Lab Members

San Jose State Paleontology Lab

Current Lab Members

Colin is wearing a grey short sleeve button down and grey vest over it. He has brown hair and metal frame glasses. Behind him is a Mongolian landscape of yellow green grass and bright blue sky with puffy white clouds.

Colin Chamberlin MS Geology

Colin is a graduate student studying paleontology, with a history degree from UC Berkeley, where he fueled his passion for paleontology through work at the UCMP. Colin is passionate about climate change, as well as evolutionary theory and paleoclimatology. He hopes to work in academia one day doing research at the intersection of science and the humanities with a focus on climate change and the environment. His project will focus on the evolutionary response to the PETM.

Derek is in profile holding a silver hand lens and a rock sample close to his face while wearing a pink button down and brown vest in the field. Some horizontal rock layers and bushes are behind him.

Derek Godoy MS Geology

I am a graduate student studying paleontology, with a background in both vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as paleobotany. My project will broadly focus on the ecological transition during the End-Cretaceous mass extinction. I received my bachelors degree in biology from the University of California; Santa Barbara, and will be pursuing a career in education and science communication. My goal is to help other students from underprivileged backgrounds in the STEM field.

Robert has taken a selfie surrounded by desert sage. He is wearing a blue plaid shirt, sunglasses, and his brown hair is blowing in the wind! An open landscape of low shrubs, hillsides and clouds are behind him.

Robert Meyer MS Geology

I am a graduate student studying benthic marine organisms following the End-Permian mass extinction event. My work applies paleoecological niche modeling to species recovery in the Early Triassic in the changing environmental conditions recorded in sedimentary environments of Utah and Nevada. We're working to differentiate intrinsic capabilities from extrinsic environmental factors in the invertebrate recovery.

I have a bachelors degree in Geology from SJSU, so I have a lot of experience in this department.

Karen is bent over with one hand on a sandy rock while holding a yellow notebook. She has purple hair and is wearing a grey t shirt and cut off pants and no shoes- we're at the beach!

Karen Moody MS Geology

Karen is a graduate student studying paleontology, with a background in marine biology. Karen has worked for conservation projects and as a 2YC educator after achieving their MS degrees in marine biology and education in years prior. She's returning for a MS degree to fulfill her deep curiosity about the evolution of life on Earth and to open up more teaching opportunities My project will broadly focus on the ecological transition during the End-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Natalia poses with her research poster, smiling broadly and turned slightly to the side with her hands framing the corner of her poster. She is wearing a black jacket and a white conference lanyard.

Natalia Segura-Valenzuela BS Microbiology

Natalia is an undergrad biology major working on the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project.

Page is smiling and wearing a tan baseball cap while holding a small mammal jaw about 3cm long in front of a green notebook. The background is a tan badland with sporadic coniferous trees in Montana.

Page Thibodeaux

Page is a part time Geology student at SJSU with a lifelong passion for paleontology. He is currently supporting the K-Pg Mass Extinction Ecological Response and Recovery Project, preparing, identifying and documenting both late Cretaceous and early Paleogene mollusks from the Gulf Coast Plain in what is today Malvern, Arkansas. Understanding how life responds to both gradual and sudden environment change is important for sound environmental policy decisions. In addition, he also has great interest in the geochemistry of fossilization, geology in general, and the great outdoors.

Michael has dark, curly hair and smiles at the camera. They are wearing a light-colored jacket and are in front of a T. rex skeleton.

Michael Toting BS Ecology and Evolution

Michael joined the SJSU Paleo Lab in Fall 2024 as an undergraduate marine biology major. He is thrilled to start working on the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project. His interests revolve around marine life, and he has dreamed of excavating fossils since childhood.

Previous Lab Members

Will is wearing a tan wide brimmed hat and white t-shirt sitting on a river bank collecting fossils in the field

Will Rizza MS Geology Summer 2024

Will's thesis on the record of the latest Maastrichtian at the Owl Creek Type Section, MS focused on the functional ecology and body size of shallow marine invertebrates in search of an effect of Deccan volcanism on sea life. They found little change in the fossil assemblages over 9 meters of section! He received his bachelors degree from Salem State with experience studying trilobites.

Will is pursuing a PhD with Dr. Elizabeth Petsios at Baylor University.

Dessi is wearing her cap and gown with a sash indicating her Mexican heritage and first-generation college grad status! In the background are her smiling classmates, also graduating!

Dessire Valenzuela BS Geology Fall 2024

Dessi graduated with her BS Geology. In her time in the Paleo lab she was a team member on the Brazos, TX site as part of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project. Dessi was also a SJSU GEOPAths participant.

