Earth & Planetary Sciences Faculty

Summary of Expertise

U-Pb Geochronology

Research Interests

Measuring geologic time is of fundamental importance to understanding the history of our Earth and solar system. Without the temporal constraints provided by geochronology, specifically radio-isotopic dating, Earth scientists could not determine the rates of many physical, chemical and biologic processes essential to understanding our planet. As such, my research interests have focused on the acquisition, improvement and application of high-precision U-Pb geochronologic data. Specific research projects are diverse, varying from the using geochronology to constrain the onset and tempo of large igneous province eruptions in effort to discover what relationship these large volcanic events have with global extinction events to measuring the thermal and erosional history of Earth’s most ancient and stable sections of continental lithosphere in order understand how continental crust is capable of surviving exposure to surface processes operating on billion year time-scales. In each of these studies, the improved precision afforded by modern high-precision U-Pb techniques is accompanied by an increase in our ability to determine a best-fit model ultimately permitting us to understand more about Earth processes. 

Biography, Education and Training

B.S. University of Kansas

M.S. University of Kansas

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology