About
Me
Here, there, anywhere
I grew up in middle Tennessee, raised by a freshwater biologist and a business owner. Nestled in the limestone hills of the outer Nashville Basin, as a child I accompanied my mother to streams
where we searched for invertebrate indicators of water quality. I often joined my father in his plumbing business exploring the mysterious innards of houses. Family trips included skiing down eroded mountain ranges and sailing reservoirs and oceans from Canada to the Bahamas. I spent much time outdoors and developed an early curiosity for the natural world. I enjoyed the magic of chemistry at museum displays, and only later did I learn how truly powerful chemistry is in geology.
Owing in part to fantastic high school chemistry teachers, I entered Vanderbilt University as a chemistry major. The liberal arts curriculum required additional science classes outside the major, and an introductory geology course seemed to fit my interests in environmental chemistry. I was not prepared, however, for the eruptive excitement I felt toward geology. Here at last was a lexicon describing the outdoors that fascinated me so much, orated by a wondrous storytelling professor named Molly Miller. I devoured the subject, adding a second major and taking on individual research projects with Molly who became a mentor. Because of her efforts I was able to complete a senior thesis in Antarctica and study abroad in New Zealand along the way. As they say, he who sees the most rocks wins, and globetrotting trailside geology opened new chapters of geologic history to me.
In the time between Vanderbilt and UC Santa Cruz, I found myself with the rarity of months of extra time. I filled it with a summer field school in Montana to learn geologic stories of western North America and continued lesson development for outreach activities. The opportunity arose to hike the Appalachian Trail back east, and I lunged at the chance to walk thousands of miles of ancient bedrock. The pace of trail life is odd. One needs so few positions and has but one job, to walk north. The hours and days are nevertheless filled curious patterns of rock formations and distributions of vegetation reflecting particularly weathered outcrop. Traversing 400 millions years worth of history really adds perspective to modern life.
I left the trail early to start my graduate career in California and intend to go back. I took one last hurrah in the form of a cross-country geology-themed road trip, stopping at national parks and monuments of billowing sands and maws of chasmed earth. Even where rocks and sediment no longer accumulate, the story continues.
Our story continues. Eras pass as nothing to Earth. Decades pass as everything to us, and the coming decades will be tough. My research has brought me to climate change and impacts on water resources, particularly for seasonal rainfall like in the tropics or American West. Future water resources are a scary topic that can keep a geologist up at night. However, continued research and public outreach are part of the toolbox of solutions in which I take part. Beyond climate, a broader public understanding and appreciation of the geologic world may turn the page on how we interact with it.
Education
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BA Honors Earth and Environmental Science
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BA Chemistry
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University of California Santa Cruz
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PhD Biogeochemistry, in progress
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Complete CV
Society Memberships
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Geological Society of America
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American Geophysical Union
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Geochemical Society
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National Association of Geoscience Teachers
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Phi Beta Kappa