Recent Alumni and Senior Theses

Maddie Bartels (BS Environmental and Energy Geoscience) Alternative Feedstock and Spatial Sampling Variability for Enhanced Mineral Weathering in Agricultural Settings
(Noah Planavsky, adviser)

Immanuel Bissell (BS Paleontology and Geobiology)
Into Arid Unkowns: Projecting Drought Over the Northeastern Unnited States using NEX-GDDP-CMIP6
(Kai Chen, YSPH, adviser)

Leah Clayton ((BS Environmental and Energy Geoscience)

The Potential for Terrestrial Storage of Woody Biomass from High Wildfire Risk Forests in the Western United States under Historical and Projected Future Climates 

(Sinéad Crotty, Carbon Containment Lab/YSE, adviser) 

Megan Grimes (BS Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate) 

Arctic Sea Ice Trends: An analysis of the Cape Bathurst Polynya from 1979 - 2023 

(Mary-Louise Timmermans, adviser) 

Ella Lubin (BS Solid Earth Science)

Quenching-Induced Precipitation Formation and Behavior in Hydrous Olivine Under High Pressure-Temperature Conditions 

(Shun-Ichiro Karato and Jennifer Girard, advisers) 

Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma (BS Paleontology and Geobiology)

Integrating GM and XROMM Illuminates the Role of the Quadrate as a Keystone of Cranial Kinesis 

(Anjan Bhullar and Armita Manafzadeh, advisers)

Alyse Olcott (BS Solid Earth Science)

Investigating the Effect of Titan’s Hydrologic Cycle on its Surface Environment 

(Juan Lora, adviser)

Dana Polomski (BS Solid Earth Science)

Paleomagnetism of Mesoproterozoic Red Beds in Kalahari 

(David Evans, adviser) 

Evie Sackett (BS Paleontology and Geobiology)

Calibration of Soil Charcoal as a Proxy for Paleofire in Grassy Systems: Effects of Environmental and Burn Variables in Experimental Burn Plots 

(Carla Staver, adviser)

Lex Schultz (BS Solid Earth Science)

Modeling Earth Accretion Using Isotopic Constraints 

(Jun Korenaga, adviser) 

Lolyn Tejeda Lemus (BS Paleontology and Geobiology)

It’s the “Valley Tough” Life for Us: The Biogeochemistry and Occupational Hazard of a Pathogenic Fungus, Coccidioides, in California’s San Joaquin Valley 

(Ruth Blake, adviser)

Hanna Winter ((BS Solid Earth Science)
Observations and Mechanisms of Regional Sea Level: The German Bight and its Coastline
(Maureen Long, adviser)

Catherine Zhang (BS Physics and Geosciences) 

The Spatial and Temporal Evolution of the Deep Water in the Arctic Ocean’s Canada Basin
(Mary-Louise Timmermans, adviser)

Mary Chen, Crustal Deformation Caused by the Yellowstone Uplift Detected by Anisotropic Receiver Functions (Jeffrey Park, adviser)

Brianna Fernandez, Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Inversion to Characterize the Rheology of the Early Hadean Upper Mantle (Jun Korenaga, adviser)

Lexie Gardner, Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds from Marine Environments (Drew Gentner, adviser)

Iszac Henig, Just Keep Swimming? Understanding the Effects of Climate Shifts through Observations of Fish Productivity in the Southern Pacific Ocean across the Eocene-Oligocene Boundary (Pincelli Hull, Elizabeth Sibert, advisers)

Evelyn Larson, Re-Os Geochronology of the Windermere Supergroup: Investigating the Age of Sedimentary Successions in British Columbia (Alan Rooney, adviser)

Eliza Poggi, Are Ediacaran Carbonates Reliable for Paleomagnetic Analysis? Two Case Studies from Utah, USA and Ouarzazate, Morocco (David Evans, adviser)

Katrina Starbird, Modeling California Central Valley Groundwater under SGMA (James Saiers, adviser)

Gavrielle Welbel, Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings: Field Trial at Zumwalt Acres in Sheldon, IL (Noah Planavsky, adviser)

Sophie Lai (BS Env, double major with Economics), The Carbonation of Serpentinites in the Orange-Milford Belt, Connecticut, USA (Jay Ague, adviser)

William Lawrence (BS Solid„ double major with Chemistry), Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Material: Peak Metamorphic Temperatures of Matrix Surrounding High-Grade Blocks in the Franciscan Complex (Mark Brandon, adviser)

Selena Martinez (BS Paleo), I Need [Morpho]Space: Determining the Affinity of Fossil Xantusiid Jaws with Implications for Post-KPg Squamate Diversity (Roxanne Armfield, adviser)

Tasman Rosenfeld (BS Paleo), Stable Oxygen Isotopes from Skeletal Carbonates as a Proxy for Habitat in Extant and Extinct Testudines (Jacques Gauthier, Jordan Wostbrock, advisers)

William Strauch (BS Solid), Nuclear Fusion: A Primer (Jay Ague, adviser)

Alex Waller (BS Paleo), Predicting the Role of Enhanced Rock Weathering Relative to Future Carbon Emissions for the Great Barrier Reef (Noah Planavsky, adviser)

Sherry Xu (BS Env, double major with Environmental Studies), Exploring the Controls on Marine Habitat Availability and Ecosystem Function through Time with Idealized Model Worlds (Pincelli Hull, adviser)

Raymond Zhao (BS Env), Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panel Identification and Fault Detection Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A Case Study of a 0.5 MW PV System (Xuhui Lee, adviser)