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Assistant Professor of Earth & Environment at Albion College, Michigan (2019-present)
Visiting Assistant Professor and Anderson Lecturer at Cornell College, Iowa (2018-2019) Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from The University of Chicago, 2018 B.A. summa cum laude in Geology from Macalester College, 2012 |
I joined the faculty of Albion College in Michigan as Assistant Professor of Earth & Environment in 2019, and am greatly enjoying teaching in the classroom and field and leading research in sedimentology/stratigraphy and paleobiology with undergraduates!
Currently, I am actively working with student researchers on (1) detailed sedimentology, paleontology, and diagenesis of the Cretaceous record from Ampolipoly, western Madagascar, (2) stratigraphic correlation within the Cretaceous Morondava Basin, Madagascar, involving translation of historic data from French, and (3) description and identification of fossils from the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex of Idaho. Another recent project was a comparative sedimentology study of phosphorite hard grounds from the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex and recent offshore California. My lab group presented on much of this work at GSA Connects 2021 in Portland!
After completing my Ph.D. in stratigraphy and paleobiology in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago, working with Susan Kidwell, I was a visiting lecturer in the Geology Department at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa for 2018-2019.
My research interests focus on questions of how the stratigraphic record can inform our view of fossil preservation (taphonomy), and its consequences for interpreting paleobiology in the record. I am especially interested in the sequence-stratigraphic variation in hiatal surfaces (often rich in authigenic minerals and impacted by organisms at the seafloor), as well as macrofossil distribution and preservation in nutrient-enriched systems. I have been working on these issues in the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex in Idaho and Montana, and am interested in expanding this to examine other records of high productivity and fossil concentrations throughout geologic time, on both the regional field-based and microfacies scales.
Another aspect of my research is using sedimentology and stratigraphy to reconstruct non-marine and nearshore paleoenvironments of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous of Western Madagascar's Morondava Basin in collaboration with paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I use fine-scale stratigraphic analysis, sedimentology and imaging techniques, and paleontological surveys to provide context for these unique assemblages of fossils from a critical time in Earth's history.
I also am undertaking research in the Paleozoic of the Grand Canyon, focusing on the Devonian Temple Butte Formation, which provides a glimpse of an early forested environments in the southwest, hosted within ancient valleys that incised into Cambrian units. This time of marine transgression is sandwiched between major unconformities, gaps in time in the rock record.
Currently, I am actively working with student researchers on (1) detailed sedimentology, paleontology, and diagenesis of the Cretaceous record from Ampolipoly, western Madagascar, (2) stratigraphic correlation within the Cretaceous Morondava Basin, Madagascar, involving translation of historic data from French, and (3) description and identification of fossils from the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex of Idaho. Another recent project was a comparative sedimentology study of phosphorite hard grounds from the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex and recent offshore California. My lab group presented on much of this work at GSA Connects 2021 in Portland!
After completing my Ph.D. in stratigraphy and paleobiology in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago, working with Susan Kidwell, I was a visiting lecturer in the Geology Department at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa for 2018-2019.
My research interests focus on questions of how the stratigraphic record can inform our view of fossil preservation (taphonomy), and its consequences for interpreting paleobiology in the record. I am especially interested in the sequence-stratigraphic variation in hiatal surfaces (often rich in authigenic minerals and impacted by organisms at the seafloor), as well as macrofossil distribution and preservation in nutrient-enriched systems. I have been working on these issues in the Permian Phosphoria Rock Complex in Idaho and Montana, and am interested in expanding this to examine other records of high productivity and fossil concentrations throughout geologic time, on both the regional field-based and microfacies scales.
Another aspect of my research is using sedimentology and stratigraphy to reconstruct non-marine and nearshore paleoenvironments of the late Jurassic and Cretaceous of Western Madagascar's Morondava Basin in collaboration with paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I use fine-scale stratigraphic analysis, sedimentology and imaging techniques, and paleontological surveys to provide context for these unique assemblages of fossils from a critical time in Earth's history.
I also am undertaking research in the Paleozoic of the Grand Canyon, focusing on the Devonian Temple Butte Formation, which provides a glimpse of an early forested environments in the southwest, hosted within ancient valleys that incised into Cambrian units. This time of marine transgression is sandwiched between major unconformities, gaps in time in the rock record.
