Principal Investigator
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Dr. Lauren Simkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. She graduated with a BS from Oklahoma State (2009), a PhD from the University of California Santa Barbara (2014), and was a post-doc at Rice University prior to arriving at the University of Virginia in 2018. Lauren uses the geologic record to inform contemporary glacial processes and marine-based ice sheet behavior. Lauren is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and of of Cherokee, Chickasaw, and European (white) descent.
Curriculum vitae | Google Scholar | Twitter |
Graduate Researchers
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Allison (Alie) Lepp is a PhD student on the Thwaites Glacier Offshore Research (THOR) project, part of the US-UK International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. Her work uses seafloor sediments and sediment porewater to better understand subglacial meltwater drainage and its influence on grounding line behavior. She holds a MS degree in Earth and Environmental Science from Montclair State University (2018) and a BS degree in Geology from Georgia State University (2014).
Curriculum vitae | Website |
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Marion McKenzie is a PhD student studying the glacial history of coastal Washington state using LiDAR, outcrops, and geochronology, and characterizing subglacial landforms across deglaciated landscapes of the Northern Hemisphere. She is an Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Fellow and a Double Hoo recipient. She has a BS from Gettysburg College (2019) and has research experience on Arctic permafrost degradation.
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Santiago Munevar Garcia is a PhD student studying the sensitivity of ice streams to subglacial topography by integrating geological observations and numerical models. He has a BS in Geography and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (2018) and has research experience with fluvial hydrology and modelling.
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Undergraduate Researchers
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Medha Prakash is an Undergraduate Researcher exploring the characteristics of clasts within subglacial and ice-proximal sediments deposited by the southernmost Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Her majors are Environmental Sciences and Statistics with a minor in Astronomy. She is a Double Hoo recipient working with Marion McKenzie and has completed an internship with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the Origins and Habitability Lab and with Prof. Yuk Yung (Caltech) on carbon reduction reactions in the context of Mars and prebiotic chemistry.
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Alma Salisbury is an Undergraduate Researcher with us during the 2021 summer as a VA-NC Alliance Scholar. Her research focuses on the morphology of glacial and non-glacial lakes in Antarctica and the Americas. She is a Biology major at Elizabeth City State University, and interested in pursuing graduate studies in environmental science.
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Alumni
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Delaney Buskard is an Undergraduate Researcher characterizing meltwater plume deposits across the Antarctic continental shelf, and developing methodological methods of grain size and shape. Delaney completed a senior thesis in the Department of Environmental Sciences titled "Grain-scale Characteristics of Meltwater Plume Deposits Offshore of Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica", results from which will be included in a peer-reviewed journal article to be submitted in 2021. Delaney begins a Master of Environmental Management at Duke University in August 2021.
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Mackenzie Carter investigated spatial differences in seafloor radiocarbon ages in the Antarctic Peninsula as an Undergraduate Researcher in 2019.
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Elizabeth Eareckson is an Undergraduate Researcher quantifying magnitudes of grounding line retreat from ice-marginal landforms in the Ross Sea, Antarctica during the Spring 2021 semester. Elizabeth contributed to analyses that are included in a co-authored manuscript to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal in summer 2021.
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Cesar Garcia is a former PhD student, LSAMP Bridge to Doctorate Scholar, and Dean's Doctoral Fellowship Scholar. His project focused on the causes of spatially variable seafloor radiocarbon ages on the Antarctic continental shelf. He holds a BS in Geology from Indiana University Northwest (2019) and has expertise in beach sediments and microplastics, and a plans to pursue a career in secondary education as an earth science teacher.
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Catherine Leigh documented subglacial channel morphology and channel distribution across glaciated continental shelves as an Undergraduate Researcher in 2019.
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Hannah Leigh is worked on data preparation for bed roughness analysis on the deglaciated Antarctic continental shelf during the Fall 2020 semester.
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Sarah Lang used trace elemental composition of glacial-marine sediment to track spatial variable sediment sources on the Antarctic continental shelf as an Undergraduate Researcher in the Spring 2020 semester.
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Sean Penaparanda mapped moraine morphology changes in the tri-state region of the US East Coast as an Undergraduate Researcher in Fall 2019 semester.
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Jacob (Jake) Slawson is an Undergraduate Researcher working on patterns of Cordilleran Ice Sheet behavior across heterogeneous solid earth rheology and topography. Jake completed a senior thesis through the Distinguished Majors Program in the Department of Environmental Sciences titled "Just a bump in the road? Assessing the influence of topographic relief on Cordilleran Ice Sheet flow from deglaciated landscapes" in May 2021. His thesis formed the framework for publication that will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal in 2021. He is starting as a PhD student at Colorado School of Mines in August 2021.
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Alan Zhai worked on spatial variability in roughness of a paleo-ice sheet bed as an Undergraduate Researcher during the Spring 2019 semester.
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