PhD Degrees Awarded
EARTH & Planetary DOCTORATE Degrees
2025
Luca Podrecca - An Inquiry into the Relationships between Earth's Orbit, Relative Sea Level Change, Sedimentation Rate, Anoxia, and the Preservation of the C, S and Os Biogeochemical Cycles in the Stratigraphic Record, from the Holocene to the Early Cretaceous. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
Hannah Bosch - Shock-ramp Compression of (Mg,Fe)O at Earth's Core-Mantle Boundary Conditions and Beyond using Experiment and Theory. Advisor: Steve Jacobsen
2024
Chuxuan Li Augmentation and Use of WRF-Hydro to Predict Rainfall-Triggered Landslide Susceptibility at Regional Scales. Advisor: Dan Horton
Floyd Nichols Examining Lipid Biosignatures and Organic Carbon in Mars-Analog Hypersaline Lakes. Advisor: Magdalena Osburn
Pete Puleo Seasonally Resolved Paleoclimate Reconstructions in Greenland Over the Past 14,000 Years Using Lake Sediments and Novel Oxygen Isotope Proxies. Advisor: Yarrow Axford
2023
Anastasia S Montgomery An Analysis Of Urban Air Quality and Health Effects Using
Chemical Transport Model Simulations. Advisor: Dan Horton
Molly Gallahue Exploring the Causes of the Discrepancy Between Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Maps and Observed Shaking Data. Advisor: Seth Stein
Niloufar Sarvian Towards an Understanding of Ca and Sr Isotopes in Neoproterozoic Carbonates. Advisor: Matthew Hurtgen
2022
James Neely Insights into Earthquake Processes and Hazards Using Statistical Methods. Advisor: Seth Stein
Boris Roesler Using Global Moment Tensor Catalogs to Study Earthquake Source Processes. Advisor: Seth Stein
Howard Chen The Chemistry-Climate Dynamics of Warm Habitable Zone Planets. Advisor: Daniel Horton
Reece Elling Continental Rifting and Precambrian Tectonics: Insights from Gravity Modeling and Apparent Polar Wander Paths. Advisor: Seth Stein
2021
Caitlin Casar Geobiology of Biofilms in the Continental Deep Subsurface. Advisor: Magdalena Osburn
Gabriella Kitch Identifying and Constraining Biocalcification Stress from Geologic Ocean Acidification Events. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
Laura Larocca Holocene Glacier and Ice Cap Fluctuations in Southern Greenland: Investigations Using Lacustrine Archives and Geospatial Methods. Advisor: Yarrow Axford
Claire Annie Nelson Investigating Basalt Chemical Weathering in Iceland and its Role in Climate Regulation with Stable Calcium Isotopes. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
Leah Salditch Investigating Earthquake Recurrence and Hazard Models. Advisor: Seth Stein
Fei Wang Crystal Structure and Ordering of Hydrogen-Related Defects and Ferric Iron in High-Pressure Silicates of the Mantle Transition Zone. Advisor: Steven Jacobsen
Jiuyuan Wang Investigation of Stable Ca and Sr Isotopes as Proxies for Ocean Acidification in Deep Time: Neoproterozoic, Permian-Triassic, and Cretaceous Case Studies. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
2020
Emiliano Monroy-Rios Advancements in our Understanding of the Yucatan Platform Sedimentary Geology, Speleogenesis, Ring of Cenotes, and Tectonic Stability. Advisor: Patricia Beddows
Nooshin Saloor Contributions to Modern Quantification of Seismic Sources. Advisor: Emile Okal
Vivian Tang The Power of Seismic Waves to Trigger Seismicity and Reveal the Inner Structure of the Earth. Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
Michelle Wenz Earth's Inner Workings Revealed through Mineral Inclusions in Diamond. Advisor: Steven Jacobsen
2019
Trevor Bollmann Features of the North American mantle during the Mesoproterozoic through Cenozoic eras from field studies and visualization experiments Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
Eddie Brooks Assessing the Performance of Earthquake Hazard Maps. Advisor: Seth Stein
Everett Lasher Holocene Climate Change in Greenland: Investigations Using Oxygen Isotopes of Lacustrine Organic Materials. Advisor: Yarrow Axford
Jamie McFarlin Calibrating and Applying Sedimentary Leaf Wax Hydrogen Isotopes to Reconstruct Greenland Hydroclimate of the Holocene and Last Interglacial. Advisor: Yarrow Axford
Amir Salaree Theoretical and Computational Contributions to the Modeling of Global Tsunamis. Advisor: Emile Okal
2018
Matt Jones Stratigraphic and Geochemical Investigations of Late Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events and Greenhouse Sea Level Trends. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
John Lazarz Effect of Water on Thermoelasticity of Majoritic Garnet: Implications for the Seismic Structure at the Top of the Lower Mantle. Advisor: Steven Jacobsen
