Current
Post-doctoral Fellows
No current Post-doctoral Fellows
Graduate students
Samuel Shekut
Sam (Ph. D student) uses sedimentary geology to study the tectonic and climatic history of sedimentary basins. His current research is focused on unravelling the climate impact of mountain building in the Central Andes of Bolivia and Peru over the past 70 million years.
Samuel Martin
Sam (Ph. D student) is investigating the region progression of basin subsidence and surface uplift in the Altiplano, with U-Pb geochronology, stable isotopes, and field work in western Bolivia.
Jimena Restrepo
Jimena (M.Sc. student) studies zircon geochemistry in river sediments as a tool for Cu porphyry exploration in Southern Peru.
Paola Alvarez
Paola (M. Sc. student) is studying the Andean tectonics and basin formation of the Altiplano between Peru and Bolivia. Her research analyzes the dynamic relations between tectonics and surface processes, through a combined geochronometric and thermochronometric double dating of zircons (U-Pb, U-Th/He thermochronology).
Undergraduate students
Muhammad Rafeeza
Muhammad is studying the Late Cretaceous to early Neogene sediment provenance of the southern Bolivian Andes and its implication on the basin geometry.
Helen Kopystecki
Helen is comparing δD volcanic glass paleoaltimetry to δ18O carbonate paleoaltimetry in the Corque Syncline in the Central Bolivian Altiplano.
Cem Ozyalcin
Cem is investigating the change in sedimentation rates in Menderes Massif and to understand the relationship between the detachment faulting and the detachment basin using U-Pb geochronology.
Oceane Horvath
Oceane is applying machine learning via laser-induced-breakdown-spectroscopy (LIBS) to characterize paleosols based on modern soil data in the Central Andes.
Former
Julia Pires Leandro (B.Sc 2023)
Julia used detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology to reconstruct Maastrichtian—modern sediment delivery to the forearc Georgia Basin.
Carla Eichler (Former P.D.F)
Carla tracked subsidence and sediment dispersal pathways in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin to discriminate geodynamic mechanisms of subsidence related to flat subduction. She now works at the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
Tyson Smith (P.D.F. 2020, Ph.D. 2019)
Tyson is characterizing the effects of intraplate deformation on transcontinental rivers using a combination of detrital geochronology, petrochronology, and field work.
Some of his work is available here.
Jeff B. Hensley (M.Sc. 2019)
Jeff studied basin evolution, stratigraphic chronology, and detrital geochronology in the Peruvian Altiplano.
See the results of his research here.
Crystal M. Saadeh (M.Sc. 2018)
Crystal constructed stable isotope and grain size time series from Miocene-Pleistocene strata from the Zhada Basin, SW Tibetan Plateau and showed that environmental changes and the strength of the Indian Summer Monsoon is controlled by northern hemisphere insolation on Milankovitch timescales.
See the results of her research here.
Kurt E. Sundell (Ph.D. 2017)
Kurt characterized the paleoelevation and basin evolution of the Peruvian Altiplano. See more at kurtsundell.com
Soty Odoh (M.Sc. 2017)
Soty evaluated the drivers for coarse progradation in foreland basins by applying (U-Th)/He thermochronology, U-Pb geochronology, and field work in the Medina Basin, Colombia.
See the results of her research here.
Nicolas Bartschi (M.Sc. 2017)
Nick carried out extensive field work, (U-Th)/He thermochronology, and U-Pb geochronology of the classic Book Cliffs in Utah and used the results to characterize basin response to flat subduction.
See the results of his research here.
Brook Runyon
Brook is documenting the depositional chronology of Paleogene Altiplano Basin strata in Bolivia using a combination of U-Pb geochronology and field work.
Brook’s work is current in review.
Sarah Meyer (B.S. 2019)
Sarah conducted U-Pb geochronology on a suite of Late Cretaceous samples from the Pine Ridge and Tea Pot formations
Payton McCain (B.S. 2019)
Payton conducted field-based basin analysis, detrital geochronology, and determined the chronology of deposition for strata in Peru and Bolivia.
Mario Ballinas (B.S. 2019)
Mario used clay mineralogy to document climate change in the Zhada Basin in the SW Tibetan Plateau
Noah Karsky (B.S. 2018)
Noah’s research compared the record of provenance between different grain-size fractions and using multiple proxies.