People

Faculty

Laura Crossey (Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences): Diagenesis, Organic, Aqueous, and Low-Temperature Geochemistry.  See her webpage for research details. Laura is PI with Scott Collins in the UNM Biology program on the GK-12 training program that supports a number (~10) graduate students in E&PS and Biology. Matt Kirk, Tony Salem, Mel Strong, Leah Roberts and Jessica Lopez-Pierce receive support throught this effort which involves working with middle schools in Belen, Socorro and Laguna Pueblo. Laura is also on the faculty of IGERT,the interdisciplinary freshwater sciences Ph.D. program jointly offered by UNM and The University of Alabama.  This program finished last year.--Her graduate students Dennis Newell and Matt Kirk were funded in part by this, as were many other raduates in E&PS and Biology.

John Bloch (Adjunct Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences): Shale Petrology, Clay Mineralogy, Sedimentary Geochemistry).

 

Doctoral Students directed by Dr. Crossey

Armand Groffman:  Armand studied iron and manganese oxidation-reduction systematics in the Rio Calaveras aquifer system. Groundwater geochemistry, combined with hydrogeology and biology, is providing information about the role of microbial reactions in the vadose and saturated zones. See his papers on this topic in Chemical Geology. graduated 2002; currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory (groffman@lanl.gov).

Angela McLain:  Angela is looking at strontium isotopes in pedogenic carbonates in order to evaluate sources of Ca in desert soils. The objective of the study is to evaluate how the relative contributions of dust and parent material to desert soils change with climate and soil age. To see more, take a look at Angela's own web page.

Dennis Newell: Dennis completed a PhD in 2007 working on the geochemistry of Rio Grande Rift travertine-depositing springs with myself, Karl Karlstrom, Tobias Fischer and Dave Hilton with the intent of elucidating a genetic model for their occurrence, and investigating the implications for deep groundwater mixing and water quality. ... see his papers in NMGS Guidebook (LaMadera; 2004) and GSAToday, December 2005. He is working on neotectonic geochemistry of springs in Tibet as well. He is starting a post-Doc at Los Alamos National Laboratory in fall, 2007.

Matt Kirk: Matt is wild about microbes... and arsenic! He is experimenting and observing the interaction of hydrogeochemistry and geomicrobiology in arsenic attenuation.



 

Masters Students directed by Dr. Crossey

Susan Block: Susan worked on the chemistry of shallow groundwater in natural (flooded) and regulated (no longer flooded) locations in the Middle Rio Grande bosque. graduated 2002.Susan works in the environmental consulting business in the southeastern United States.

David Vinson: David's work focused on the redox chemistry of iron, manganese, sulfur, and oxygen in water and sediments of the historic floodplain of the Rio Grande at Belen, N.M. David graduated 2003, worked on Cape Cod as a Park hydrologist for a year, then taught introductory Geoscience at a state university in North Carolina.. currently Dave is enrolled in the PhD program at UNC. Paper coming soon in Geosphere!

James Dyer: James finished his professional project in the UNM Masters of Water Resources Program looking at variations in the water quality of the Jemez River. See his abstract from the NMGS meeting in 2007.

Eileen Embid: Eileen is focusing on the genesis and neotectonic and geomorphic significance of Quaternary travertines near Springerville, Arizona. She is using water chemistry and U-series geochronology to unravel this story. Check out her NMGS abstracts!

Jan Curtis: Jan is working on a degree in the Masters in Watter Resources program. Her topic is water quality in the hyporheic zone on Bluewater creek, northern New Mexico.

Jessica Lopez-Pierce: Jessica has not yet crafted her thesis proposal.

Amy Williams: Amy has not yet crafted her thesis proposal.

Elizabeth Premo: has not yet crafted her thesis proposal.

 

 



Undergraduate Students directed by Dr. Crossey

Blake Eldridge (working on salt springs and Quaternary travertines of the Rio Grande Rift).

Nik Rael (AMP student; working on the geomicrobiology of thermal springs in northern New Mexico and Yellowstone National Park). He is pursuing a graduate degree in Architecture.

Sara Caldwell completed a senior thesis on geomicrobiology of groundwaters in the unconfined alluvial aquifer of the Rio Grande. She is now completing a PhD in the Pacific Northwest in geomicrobiology.

April Lyons completed a senior thesis on the petrology and geochemistry of travertines in Grand Canyon. She is working on an MS in the Public Health field.

Lani Tsianinnie comleted a senior thesis on geothermal waters from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Dave Abrams completed a senior thesis on the conceptual design for a Trail of Time exhibit on the UNM campus. I hope to follow up on this with an implementation plan in 2007-08!

Alex Kirk is working on a senior thesis on sedimentary geochemistry in Neoproterozoic black shales of the Chuar Group, Grand Canyon.

Brandi Cron is a biology undergrad working with me on a senior thesis to understand the geochemical drivers for microbial metabolism in CO2-rich springs of the Colorado Plateau and Rio Grande rift.

 


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Last modified 07/15/07