People

Professor

Agilent Postdoctoral Research Fellow Aug 2024- July 2026

PhD Candidate
Provost Fellow 2020-, Gold Family Fellowship 2023
BA Northwestern (Dual major: Earth Sciences & Environmental Studies) 2020

Rachel’s interests are in reconstructing paleoclimate using organic geochemical techniques. Her first project on Holocene GDGTs from Great Salt Lake Utah is published at PP. Her second project is underway and spans >200 ka from GSL and Bear Lake UT/ID. She took part in ICDP TADP drilling in Brazil in 2023.

BA MA Taiwan

Chan-Mao is a graduate student in Josh West’s research group and he is doing an organic geochemistry lab rotation to study biomarkers in landslide deposits from Nepal.

August 2023- College Merit Fellow
IISER Kolkata, India MSc

Disha is extracting biomarkers from Pliocene outcrops from Ethiopia seeking to reconstruct environments of human evolution. Seen here exploring archaeological artifacts, and grass fossils of Miocene age in the Mojave Desert, Southern California.

August 2023- College Merit Fellow
CWRU BSc

Yunlang is extracting biomarkers from Miocene age sedimentary deposits offshore and onshore in Southern California. Seen here with a young Joshua tree, while exploring Miocene outcrops in the Mojave Desert, Southern California.

Q Bio major, junior
Biogeochemistry internship 2023-

SOAR Fellowship Sp Fa 2023

Provost Fellowship Sp 2024

Pharmacology major, junior
Biogeochemistry internship 2024-

Provost Fellowship Fa 2024

Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies Dual major, sophomore

Santa Monica College, Chemical Engineering major, sophomore

Santa Monica College, Math major, sophomore

Biochemistry major, sophomore

Biochemistry major, sophomore
Biogeochemistry internship Spring 2024

Progressive masters degree in Public Health
Biogeochemistry research internship 2020-2023

Health and Human Sciences major, senior
Biogeochemistry research internship 2022-2023

Earth Sciences BSc 2023,
Senior thesis research on vineyard leaf traits.
Estwing Pick winner.

Biochemistry major, freshman
Biogeochemistry internship Sp 2023

PhD USC Earth Sciences 2022
College Merit Fellow
MEarthSci Oxford (Earth Sciences) 2016

Mark’s research interests are in paleoclimate and human evolution. Project 1: Reconstructing Pliocene environments at Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Fieldwork February 2018. article in Nature Project 2: Climate of the past 200,000 years from Searles Lake, California. Plant wax interpretations using machine learning, article in Organic Geochemistry Multi-proxy reconstructions, preprint at ESSOAR Pliocene record coming soon. He is heading onto a postdoc at the University of Southampton, UK, to work on tropical Pacific hydroclimate.

PhD USC (Geology) 2022, College Merit Fellow
BSc UC Davis (Env. Science and Management) 2016

Emily’s research interests are in reconstructing high latitude climate during warm times in the geologic past. She worked on biomarker reconstructions of the last 3 million years before the EOT in Prydz Bay Antarctica as part of an NSF-funded project – article in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimate; sediments from the Sabrina coast article in Geobios;  SHALDRIL cores off the Antarctic Peninsula (article in review at PP) and comparisons with DeepMIP-EOT (article in submission). She has been active in Skype-a-Scientist, the USC SACNAS chapter, the USC Science Policy Group, as well as #scicomm on Twitter (@ejtibbett) and at the NHM. As NSF PD recipient she is heading on to UMass for a postdoc and switching to the Arctic!

SNF Postdoctoral Fellowship 2019-2021 USC
PhD Bremen 2017, MSc ETHZ 2013, BSc ETH Zurich 2011

Christoph Häggi is an organic geochemist and paleoclimatologist working in the Amazon and Cerrado. During his 2-year postdoc at USC, he has conducted soil sampling across the Cerrado in 2019. Selected to sail on IODP Exp 387 Amazon Margin (cancelled) and a member of the ICDP TADP science party (postponed). Christoph continued to ETH with an SNF fellowship in Tim Eglinton and Heather Stoll’s lab. He is now applying his geological knowledge to regional government here.

