WHO I AM

I am one of the leading geochemists working on the outer solar system. I'm interested in the big questions like where did we come from, where are we going, and do we share the cosmos with other forms of life? My work involves using robots to visit places in the solar system to collect new clues to age-old questions. Me and my colleagues are like detectives. We piece together evidence to figure out what's happening elsewhere in the solar system, or what happened in the past. My area of expertise is geochemistry, so the clues I collect come in the forms of molecules and isotopes. I use geochemical tools, such as thermodynamic modeling, hydrothermal experiments, or just balanced chemical reactions in some cases, to help us understand what the molecules are telling us about conditions and processes on and within faraway worlds. Learning how to decode the messages of molecules is exciting.

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I grew up in the small town of Port Orchard, WA. I attended college at the University of Washington and graduate school at Arizona State University. I've lived and traveled throughout the United States.