Welcome!
I am an Assistant Professor in the Geosciences Department at Hamilton College. My research interests span both hydrogeology and hydrology, with a desire to understand how human actions and climate change affect processes such as streamflow, aquifer recharge, and water quality. Additionally, I am interested in understanding how such changes in the hydrologic cycle will affect humans and organisms, for example, understanding how changes in precipitation timing and intensity can affect flood risk or how changing temperatures can affect fish habitat within streams. I have conducted research in the Peruvian Andes to assess how the loss of glaciers will affect the stream water resources during the dry season, in the Po Plain of Northern Italy to understanding how flood irrigation in risotto rice fields affects aquifer recharge, and in the Central Sands region of Wisconsin to assess the travel time of agricultural recharge through the aquifer system. Please go to my research page to find out more!
Background
Prior to coming to Hamilton College, I worked as a hydrogeologist with the Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey where I studied groundwater transport of nitrate in the Central Sands aquifer of Wisconsin. I also worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Civil Engineering & Architecture at the University of Pavia (Italy) within the Interdepartmental Center for Water Research. My research focused on hydrogeologic modeling of groundwater flow and transport in an agricultural region of northern Italy. Prior to my postdoc, I worked for 6 months in a term position with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver, Colorado. I completed my PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University where I was a part of the Lautz Hydrology Research Group. My research used infrared imagery and heat tracing to study surface water – groundwater interactions in a proglacial valley in the Peruvian Andes. As an undergraduate, I studied geology and statistics (minor) at Mount Holyoke College, where I developed my interest in geology and my desire to teach at a small, undergraduate institution. Fun fact: I did my undergraduate thesis on metamorphic rocks!