Biology major, freshman
Biogeochemistry research internship

Env Eng & Pol Sci, freshman
Biogeochemistry research internship

BSc Penn State, MSc TAMU, PhD TAMU 2021, now postdoc U Montreal. Visiting student Summer 2016, 2017 and 2019. Project: Bahamas Late Holocene Paleoecological and Paleoclimate Reconstruction. article

Biochemistry Undergraduate.
Lab internship on plant wax biochemistry. URAP fellowship awardee, summer 2019. Fall 2019

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Provost Fellowship. Fall 2019.

Earth Science Undergraduate
Research experience. Fall 2019.

Daolai Zhang is an organic geochemist working on coastal marine settings and soils.
CSC Scholar Nov 2018-Oct 2019.

article in GCA

High School student
Lab internship on plant wax biochemistry. Summer 2019.

Undergraduate coursework in Earth Science at USC and continuation on the Progressive Masters track. Master’s thesis on tropical trees and their carbon isotopic composition. MSc June 2019!

PhD (Geology) 2019, Provost Fellow.
BA University of Pennsylvania (Earth Science) 2013.
Hyejung is an isotope biogeochemist. She specializes in experimental determinations of fundamental isotopic fractionations. Her thesis “Isotopic fractionations in plant biomarker molecules with application to paleoclimate” comprises:
Project 1: Arabidopsis thaliana. article
Project 2: Derivatization conditions. article
Project 3: Lignin methoxyl method development article Project 4: Woody reconstructions from the Bengal Fan spanning 19 million yrs! article in PNAS  Now Scientist I at Beyond Meat in El Segundo, California.

Environmental Studies Undergraduate.
Lab internship on Bengal Fan project, wheat wax and Serengeti soils. KCM Undergraduate Grant and Anita Brown Wilson Scholarship awardee.

Graduated May 2019! Starting a PhD in Chemistry at University of Oregon, August 2019! Google scholar

Undergraduate, Economics major & Environmental Studies minor.
Lab internship on Bengal Fan and Serengeti soils project.

Graduated May 2019!

PhD Chinese Academy of Sciences (Agroecology)
BSc Binzhou (Ecology)
postdoc TAMU, postdoc at the Noble Research Institute, now faculty at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China.

Visitor October 2016, August 2017, remotely August 2018. Conducting experimental studies of leaf wax response in winter wheat cultivars to drought conditions. article1, article2, article3

PhD (Geology) 2019. Christine is an isotope biogeochemist and paleoclimatologist. Her PhD thesis entitled “From tree tops to river runoff – tracing plant wax biomarkers across the Peruvian Andes and Amazon.” comprises 3 published manuscripts:
Project 1: Leaf wax carbon isotopes in a tropical forest elevation gradient, GCA article.
Project 2: Catchment integration of plant wax biomarkers, GCA article.
Project 3: Soil biomarker profiles, OG article.

MSc USC (Geology) 2014: Paleoclimate reconstructions from Lake Elsinore, California, using leaf wax hydrogen isotopes. EPSL article.

BSc, MSc Hong Kong University (Earth Science) 2012.

MSc 2018 University of Toronto Mississauga
visitor June 2017
Modern calibration and Holocene Arctic reconstructions, Organic Geochemistry. article

Current masters student University of Toronto Mississauga, visitor May 2017. Project: Pliocene Arctic reconstructions

Earth Sciences Undergraduate.
Graduated May 2018.
Senior thesis on the Bengal Fan.
Provost fellowship: Bengal Fan research.
JPL intern in the Williford lab, summer 2017.
Next masters in Climate & Society at Columbia! Now PhD student at Notre Dame!

watch Patrick in the lab

Earth Sciences Undergraduate.
Freshman lab internship on Bengal Fan project.

Environmental Science and Health Undergraduate. Provost Fellowship.
Lab internship on Bengal Fan project. Mini GC teaching/outreach project development.

Earth Science Undergraduate. Provost Fellowship.
Lab internship on Bengal Fan project.Heading to WHOI for an intership in the Galy lab, summer 2017.

PhD USC 2017
BA Bard College (Environmental Studies) 2010
USC July 2011-May 2017 College Merit Fellow & Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship 2013-2014, reconstructing Pliocene NE African environments from marine sediments of DSDP Site 231, article in EPSL. Miocene grass fossil from Red Rock State Park article. Then IODP Expedition 355 drilling the Indus Fan.
watch Hannah in the lab
Now Executive Liason Officer for AIMES at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate.
Lab internship on Bengal Fan project.
Graduated May 2017
Now a project analyst at Danone, New Jersey

postdoc Caltech, visitor September 2016
Southern Hemisphere Paleoclimate article at EPSL.
Now Organic Geochemist at Shell, Houston

Earth Sciences Undergraduate.
Lab internship working on Peru, Indus and Bengal Fan projects. WiSE fellowship recipient 2015. Senior thesis in 2015 on Indus Fan.
Graduated May 2016.
Now O’Neill Service Group in Seattle.

