About

 

I am a Geologist, a Humanist, a Buddhist, and a published author. The purpose of this blog is to provide me with a medium to share my thoughts on science and technology, politics, religion, health and fitness, food, travel, and philosophy. Really anything is on the table except small talk! I have a particular knowledge of all things Earth Science related, including energy and resources, sustainability, ecosystems, climate change, and certainly volcanism and plate tectonics. I have traveled to all seven continents. In college I minored in religious studies and have always had a penchant for the spiritual and philosophical. Politically, I believe in and support freedom, individual responsibility, universal rights, rationality, intelligence, creativity, love and peace, generosity, tolerance, fortitude, and courage, and have a special place in my heart for Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt.

I am a Ph.D. student in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. I research petrology and tectonics. I aim to understand the evolution of the lithosphere and magmatic processes at active margins. I study the relationships between magmas and their source regions, and reconstruct the tectonic and magmatic histories of Earth using both field and analytical techniques. My current research is focused on explaining the cause of melting beneath Mt. Etna and its implications for plate structure near the junction of Africa and the Ionian subduction zone. I do analytical chemistry on samples of volcanic rocks I collected from the region. I am also using a C-coded numerical simulation of Earth’s convecting mantle and interested in understanding why “supercontinents” rift apart, while smaller landmasses are stable for billions of years.

I previously worked at ExxonMobil helping to build a Bayesian belief model that predicts the composition and grain size of sands exiting a river mouth to better predict reservoir quality.

I was raised in Washington, D.C.

I received my B.S. and M.S. in Earth Science (Geochemistry) from Rice University in 2007  and 2009.

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