A central theme of Sam Bowring’s work is using high-precision U-Pb zircon geochronology to examine rates of geological and biological processes in deep time from calibrating rates of biologic evolution to determining the age and duration of major extinction events to constraining the earliest history of the earth. Areas of particular interest include the origin and evolution of continental crust and the thermal history of orogenic belts. His work also extends to environmental applications of tracer isotopes using the isotopic composition of Pb, Sr, and U in natural waters to examine mixing and the fate and transport of contaminants.