Dessi has entered the working world as a geologist!!

Frankie is striking a pose in front of her research poster. She has long dark hair and flower shaped earrings and wears a black t shirt that says in white and blue letters "I'm the future of science"

Frankie Gutierrez BS Geology

Frankie is an undergrad geology major and GEOPAths participant working on the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project.

Frankie is now an undergraduate assistant in the submarine volcanology lab!

Aminah is crouched to the ground with her hands held close to her face, presumably examining a fossil in the field. She is wearing black sandals and shorts and a dark blue t shirt. Her dark hair pokes out from the pony tail holder of her grey baseball cap.

Aminah Manning BS Business Administration Spring 2024

Aminah is a GEOPAths participant working on the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project. She participated in field work to the Brazos, TX KPg boundary sites and has been a team member of the Malvern, AR project.

Aminah is now an asset management analyst for AMS consulting.

Kendall is wearing their cap and a sash of blue and gold with a scene of palm trees behind them on the SJSU campus. Their in a teal sleeveless shirt with dangling purple earrings and short hair glowing red in the sun!

Kendall Grajeda-Klingler BS Ecology and Evolution 2023

Kendall is an undergrad biology minor working on the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction project. Their focus is on a new KPg boundary section described in Malvern, AR.

Kendall is working in floral design and enjoying life!!

Gaby is taking a sample of sediment from a deep sea sediment core from Axial Seamount in the SJSU Sed Lab

Gaby (and Carlie) on SJSU graduation day in Dec 2022

Gabriela M. Diaz Santana MS Geology Summer 2022

I earned my MS degree in summer 2022. I represent woman and Hispanic students in STEM. I am from Puerto Rico and I pursued my bachelor’s degree in Geology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. My thesis studied changes in benthic and planktonic microorganisms (foraminifera, radiolarian, diatoms) diversity, abundance, size, and skeletal chemistry from sediment cores at Axial Seamount to test the effect of submarine volcanic eruptions on plankton communities. I am interested in continuing my studies as paleontologist and paleo-climatologist to combine my interest of climate change, oceanography and micro-organism behavior as a future PhD student.

Gaby is now a GIS analyst for Apex Systems.

Ronan stands proudly in a purple puffy coat on a red rock outcrop dusted in snow

Ronan Beltracchi MS Spring 2022

I am a graduate student studying changes in benthic macroinvertabrate ecology in the aftermath of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. My project focuses primarily on mollusk fossils from the Gulf Coastal Plain of North America, particularly the K/Pg boundary deposit in Brazos, Texas. More broadly, I am interested in applying paleontological mass extinction research to addressing species conservation concerns in the modern world. I have a Bachelor's degree in Earth Systems with a focus on Ocean Science from Stanford University, and spent several years as a K-12 science educator before coming to SJSU.

Ronan is now a science content writer for the Bay Area education company CK-12

Nikka is sieving a sediment sample from Axial Seamount in the SJSU Sed Lab

Nikka (and Carlie) on SJSU graduation day in May 2022

Nikka Pacifico BS Spring 2022

Nikka earned her BS in Geology from SJSU in May 2022. In the SJSU Paleo lab, Nikka was an undergraduate student researcher supported by COAST to research the impact of submarine volcanism on foraminifera size and diversity.

Nikka is now a physical science technician at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA.

Ethan on a class trip to Point Lobos state park

Ethan Padalino BS Spring 2020

Ethan was an undergraduate geology student working on extreme parietal calluses in Cenozoic marine gastropods and is a co-author on a lab paper in Paleobiology

Ethan is now a scientific illustrator and artist in Northern California

Laura conducting paleo field work in the mountains of western Nevada

Laura (and Henry and Carlie) on SJSU graduation day in May 2019

Laura Mosqueda BS Spring 2019

Laura was an undergraduate geology student working on Middle Triassic marine deposits from Northwest Nevada. Our goal is to study the recovery after the End-Permian mass extinction and to learn more about the marine environment in this area of the Panthalassic ocean at the time these fossils and sediments were deposited.

Laura is now a geoscience consultant at Farallon Consulting and still volunteers for geoscience programs at Henry Coe State Park with Dr. Ellen Metzger.

Henry conducting paleo field work in the mountains of western Nevada

Henry (and Laura and Carlie) on SJSU graduation day in May 2019

Henry Wempe BS Spring 2019

Henry was an undergraduate geology student working on Middle Triassic marine deposits from Northwest Nevada.

Henry is now a project engineer at Granite Construction in Carlsbad, CA.

Header photo: Tafoni erosional patterns in the Vaqueros Sandstone at El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve, CA.

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