I teach Mineralogy, Petrology, Volcanology, Ore Deposits, and Planetary Geology. I am broadly interested in a range of high-temperature crustal and mantle processes. My research in mantle and magmatic systems has been based primarily in the Big Bend region of Texas, the Jemez Lineament in New Mexico, the Snake River Plain, and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, as well as several years of focus on Mars and the Moon. I have also worked on metamorphism and hydrothermal alteration of volcanic and intrusive rocks and in ore deposits in Alaska and Maine. I look forward to establishing projects in the Adirondacks, which display a fascinating interaction of igneous, metamorphic, and hydrothermal processes.
I have long been involved in field education and in mentoring undergraduate research. My research students generally augment fieldwork with petrography and electron microprobe analysis, and past student projects have also incorporated varying degrees of geochemical modeling.
In addition to academia, I spent five years working on lunar and martian rocks with NASA, including as a member of the Mars Exploration Rover science team from 2010-12. During my B.S. and M.S. years I worked in mineral exploration in Alaska and I have recently returned to research in this field.