Welcome

Hello! I’m an Assistant Professor at Aarhus University in beautiful Denmark.

I aim to understand African paleoclimate throughout the Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene on time scales ranging from millions to hundreds of years. This is crucial for contextualizing our hominin ancestors’ evolutionary past and understanding how particularly vulnerable ecosystems will respond to future global warming. The tools I use to address these pressing questions are found in sedimentary archives from lakes and oceans. In particular, I use the hydrogen and carbon isotopic signatures of ancient leaf waxes to reconstruct past hydroclimate and environmental changes.

I did my PhD in Jim Russell’s organic geochemistry lab at Brown University, and my postdoc work with Peter de Menocal and Kevin Uno at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Please view my CV for a list of publications and check out the research page to learn about my involvement in a variety of exciting projects.

In addition to science, I also like to ride my gravel bike, play board games, and sit out on the balcony with my cat, Tina.

Teaching a field course in Lothagam, Turkana Basin, Kenya