The CycloCohort

I am a professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I’ve been a faculty member since 2010. Formally trained in sedimentary geology – especially stratigraphy and sedimentary geochemistry – with a dollop of statistics and a dash of geophysics, I have enjoyed exploring paleoclimate and paleoceanography through the lens of these fields of study.  My work has moved more and more towards the statistical analysis of paleoclimate, especially the development of quantitative approaches (and software) for the construction and evaluation of astronomical time scales, the intercalibration of astrochronologic and radioisotopic data, and the evaluation of Earth System responses to astronomical-insolation changes. 

I love teaching, and I co-founded the tadada Scientific Lab, an experiment in science education and communication to inspire scientific literacy and cultivate emotional connections to science. As an educator and researcher, I have a deep interest in how we ‘do science’ as a community, and how we grow our community in a way that allows each-and-every one of us to thrive, build on each other’s successes, and grow together – to address major societal challenges such as climate change and social justice.

*Watch the recording of Project 1 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

I am a professor of geology at the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University. I was trained in comparative sedimentology by the late, great South African-born Professor Lawrence A. Hardie, whose influence both energizes and moderates how I think about science. I am equally influenced by the late, great German-born Professor Alfred G. Fischer, whose tireless efforts to engage my interest in cyclostratigraphy significantly advanced my career. Consequently, my research focuses on analysis and modeling of the deep-time sedimentological record of Earth’s paleoclimatic, geophysical and astronomical variations. 

I specialize in time series analysis and modeling, and welcome collaborations with geoscientists at all levels eager to explore innovative ways to interpret geological signals.

*Watch the recording of Project 1 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Yujing Wu

• Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

• Core member

• Project-1c

PhD student working on Cambrian cyclostratigraphy, including the  Drumian (Cambrian) Alum Shale (Sweden) and Marjum Formation (Utah, USA).

PhD student working on Mesoproterozoic cyclostratigraphy.

I received a Laurea from the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, both in geological sciences. I am now a Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Columbia University, where I teach a class on quantitative methods of data analysis. 

My research focuses on geological time scale development using Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo inversion methods applied to oceanic magnetic anomalies and astrochronology data. During my career, I enjoyed going to sea to collect data and samples, participating in twelve marine geology and geophysics expeditions and five scientific drilling expeditions.

*Watch the recording of Project 1 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon

I am a Professor in the Department of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I’ve been a faculty member since 2008. My academic training began with a bachelor’s degree from MIT with an emphasis in planetary science and a master’s degree from MIT in geosystems modeling. I earned a PhD in Geological Sciences from Brown University, where I developed a new automated method for stratigraphic alignment of ocean sediment cores, which I applied to studying glacial cycles over the past 5 million years of Earth history. 

The main question driving my research is how and why the climate system experienced recent, massive swings between interglacial climates (similar to the pre-industrial) and glacial maxima with massive ice sheets on North America and Europe as recently as 20,000 years ago. Although these climate responses are related to changes in Earth’s orbit (i.e., Milankovitch theory), they imply a highly sensitive climate system with strong nonlinear feedbacks and have implications for how the present climate may respond to massive anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO2. The research techniques I employ are based on statistics and time series analysis. 

*Watch the recording of Project 2 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

I am a Professor in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawai'i . My research interests include astrochronology, astronomy, climate, carbon cycling, and more. I received a MS and PhD in Physics from the University of Bremen (Germany). After completing a post-doctoral project on paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, I accepted a faculty position at the University of Hawaii. 

My passion for solar system chaos dates back to an exceptional course on classical mechanics I took as an undergraduate student in theoretical physics.

*Watch the recording of Project 3 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon

I am a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory since 1984. Having an undergraduate degree in Geology and PhD in Biology, both from Yale, I am a broadly trained geologist and paleobiologist with more than 50 years of experience examining patterns of evolution and extinction as a response to and cause of climate change, especially in early Mesozoic continental ecosystems, as well as mapping the chaotic history of the solar system using environmental archives. My graduate students, interns, and I use a multitude of disciplines and techniques, including sedimentology, paleontology, geochemistry, geophysics, and time series analysis, and we frequently employ scientific drilling to obtain deep-time environmental archives. Using cores and outcrops, we have successfully demonstrated how those records reflect major events in Earth and life history, and precisely and accurately map evolution of the planetary system.

My teaching at Columbia focuses, for undergraduates, on broad and accessible introductory courses, such as Dinosaurs and the History of Life that serve mostly non-majors, aiming to teach more about scientific reasoning in an attractive venue, than to produce more future scientists, with the goal of help molding informed and scientifically literate future political, financial, and ethical leaders. My graduate student and post-doc mentoring focus on intellectual independence while following interesting basic science questions with whatever is necessary and wherever it goes, always with an eye towards what can be uniquely learned in deep time and how answers inform societal issues, including within the mentoring process itself.

*Watch the recording of Project 4 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

I did my undergraduate work at Rutgers University and PhD at Columbia University. My thesis focused primarily on providing zircon U-Pb geochronologic constraints on several episodes of anomalous magmatism on the Eastern North American Margin both during and after the supercontinent Pangea broke up. I’ve also pursued many different research topics and ideas while completing my PhD, including: the origination and proof of concept work of Project 4 of CycloAstro. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to fully develop it. I look forward to productive, multi-disciplinary collaboration with all current and future members of our team. 

