Jane Block

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Harris Byers

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Justin Calhoun

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I am investigating the relationship of magmatism and tectonism in the Moine Thrust Belt region in the Scottish Highlands. Recent radiometric ages have resolved dating issues for granitic intrusions in the area. However, less understood is the relationship between the Moine Thrust and the emplacement of the intrusions. My research aims to determine if these intrusions were emplaced pre-, post-, or syntectonically. Anisotropic magnetic susceptibility paired with petrographic microstructural analysis of the granite plutons will be conducted to explain the kinematics associated with the pluton emplacement.

Ashley Dineen

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I study global Lower and Middle Triassic paleoecology, with my main research goal being to further resolve the spatial and temporal nature of ecosystem recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction in localities such as south China, northern Italy, and the western United States. Evidence suggests that ecological devastation following the end-Permian mass extinction may have lasted 5 million years into the Middle Triassic (Anisian). Previous work has based biotic recovery on generic and species diversity, the reappearance of reefs, and broad global datasets. However, community recovery is based on more than these parameters and can vary in time and space. For this project, I have established a working definition of community recovery that not only includes high diversity and abundance, but also high evenness and tiering. The establishment of biotic community structure in terms of more than just abundance and diversity will allow, for the first time, an enhanced view of the transition from the depauperate Lower Triassic to the proposed fully-recovered Middle Triassic. PhD Advisor: Dr. Margaret Fraiser

Alice Egan

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I am working with Dr. Shangping Xu. I am looking at the structure of historical precipitation records (number of storms, time between storms) for Wisconsin to see if that affects recharge of aquifers.

Nick Fedorchuk

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Lucia Feriancikova

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My research focus on better understanding the transport and fate of bacteria in unsaturated porous media. Particularly, I will examine the influence of the pore water chemistry and soil moisture content on the transport of bacteria.

The other area of my research is to examine the transport of plasmid DNA, its adsorption and desorption on surface of sand particles under saturated condition.

Teri Gerard

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My master’s thesis is titled “Volatiles in melt inclusions from scoria cones in Nicaragua: Implications for magma source and cone evolution”. As magma evolves, it crystallizes and the growing crystals will trap melt inside of them. That melt tells us about the early magma. By analyzing the geochemistry and volatile content (H₂O, CO₂, Cl, F, S) of the melt inclusions and the scoria with different techniques I learn about how the magma evolved over time. I can learn where the magma came from, how it is stored, how it changed over the lifetime of the volcano, and see if there are any differences between the different cinder cones.

Steven Greenwood

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I am fascinated with the "weird rocks" of the world, i.e. those that tend to be silica-undersaturated and/or are associated with intrusions of mantle origin. I am working with Dr. Lindsay McHenry, with a research locality in the volcanic highlands of Tanzania. While much of the alkalic activity attributed to such volcanoes as the carbonatitic Ol Doinyo Lengai has been known for several decades, other volcanoes in the Crater Highlands are less understood. The material they erupted during the Pliocene and Pleistocene resulted in ash layers that were deposited in archeologically significant Olduvai Gorge and surrounding areas. I hope to relate tephra and ashes that were deposited in Olduvai to that of the extinct volcanoes Embakai, Oldeani, Sadiman, and Lemagrut, to name a few. My ultimate goals within the field are to focus on large scale carbonatitic and alkaline igneous petrology, with possible looks into extraterrestrial bodies.

Lindsey Henry

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I study climate change in the ancient by researching glacial deposits from the late Paleozoic ice age (LPIA; 330-270 million years ago).  My field sites are western Argentina and Tasmania, Australia, and the goals of my research are to determine the size, thermal regime, and timing of the glaciers by studying the sedimentology and stratigraphy of glacigenic formations in those regions.  The geologic record of the LPIA is highly significant to the scientific community, because it provides the last complete record of the transition from a glacial to greenhouse Earth, and the only such transition associated with complex biota.  Earth is presently in a glacial state, and understanding Earth’s transition out of the LPIA will aid the scientific community in anticipating when and how Earth will return to a greenhouse state, what environmental drivers force the transition, and how organisms will respond to such changes.  