2017
Grace Andrews (Margaret Unterman) Carbon Cycling of Glaciated Landscapes: Investigation with Strontium Isotope Geochemistry. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
Michael Witek Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Structure of East Asia from Ambient Noise Tomography. Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
2016
Laurel Childress The Active Margin Carbon Cycle: Influences of Climate and Tectonics in Variable Spatial and Temporal Records. Advisor: Neal Blair
Renee French Using Orbiter Spacecraft Data to Characterize Small-Scale Surface Features on the Moon and Constrain Geophysical Properties of the Martian Crust. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
Ashley Gilliam Titan through Time: Evolution of Titan's Atmosphere and its Hydrocarbon Cycle on the Surface. Advisor: Abraham Lerman
Brian Kristall Marine Sulfur and Strontium Cycling During the Transition from a Cool to Warm Greenhouse in the Early Cretaceous. Advisor: Matthew Hurtgen
Gregory Lehn Advances in Calcium Isotope Geochemistry: Method Development and Application in a Multi-Proxy Investigation of Alaskan Arctic Watersheds. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
Josh Townsend The Effects of Water on the Physical Properties of Earth Materials and Equations of State (2014). Advisor: Steven Jacobsen
Emily Lynne Wolin Structure, Seismicity, and Instrumentation of Stable North American Lithosphere Properties of Earth Materials and Equations of State. Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
2015
Jeremy Gouldey The Relationship Between the Geochemical Cycles of Sulfur and Carbon in the Neoproterozoic. Advisor: Matthew Hurtgen
2014
Allison Baczynski Evaluating Carbon Cycle Dynamics and Hydrologic Change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Advisor: Francesca McInerney
Rosemary Bush Leaf Wax n-Alkanes as Paleoclimate Proxies: Calibrations in Modern Plants and Applications in Ancient Ecosystems. Advisor: Francesca McInerney
Yun-Yuan Chang Influence of Point Defects on the Elastic Properties of Mantle Minerals and Superhard Materials. Advisor: Steven Jacobsen
Maya Gomes Modern and Ancient Studies of Sulfur Isotope Cycling in Low-Sulfate Systems. Advisor: Matthew Hurtgen
Dan (Darcy) Li Global Biogeochemical Cycle of Silicon: Its Past, Present, and Future. Advisor: Abraham Lerman
Miguel Merino Tectonics and Seismicity of Rifts Past and Present. Advisor: Seth Stein
2013
Young Ji Joo Late Cretaceous Carbon Isotope Chemostratigraphy and Analysis of Perturbations in Global Carbon and Sulfur Biogeochemical Cycles. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
Xiaoting Lou Inferred and Predicted Seismic Velocities of the North American Mantle. Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
2012
Carl W. Ebeling Discriminants and Detectors: Seismological Studies of Tsunami Earthquakes and Hurricane Microseisms. Advisor: Emile Okal
2011
Derek D. Adams Biogeochemical Consequences of Low Sulfate Oceans: A Study of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2. Advisor: Matthew Hurtgen
Richard Barclay Testing the Driving Mechanisms for Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (94 Ma) Using pCO2 Estimates and Carbon Isotopes Derived from Fossil Plant Material in the Dakota Formation of Southwestern Utah. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
Simon Lloyd Crust and Upper Mantle Beneath South America: Variations in Precambrian Moho and Lithosphere-Athenosphere Boundary Depths and Seismic Velocity Structure at the Subducting Chile Ridge. Advisor: Suzan van der Lee
2009
Laura Swafford Space-Time Characteristics of Earthquake Sources in Various Tectonic Environments. Advisor: Seth Stein
2008
Heather Bedle Studies on the S-velocity Structure of the North American Upper Mantle. Advisor: Susan van der Lee
Jason Flaum Investigation of Phosphorus Cycle Dynamics Associated with Organic Carbon Burial in Modern (North Pacific) and Ancient (Devonian and Cretaceous) Marine Systems: Strengths and Limitations of Sequentially Extracted (SEDEX) Phosphorus Data. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
Lingling Wu Chemical Weathering: Theoretical Models, Field Study in the Yellow River Basin, and Laboratory Study of Microbially-Mediated Basalt and Granite Weathering. Advisor: Andrew Jacobson
2007
Joniell Borges Continental Weathering Products: Clay Mineral Surfaces as Sinks for Organic Carbon in Marine Environments; Chemistry and Petrography of Bed Sediments from Large Rivers--Provenance and Chemical Weathering. Advisor: Bradley Sageman.