My research pursuits are motivated by an interest in understanding the fundamental processes that shape the habitable and potentially habitable environments we observe through time on both Earth and other planetary bodies. Typically working within a geochemical framework, I am willing to use whatever techniques are appropriate for the projects I undertake. 

Outside of science, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, especially going on adventures with my wife and son.

*Watch the recording of Project 4 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at Yale University, where I joined the faculty in 2023. I received my undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astrophysics at UC Berkeley before going on to earn my PhD in Astronomy at Yale, specializing in the formation and evolution of planetary systems. 

My research is driven by the question of how the solar system fits into a broader context, in light of the discovery of thousands of exoplanetary systems. I am particularly interested in the orbital architectures and demographics of exoplanetary systems, as well as pushing the bounds of our knowledge about the distant solar system. I have worked on diverse topics ranging from exoplanet system characterization to stellar spectroscopy with machine learning and searches for a Planet Nine in the outer solar system. I especially enjoy working at the intersection of subfields, and my work ranges from observational data-heavy analyses to theoretically-driven studies.

I did graduate work at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and completed a dissertation on protoplanetary disk evolution just prior to the first discoveries of extrasolar planets orbiting nearby solar-type stars. I was a Planetary Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, and was later on the astronomy faculty at UC Santa Cruz. I am currently a member of the Yale University Astronomy Department. 

Over the years, my research has focused on the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets. Other interests include time series analysis, and physical eschatology -- the study of how the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe as a whole will evolve over very long periods of time. For the last 16 years, I have written about planets (interpreted broadly) at www.oklo.org.

*Watch the recording of Project 5 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

David M. Hernandez is a CycloAstro fellow at Yale University. Previously, he was a Minor Planet Center Fellow and Institute for Theory and Computation associate at the Harvard--Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). David obtained his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Arizona.  David completed his PhD in June 2018 at MIT, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. His thesis, "Solving the N-body problem in astrophysics'', was supervised by Ed Bertschinger. David's thesis committee also included Mark Vogelsberger and Jesse Thaler. David also held brief postdoctoral positions at RIKEN CCS in Japan and MIT.

David went to high school in Flagstaff, Arizona.  His hobbies include tennis, percussion, and bicycle riding.

Bio coming soon

I am a Peruvian geoscientist with a deep passion for social justice action to center belonging, inclusion, and equity in professional and personal spaces. Formally trained as a micropaleontologist, geochemist and cyclostratigrapher, I used my skills to work on paleoceanography and paleoclimatology. In 2018 two colleagues and I co-founded GeoLatinas (Latinas in Earth and Planetary Sciences). In 2020, I pivoted my career to prioritize work on equity and community-based systems for professional and personal development.

I currently work as an Assistant Research Professor at the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, George Mason University (GMU), Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and member of the Leadership Council for GeoLatinas, and coach with Mazak Academic Coaching. GeoLatinas is an international organization with over 400 leaders in 30+ countries and our community efforts allow for inspiring and empowering latinas in Geo, also providing a platform for other minoritized groups to feel validated and empowered, leading to action that benefits the greater geo-community, even outside academia. Mazak Academic Coaching is a womxn-owned, womxn-operated company with an audience of 20,000+ academic womxn, with a mission to change the way womxn experience academia and in the process, change academia itself. I am proudly part of these spaces where I work for a more equitable and inclusive geoscience field and academia.

*Watch the recording of Project 6 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

I am a Professor of Environmental Science at Michigan State University where I run the Geocognition Research Laboratory investigating how people perceive, understand, and make decisions about the planet and human impacts. I began my career studying geology and physics at the College of William and Mary, received a PhD in geosciences from the University of Arizona, and was awarded a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education. I was a postdoctoral fellow and researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and taught for three years as an Assistant Professor at Ohio University before my move to Michigan State. 

I have led the development of the Geoscience Concept Inventory; co-led a study of tectonic uplift in Bolivia; generated new collaborations across the geo-and social sciences to build understanding of ethics and mentoring across diverse groups; served as external evaluator or researcher for a dozen NSF, NASA, or NIH-funded projects. Currently, my research focuses on model-driven research design, community-engaged research, and mentoring to address access, inclusion, equity, and justice in STEM and academia. 

*Watch the recording of Project 6 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

I am an Associate Professor at Eastern Michigan University and Fixed Term Faculty at Michigan State University. My research interests include access and retention within graduate education; Black students and faculty; programmatic assessment and evaluation; graduate students’ mentoring and well-being; and Supervision. My book, Inclusive Supervision in Student Affairs: A Model for Professional Practice, was recently published by Routledge. 

I am most interested in understanding how race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status influence students’ experiences especially in STEM fields. I have received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Association of College Professionals, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and Eastern Michigan University. For fun, I enjoy traveling and ballroom dancing!

*Watch the recording of Project 6 during our Virtual Open House https://bit.ly/OpenHouseVideos1

I am a Doctoral Candidate in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.  My research has two areas.  One derives a subset of the known solar system secular frequencies through a relatively simple and physically intuitive approach.  The other proposes new theory for the mean circulation of the solar convection zone.  I am also a commissioned officer retired from active duty with NOAA and Coast Guard.  My service included command and operation of research vessels, management of environmental satellites, and senior staff positions in NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.