Bill Jacobson

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Jenny Johanson

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I am looking into differences in transport of bacteria in the groundwater.  Bigeochemical interactions between bacteria and sand grains result in differences in how much bacteria adsorbs to the sand, resulting in differences in groundwater transport.  My reasearch has included laboratory column studies of transport of E. coli, Enterococcus faecium, and Bacteriodes in sand.

Na-Hyun Jung

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Snejana Karakis

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Tristan Kloss

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My thesis work is concerned with understanding an enigmatic group of critters known as coeloscleritophorans and how they were affected by the Cambrian radiation. Coeloscleritophorans include the wiwaxiids, halkieriids, and chancelloriids, organisms characterized by a covering of hollow, plate-like hard parts known as sclerites (hence their name). They are often considered to have "weird" morphologies, because specimens display unusual morphological adaptations to the substrates they are presumed to have been living upon. Because of this morphology, coeloscleritophorans are key to understanding how the rapid appearance of new adaptive strategies (i.e. burrowing) affected the larger marine community as a whole during the Cambrian radiation. My interest lies in determining the link between coeloscleritophoran morphology and changes in substrate conditions during the early Cambrian, the hows and whys of coeloscleritophoran extinction by the end Cambrian, and what this means for the larger paleoecological revolution that occurred as part of the Cambrian radiation. My field areas include many Cambrian-age lagerstatten known for their excellent preservation of soft-bodied coeloscleritophorans, including the Maotianshan shale of Yunnan, China, the Wheeler shale of east central Utah, and (eventually) the Burgess shale of British Columbia.

Zelenda Koch

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Andrew Parisi

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I will be working with Dyanna Czeck on a series of outcrops in the Quetico Subrovenience of Ontario, just North of Minnesota. I will be looking at deformed veins within the metamorphosed rocks. Due to the orientation of the veins, some were compressed while others were extended during deformation. I will be applying a method devised by Yvette Kuiper at Colorado School of mines in which the vein orientation and deformation, when plotted on a stereonet, will reveal the stresses on the area during an orogeny over one billion years ago. I will then compare the results of the new method with previous results.

Kathryn Pauls

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Tom Pedersen

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Jenna Rolle

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Scott Schaefer

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My thesis research examines rhynchonelliform brachiopod paleoecology in the Early Triassic of the Western United States. The marine realm during the first five million years of the Early Triassic are marked by low biotic diversity and stressed marine ecosystems as a result of the end-Permian mass extinction. Ecological clues provided by rhynchonelliform brachiopods will aid in understanding the mechanisms for delayed biotic recovery.

Danielle Sieger

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I am working on looking at changes in the paleoenvironment during the Permian-Triassic. More specifically, how the fluvial styles and stacking patterns change at different localities in the Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica.

Ellie Stapleton

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I am working on looking at changes in the paleoenvironment during the Permian-Triassic. More specifically, how the fluvial styles and stacking patterns change at different localities in the Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica.

Ernie Thalhamer

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My research involves the study of anatomizing shear zone networks, in the Rainy Lake region of Canada. The importance of anatomizing shear zone networks lies in the fact that their geometries have been called upon in the control of strain accommodation. Although the importance of the network geometries is well known, the ability to quantify these networks leads to problems. I will be studying multiple shear zone network outcrops within a single gabbroic sill, the Grassy Portage intrusion. In the field, foliation measurements of the networks will be taken at sub-cm scale, through the use of a real-time kinematic GPS, and imported into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Here I will conduct network analysis on the networks, to quantify their geometry. I will also attempt to use kriging to statistically interpolate the likely geometry of the networks in areas which are otherwise inaccessible.

Anna Thorp

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Zach Watson

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Erin Wimer

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