Education
Ashraf Uddin joined the department in 1999. Dr. Uddin received his Masters degree from the University of Hawaii, and Ph.D. from the Florida State University. He completed post-doctoral research and teaching training at the Geology Department and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU.

Teaching Responsibilites
Dr. Uddin teaches undergraduate courses in Physical Geology, Historical Geology, and coordinates the Physical and Historical Geology laboratories. Among the graduate courses, he has been teaching Basin Analysis, Geology of Organic Matter, and Cycles through Earth History. Dr. Uddin also teaches directed studies courses in sedimentary geology emphasizing on dense-minerals and their chemistry.

Research Interest & Current Projects
Dr. Uddin's research interests lie mainly in sedimentary geology, including clastic sedimentology, sedimentary petrology, tectonics and stratigraphy, basin analysis and provenance studies of sequences deposited in orogenic systems. His work so far has focused on onland sequences of the Himalayan-Assam-Bengal system, including both exposed sections and subsurface geology. Most recently, Dr. Uddin has started a research project on the clastic wedges of the Appalachian mountain belts.

Dr. Uddin's principal research interests are to evaluate the unroofing history of the eastern Himalayas and the Indo-Burman ranges by incorporating detailed sedimentary petrology, including both modal analysis of framework grains and semi-quantitative dense mineral studies,  mineral chemistry of selected dense-mineral grains, bulk sediment geochemistry, isotopic fingerprinting, detrital geochronology, using 40Ar/39Ar and U/Pb methods, magnetostratigraphy and paleomagnetic studies on the sediments from the eastern foredeeps of the Himalayas (Bengal and Assam basins). In collaboration with Drs. Jim Saunders and Ming-Kuo Lee, Dr. Uddin has started a project on mineralogical profiling of arsenic-contaminated sediments and in-situ bioremediation of arsenic contaminated groundwater in Bangladesh. An elaborate summary of these research projects is provided in the following web link: http://www.auburn.edu/hrl/. These projects are funded by the US National Science Foundation.  External research collaborators for these projects include, Drs. Clark Burchfiel and Sam Bowring from MIT, Dr. John Geissman from University of New Mexico, Dr. Neil Opdyke from University of Florida, and Drs. Steve Kish and Roy Odom from Florida State University. Dr. Uddin has recently started a research project on provenance history of clastic wedges from Alleghenian collisional basins of the southern Appalachians, with Drs. Bill Hames, Chuck Savrda and Mark Steltenpohl.

Dr. Uddin is also interested in sediment characteristics from the perspective of hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation in reservoirs.

Selected Publications
Uddin, A., Kumar, P., and Sarma, J.N., 2007, Early orogenic history of the eastern Himalayas: Compositional studies of Paleogene sandstones from Assam, NE India: International Geology Review, v. 49, p. 798-810.

Uddin, A., Kumar, P., Sarma, J.N., and Akhter, S.H., 2007, Heavy-mineral constraints on provenance of Cenozoic sediments from the foreland basins of Assam, India and Bangladesh: Erosional history of the eastern Himalayas and the Indo-Burman ranges, in Mange, M.A., and Wright, D.T., eds., Heavy minerals in use, v. 58, Developments in Sedimentology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, p. 823-847.

Saunders, J.A., Lee, M-K, Uddin, A., Mohammad, S., Wilkin, R., Fayek, M and  Korte, N., 2005, Natural arsenic contamination of Holocene alluvial aquifers by linked tectonic, weathering, and microbial processes: Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems: vol. 6, Q04006, doi:10.1029/2004GC000803.

Savrda, C.E., and Uddin, A., 2005, Large Macaronichnus and their behavioral implications (Cretaceous Eutaw Formation, Alabama, U.S.A.): Ichnos, v. 12, p. 1-9.

Zahid, K.M., and Uddin, A., 2005, Influence of overpressure on formation velocity evaluation of Neogene strata of the eastern Bengal basin, Bangladesh: Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, v. 25, p. 419-429.

Uddin, A. and Lundberg, N., 2004, Miocene sedimentation and subsidence during continent-continent collision, Bengal basin, Bangladesh: Sedimentary Geology, v. 164, p. 131-146.

Lee, M.-K., Saunders, J.A., and Uddin, A., 2003, Geochemical and hydrologic considerations of evolution of groundwaters in a portion of the Mississippi embayment: Southeastern Geology, v. 42, p. 83-98.