridge crusts away from mid-ocean ridges
   -  the ~x1000 years old cryo-encapsulated brine of Lake Vida (McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica).
     A NASA Astrobiology grant funds the 
 construction of a new high pressure laboratory where growth epxeriments will tests the effects of very high pressures, such as those encountered in the ocean of Saturn's satellite Titan, on bacterial and archaeal lipid distribution.
     My Earth Sciences projects involve paleoceanography as I use biomarkers to define the paleo-water column structure in ancient oceans in order to provide strong constraints for paleoceanographic circulation reconstruction. 
      I am also interested in modern environmental issues, such as the distribution and fate of toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) derived from crankcase oil on roads as well as open and enclosed parking structures.
Selected publications
Complete publication list
Awards supporting
OGL activities
  • Kenig F., Chou L.,.Wardrop D.J.  (2019) Comment on “Evaluation of the Tenax trap in the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on the Curiosity rover as a potential hydrocarbon source for chlorinated organics detected in Gale Crater” by Miller et al. 2015. J. Geophys. Res.: Planets, 127. doi:10.1029/2018JE00
  • Kenig F.,  Chou L., McKay C.P., Jackson W.A., Doran P.T., , Murray A.E., Fritsen C.H. (2016) Perchlorate and volatiles of the brine of Lake Vida (Antarctica): Implication for the in situ analysis of Mars sediments, J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 121, 1190–1203, doi:10.1002/2015JE004964.
  • Doran P.T., Kenig F., Lawson Knoepfle J.L., Mikucki J.A., Lyons W.B. (2014) Radiocarbon distribution and the effect of legacy in lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Limnology & Oceanography 59, 3, 811-826.
  • Murray A.E., Kenig F., Fritsen C.H., McKay C.P., Cawley K.M., McKnight D.M., Samarkin V., Ponce A., Yung P.T., Wagh P., Peng V., Priscu J.C., Doran P.T. (2012) Microbial life at -13 ºC in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States 109, 50, 20626–20631.​
  • Jaraula C.M.B., Kenig F., Doran P.T., Priscu J.C., Welsch K.A. (2008) SPME-GCMS study of the natural attenuation of aviation diesel spilled on the perennial ice cover of Lake Fryxell, Antarctica. Science of the Total Environment 407, 1, 250-262.
  • Ventura G.T., Kenig F., Reddy C.M., Frysinger G.S., Nelson R.K., Van Mooy B., Gaines R.B., (2008) Analysis of unresolved complex mixtures of hydrocarbons extracted from late Archean sediments using comprehensive two dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC). Organic Geochemistry 39, 7, 846-867.
  • Ventura G.T., Kenig F., Reddy C.M., Schieber J., Frysinger G.S., Nelson R.K., Dinel E., Gaines R.B., Schaeffer P. (2007) Molecular evidence of Late Archean Archaea and the presence of a subsurface biosphere. Proceeding of the National Academy of Science USA 104, 14260-14265.\
  • Kenig F., Hudson J.D., Sinninghe Damsté J.S. and B.N. Popp (2004) Intermittent anoxia: Reconciliation of a Jurassic black shale with its biofacies. Geology 32, 5, 421-424.