Education
Ph.D. University of Minnesota (2004), Quaternary Paleoecology
B.A. Wesleyan University (1998), Earth and Environmental Science

Research Overview
The overall goal of my research is to understand the patterns and causes of natural climate variability using paleoclimate records. I am particularly interested in the climate history of the tropics, including intertropical Africa and the El Niño Southern Oscillation system. Tropical regions are a significant source of global atmospheric variability at annual to millennial time-scales, but are poorly understood in terms of their natural range of variability as well as their sensitivity to global climate forcing. I am also interested in the climate history of North America, in particular relationships between changes in solar output, sea surface temperatures, and drought in the Mid-west.

Most of my work involves the generation of high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions using lake sediments. In this work my group applies a variety of paleolimnological tools, including sedimentological, microfossil, and stable isotopic techniques. These tools may also be applied to lake sediments to investigate human impacts on lakes, biogeochemical processes, and a range of other phenomena.