Category : Students, Foundation

Name: Brooke Birkett
School: Missouri University of Sci & Tech
Research Statement: Exploring the impacts of Maya occupation on lacustrine environments, Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala  
Summary: Brooke’s research aims to reveal the paleoenvironmental impacts of Maya occupation of the southern lowland Maya site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ by examining a sediment core from Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala. She uses paleolimnological proxies to interpret Maya land-use practices and to reconstruct the local fire history. She is also exploring potential anthropogenic impacts of Maya occupation on the lacustrine environment, such as changes in the trophic status of the shallow, western arm of the lake.

Name: Aaron Kilmury
School: University of Manitoba (Canada)
Research Statement: Vertebrate Faunal Assemblages of the Late Cretaceous Manitoba Escarpment in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada

Aaron Kilmury Research Grant.pdf

Name: Daan Beelen
School: Colorado School of Mines
Research Statement: Channel and dune architectures of seismic-scale, tide-dominated deltas in outcrop, Rifian Corridor, Morocco

Daan Beelen Research Grant.pdf

Name: Jessie McCraw
School: University of Alabama
Research Statement: Paleobiology and paleoenvironment of ammonites using stable isotope geochemistry

Name: Emily White
School: Texas A&M University
Research Statement: Provenance and Crustal Evolution of the Bolivian Retroarc Thrust Belt: Insights from Combined Detrital Zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopes  
Summary: My research focuses on characterizing provenance shifts and the crustal evolution of the Bolivian retroarc. I use a Laser-Ablation Split-Stream Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LASS-ICP-MS) method to concurrently measure detrital zircon U-Pb crystallization ages and Hf isotope ratios from Paleozoic–Miocene sandstones. To understand the crustal evolution from which zircon were derived, I will calculate ɛHf values from the inferred crystallization age from corresponding U-Pb ages. By integrating all this data, I will be able to characterize the sediment dispersal patterns and crustal evolution with related tectonic shifts in the Bolivian retroarc thrust belt.