Nora Noffke is a sedimentologist, who has established the scientific field of biofilms in clastic sedimentology. Her research is highly interdisciplinary combining sedimentology with microbiology, geochemistry, and mineralogy. Biofilm structures in deposits occur in the modern marine environment, but were also detected in the fossil record. Examples in 3.48 billion year old rocks in Australia constitute some of the oldest undisputed fossils in Earth history. Such biofilm structures may be detected in ancient rocks of similar ages on terrestrial planets. Noffke has published not only numerous well received scientific papers but also edited 7 special issues and books. She is author of the textbook ‘Microbial Mats in Sandy Deposits from the Archean to Today’. Noffke serves as Chair of the Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy of the International Stratigraphic Commission.
