APPOINTMENTS
Starting Jan 2024
The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ
Researcher Scientist III
Experimental Petrology/Geochemistry
Nonlinear Optical Microscopy and Mineralogy
Remote Sensing of Asteroids
My work at LPL builds upon the success of my previous investigations into oxidized planetary differentiation. I am exploring applications to a wider variety of planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond.
I am also working with collaborators in optical sciences to develop methods for application of nonlinear optical microscopy toward mineralogic and petrographic analysis.
2021- 2023
Lunar and Planetary Institute
NASA Johnsons Space Center
Houston, Texas
Gordon A. McKay Postdoctoral Fellowship
Experimental Petrology/Geochemistry
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My work at LPI & JSC focused on the first melts produced at the onset of asteroid differentiation. I employed methods of experimental petrology/geochemistry and high precision analytical methods to understand how core formation began within highly oxidized asteroids.
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As part of my role at LPI, I was also the assistant manager of the LPI SEM Facility and co-host of the weekly LPI Seminar Series.
EDUCATION
2016-2021
University of Maryland, College Park
PhD in Geology
Petrologic, Geochemical, and Remote Spectral Characteristics of Oxidized Planetary Differentation
Advisors: Prof. Jessica Sunshine and Dr. Richard Ash
Meteorite/Asteroid Spectroscopy
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My dissertation investigated the petrogenetic and geochemical attributes of materials from the asteroid belt in order to 1) understand how the chemical characteristics of early Solar System environments are recorded in meteorites and 2) remotely detect such evidence using visible to near-infrared light reflected from the surfaces of olivine-rich asteroids.
2014-2016
Texas Christian University
MS in Geology
Experimental Insights into Stannern-trend eucrite petrogenesis.
Advisor: Prof. Rhiannon Mayne
Meteorite Petrology/Geochemistry
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In my Masters thesis, I studied the petrology and geochemistry of partial melt assimilation in basaltic eucrite meteorites using experimental, analytical, and numerical modeling methods.
2006-2010
Hardin-Simmons University
BS in Geology (minor: Biology)
Calcareous Nanoplankton of the Late Cretaceous
My undergraduate senior thesis investigated the morphologies of microfossils called coccoliths found in the chalk that comprises the White Cliffs of Dover.