BSc University of California, Los Angeles (Earth Science) 2014
Graduate Student Provost Fellow.
August 2014-July 2015 Bay of Bengal Neogene plant wax reconstructions of vegetation and monsoon change.

MSc University of Amsterdam 2015. Visitor at USC Jan-Jul 2015. Project: leaf wax traits in tropical forest elevation gradient. Now working in Tech!

Environmental Sciences Undergraduate. Lab internship assisting with Peru project. Graduated 2015. Worked at Los Angeles waterboard with CalEPA. Now heading to graduate school!

Postdoctoral researcher January 2013 – June 2015. PhD MIT/WHOI.

River biomarker studies in Andean-Amazonian catchment. article. NSF funded, January – December 2013.

Lignin methoxyl hydrogen isotope proxy development. PRF funded, 2014.

Bengal Fan IODP Exp. IODP funded, February – June 2015 watch Camilo onboard Exp 354 here.

Subsequently postdoc at Caltech, in John Eiler’s group. Now Assistant Professor at Western Washington University.

Earth Sciences Undergraduate, Graduated December 2014.SURF and WiSE fellow. Estwing Pick Prize winner. Senior Thesis in 2014: Leaf waxes and plant waters in a tropical montane forest in Peru NSF GSRF recipient: Masters from U Wyoming
Now at Trihydro, environmental consulting, Laramie WY

Undergraduate Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Major. Lab internship assisting with Peru project.

Earth Sciences Undergraduate. Awarded SURF and ESRAP funding for work on the Peru project. WiSE fellow.
Graduated 2015.
Masters at USC in GIS, now works at ESRI.

Postdoctoral researcher, DAAD Tibetan lakes. January 2013 – April 2014. Research published in Climate of the Past article
and GRL article. Next DFG-funded Research Associate U Potsdam, and now IGB-Berlin.

Visiting Graduate Student, University of Potsdam
May-July 2012 Hydrogen isotopes recorded by plant leaf waxes across an elevational gradient in Nepal. Hoffmann et al., 2016 EPSL

Technician. Now technician for the USC Earth Science Department.

Earth Sciences Chemistry minor. Graduated Summer 2013. WiSE fellow Provost fellow SOAR funding African paleoclimate. Senior Thesis in 2013: Unraveling our human history: habitats of early hominin evolution. Analysis of the d13C of plant leaf waxes in a marine sediment core.
Research published in Geology in 2013. article
Now at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Graduate Student
lab rotation 2011. Diagnosing the products of pyrolysis of methyl iodide – for the lignin methoxyl hydrogen isotope proxy. Published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. article

Undergraduate in Engineering. Lab internship assisting with Peru project.

Undergraduate in Environmental Science. Lab internship assisting Bernhard Aichner.

Undergraduate Chemistry Major. Lab internship assisting with sample processing for the DSDP Site 231 project.

Petroleum Engineering Masters. Organic Geochemstry internship on Zaca Lake, ANDRILL and DSDP Site 231 projects. Graduated 2012. *Now working for Baker-Hughes, Bakersfield as a Petroleum Engineer.

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate. Field and lab assistant on Zaca Lake project.
Graduated 2012.
*Now working as an engineer and manager

Earth Sciences Undergraduate.
SOAR awardee. African tephra. Graduated 2012. Senior Thesis in 2012: hereNow masters student in Ohio.

Earth Sciences Undergraduate. Avidly reading about geoforensics techniques and applications whilst learning organic geochemistry lab skills.
Graduated 2012.
Now a CPA!

Biology Undergraduate. Lab internship assisting with sample processing for the DSDP Site 231 project.

Earth Sciences Undergraduate. Graduated from USC December 2011. Field assistant at Carpinteria Salt Marsh and assisting with Zaca sample preparation.

Earth Sciences UndergraduateField assistant at Zaca Lake. *WiSE fellow 2009 *Honorable mention 2010 *Now PhD student at UCSC.

Postdoctoral Researcher
2009-2010. Research published in Organic Geochemistry article
Now postdoctoral researcher in David Hollander’s Lab at USF.