I grew up in a small (pop. ~400) lumber town in eastern Washington state where I spent most of my childhood outdoors with my family. These excursions led to an early interest in geology, which my family helped further cultivate over the years. My father would take time off to take my younger brother and I gold prospecting all across the Pacific Northwest. I became fascinated with how we can examine rocks to decipher geochemical and tectonic processes, and how these processes can be used to understand Earth's evolution. Continuing that passion as a Ph.D. student at the University of Maine, I focus on the influence of plate tectonics on Earth's global sulfur cycle.