Robert Locklair Causes and Consequences of Marine Carbon Burial: Examples from the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation and the Permian Brushy Canyon Formation. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
Kimberly Schramm The Role of Source Mechanism Geometry in Biasing Estimates of Earthquake Slowness. Advisor: Seth Stein
2006
Han Li Remediation of Scattered Light in NEAR-Shoemaker MSI Imager: A Study of Martian Debris Aprons. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
Alberto Lopez Tectonic Studies of the Caribbean: I) Pure GPS Euler Vectors to Test for Rigidity and the Existence of a Northern Lesser Antilles Forearc Block; II) Constraints for Tsunami Risk from Reassessment of the April 1, 1946 Alaska-Aleutians and August 4, 1946 Hispaniola Events. Advisors: Emile Okal and Seth Stein
2005
Audeliz Matias Development and Modification of Impact Craters on Venus and Mars. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
2004
Sarah Lee Andre Densities and Porosities of Ordinary Chondrite Meteorites: Study of Mercurian Topography Using Digital Elevation Models. Advisor: Mark Robinson
2003
Stephen Richard Meyers Integrated Cylcostratigraphy and Biogeochemistry of the Cenomanian/Turonian Boundary Interval, Western Interior Basin, North America. Advisor: Bradley Sageman
2002
Po Fei Chen Distribution, Origin and Implications of Seismic Stress Release in Shallow and Intermediate Depth Subduction Systems. Advisor: Emile Okal
Eryn R. Klosko An Investigation of South American, Nazca Plate Boundary Zone Deformation Kinematics. Advisor: Seth Stein
2000
Erin K. Beutel Relative and Absolute Plate Motion Changes in the Southeast Pacific: Cause and Effect. Advisor: Raymond Russo
Jerome B. Cruz Surface Charge Behavior and Surface Hydroxyl Characterization of Andulusite and Al2O3/SiO2 Mixtures in Aqueous Solutions at Room Temperature. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
Andrew V. Newman Geodetic and Seismic Studies of the New Madrid Seismic Zone and Implications for Earthquake Recurrence and Seismic Hazard. Advisor: Seth Stein
Josef P. Werne A Geochemical Evaluation of Depositional Controls and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions in Organic-Rich Sediment Deposits: Evidence from the Modern Cariaco Bason, Venezuela, and Applications to the Devonian Appalachian Basin. Advisor: David Hollander
1998
John E. DeLaughter Evolution of the Lithospheres of Venus and Earth: Studies in Geoid, Topography and Heat Flow. Advisor: Donna Jurdy
Changrui Gong An Organic and Isotopic Geochemical Study of Santa Monica Basin Sediment, Offshore California. Advisor: David Hollander
Laura Lynn Marquez Integrated Structural and Geochemical Studies of Oceanic Fault Zones Across the Dike-Pluton Boundary, Troodos Ophiolite, Cyprus. Advisor: Susan Agar
William Phillip Richardson Surface Wave Tomography of the Ontong-Java Plateau: Seismic Probing of the Largest Igneous Province. Advisor: Emile Okal
John C. Weber New Madrid Seismic Zone Deformation from Repeat Global Positioning System (GPS) Surveys.
1995
Dezhi Chu Studies in Plate Kinematics: Plate Motion in East Africa and a Comparison of Paleomagnetic Methods. Advisor: Seth Stein
1994
Tom Shoberg Studies in Marine Tectonics: Propagating Rifts, Depth Anomalies, and Subduction Zone Anisotropy. Advisor: Donna Jurdy