I am an earth scientist who seeks out novel, dramatic, and challenging experiences in wild landscapes.  I live in Berkeley, in California, and enjoy exploring the rugged and breathtaking Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada with my friends.  I am energized by the urban environment in which I live.  Learning about complex systems thrills me. 

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Professionally, I work as a geomorphologist and hydrologist at Balance Hydrologics, a small consulting firm in Berkeley, California.  I work on a variety of topics centered around the role of water in the environment.  Typically, the water in our projects is clean and on the surface.  Representative projects include fisheries-focused assessments of sediment transport in natural, steep channels, the design of new wetlands and ponds to mitigate impacts to other riparian and aquatic habitat, and documenting baseline hydrology in support of low impact development.

In June of 2007, I completed my Masters at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  While my class work focused broadly on earth surface processes, particularly how fluids move in the environment, my research focused more specifically on glaciology.  At the Kennicott Glacier, in the Wrangell Mountains of south-central Alaska, I studied the relationship between glacier hydrology and glacier motion and drew inferences about the evolution of an alpine glacier's "plumbing systems" over a variety of time scales.  During my time at CU, I was advised by Bob Anderson.  Our work resulted in a publication featured on the cover of the first issue of Nature Geoscience.  Click here to learn more about my research on the Kennicott Glacier.

In the fall of 2009, I hope to return to graduate school to work on a PhD in glaciology.  My primary research interests include glacier hydrology, glacier and ice sheet deformation and flow, basal processes, numerical modeling, and the linkages between glaciers/ice sheets and the atmosphere and oceans.  Other academic interests include how glaciers sculpt alpine landscapes, fluvial sediment transport, physical and predictive understanding of weather and climate, long-term landscape evolution, and the communication of climate science to the public.  I like to base my research on field work (preferably in breathtaking landscapes) and apply mathematics and physics to draw inferences about the driving forces on the earth's surface.

When I am not in the office or doing field work, I still prefer to spend as much time as possible in the mountains.  I enjoy all forms of alpinism, from rock and ice climbing, to ski mountaineering, to long alpine scrambles.  The more kinds of mountaineering a given trip combines, generally the more I enjoy it.  Click here for photos and trip reports from my latest adventures.  I am also an avid long distance runner.