Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks

I aim to better understand changes in the global water cycle during the past 2000 years. This will help us to understand the response of the water cycle to future global climate changes.

The stable isotopes of water are critical tracers of both modern and past hydroclimate regimes. Current research activities include: measurement and interpretation of triple oxygen isotopes in modern precipitation, developing paleo-hydroclimate records using the hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf waxes, and synthesis of recent literature towards improved models of precipitation-to-leaf wax isotopic differences.

My work involves refining techniques that geochemists use to reconstruct the behavior of the global sulfur cycle, which is coupled to the carbon cycle through a series of (usually biological) reactions and supports inferences about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans over Earth's history. In particular, I focus on a series of rocky outcrops near St. Louis that were deposited ~450 million years ago, at a time when exceptionally high sea levels had submerged much of the North American Midcontinent (then near the Equator) in a vast, shallow sea.

Other institutional affiliations: Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Lab.

I am interested in Quaternary paleoclimate, climate change, wildfire, remote sensing, and GIS. My research involve reconstructions of past climates and ecological properties based on multi-proxies from lakes in Alaska and Peruvian Andes.

Other institutional affiliations: Dept. of Earth and Planetary Science's Climate and Paleoclimate Laboratory.

I will be co-president of the Energy and Environmental Law Society (EELS) at the law school for the '20-'21 academic year. My undergraduate research was conducted at Argonne National Laboratory and focused on organic carbon prediction methodology in the permafrost region. My work experience includes lab and field technician work for the DOE and work with university sustainability education programming, and I will be working as a legal extern for the EPA Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago during summer 2020.

Other institutional affiliations: Tyson Research Center; Goodman Theatre Company; Missouri Sierra Club