STUDENT MENTORING

Zeke is currently in the second year of the Ph.D. program as a Provost Graduate Fellow. He started doing research as part of a Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research fellowship at Williams College. After graduating from Williams, Zeke spent a year in Taipei studying Chinese on a fellowship and joined the Geology graduate program at the University of Cincinnati in 2019. His research at UC aims to understand the effect of global warming on land snail foraging ecology integrating isotope geochemistry and field and laboratory experiments.

Catherine Nield is a second year Ph.D. student of Geology at the University of Cincinnati. She gained undergraduate research experience at the University of Illinois and joined the UC Geology graduate program in 2019. Catherine is broadly interested on Climate Change and Paleoclimatology. Her dissertation work at UC aims to calibrate and validate land snail shells as paleoprecipitation proxies at local to global scales. She integrates modern field samples from contrasting environments to validate snails as proxies, and plans to investigate last glacial snail shells to reconstruct paleoclimates during the last coldest episode in Earth’s History.

Reed Sanchez earned his B.S. degree in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Furman University. He joined the UC Geology graduate program in 2019 and earned a Masters in Geology in 2021. His thesis examined archeological mollusk assemblages from the Ifri Oudadane site, Morocco, NW Africa to quantify time-averaging and reconstruct past climate. His work aimed to determine if climate and environmental change could have influenced the transition from hunting-gathering to food production mode of life.

Wesley graduated from Ohio University in 2015 and earned his PhD in Geology at the University of Cincinnati in 2020 and was funded with an NSF-GRFP fellowship. He is broadly interested climate change and paleoclimate proxies. At UC, Wesley worked on shell middens from the Canary Islands to understand how the climate was like during pre-Hispanic times in the archipelago. He focused on Patella shells from different islands and age intervals and gained a better understanding of seasonal temperature fluctuations during the late Holocene in northwest Africa.

Richard is a PhD student in Philosophy of Science and simultaneously pursed and earned a Masters in Geology at the University of Cincinnati in spring 2019. He is broadly interested in epistemic gaps and assessing biases in scientific datasets. His project in Geology aimed to understand spatial and temporal biases in published land snail isotope records at the global scale for paleoclimate reconstructions. In addition, he analyzed samples from Trinidad and Tobago and estimated how tropical snails track precipitation in their shells.

Evan graduated from Albion College in 2014 with a degree in Geology and a minor in Paleontology. He earned a Masters in Geology the University of Cincinnati in the summer of 2018. He is broadly interested on invertebrate paleontology including taxonomy, taphonomy, geochronology, and climatology. His research at UC focused on Quaternary land snails of Madeira (Portugal) preserved in colluvial deposits and he measured the scale and structure of age mixing of these shelly accumulations through amino acid racemization calibrated against radiocarbon dating.

Abbey graduated from the University of Mississippi in May 2016 with a B.S. in Geological Engineering with a minor in Biology. She earned a Masters in Geology at the University of Cincinnati in the summer of 2018. Abbey's interests include invertebrate paleontology, taphonomy, stratigraphy, paleoclimatology, and evolution. At the University of Cincinnati, Abbey worked on archeological land snails from Algeria, Northwest Africa, to evaluate if cultural transitions in the region were impacted by climate change. She integrated stable isotope analyses, radiocarbon dating and body size data from two edible size snail species to examine potential variations in humidity and vegetation through the Holocene.

Elizabeth graduated from Muskingum University in 2012 with a B.S. in both biology and geology, and she graduated with a Masters in Geology at the University of Cincinnati in the summer of 2016. Her research interests are a combination of paleontology and ecology. She is interested in evolution, species and community reactions to climate change, the effect of human influence, and the ability to use the more recent fossil record (Quaternary) to help answer questions about and gain insight to the present. Her research project looked at the ecological response of land snails in Tenerife, Canary Islands to Quaternary climate and environmental change.

Alex graduated with a Masters in Geology at the University of Cincinnati in the summer of 2016. He studied land snail fauna of the Canary Islands. Because snails are very environmentally sensitive, he hopes to use variations in the composition of their communities to evaluate anthropogenic impacts on their ecosystems. This is a project in the field of conservation paleobiology, a discipline that applies paleontological principles and data to the conservation and restoration of the biodiversity and functionality of natural systems.

Kaaviya Muru is a second year undergraduate student pursuing a BS degree in Medical Science. She is working on a research project to understand snail foraging ecology in a temperate forest using stable isotope geochemistry. She was funded through the WISE program and will present results in a scientific conference in the near future.

Undergraduate student Mallin Blaxal received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Cincinnati in 2021. As an undergraduate student she worked in a research project looking at the isotope geochemistry of ancient marine shells to reconstruct paleotemperatures over the last two millennia in the Canary Islands. She was funded through the WISE program and presented results in a conference.

Undergraduate student Nora Soto is interested in paleontology and paleoclimatology. She has been working on several research projects related to temporal changes of mollusk body size and spatial changes of diversity along an urban-to-rural gradient. She was funded through the WISE program and participated in a variety of scientific conferences over the years.

Undergraduate student Kayla Parr is interested in Geosciences. She conducted field work in the Canary Islands during the summer of 2016 and learned field sampling methods in archeological and paleontological sites. Field work was funded by the National Geographic Society.

Nicole Little is originally from Hawaii, and she is broadly interested in Environmental Sciences. She received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Cincinnati in 2013. Nicole received hands-on training on field and laboratory research methods during 2013-2014. As an undergrad at UC she worked on stable isotope geochemistry of land snails from Sierra Elvira (Granada, Spain) and presented results in a scientific conference