Using field work, petrography, petrology, geochemistry, and geochronology tp understand the petrogenesis of rare element-rich pegmatties.

Applying this knowledge to exploration efforts through matrix-matched calibrations on handheld laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analyzers.

Collaborations at UNC (geochronology) and Duke University (soils).

Understanding the petrology and geochemical evolution of large crustal magma reservoirs that lead to caldera-forming "super" eruptions.

U-Pb ID-TIMS zircon geochronology reveals  prolonged magma reservoir assembly timescales at low magmatic fluxes, leading to a reevaluation of conventional interpretations of U-Pb zircon geochronology spectra.

Unsupervised (hierarchical data clustering) machine learning technique create geochemical fingerprints, and supervised (extremely randomized trees) successfully classifies ignimbrites.

This is useful in geologic mapping in volcanic terrains, tephrochronology, and stratigraphic correlation of non-volcanic units.