My paleoclimate research reconstructs past environmental conditions and biogeochemical cycling using geochemical proxies preserved in sedimentary archives, with a particular focus on mercury and other trace metals. A key part of this work involves characterizing how trace metals behave during sediment deposition and diagenesis, including understanding how Hg speciation evolves during thermal maturation and what that means for proxy interpretation (Frieling, Fendley et al., 2024, G-Cubed), as well as how primary depositional conditions influence Hg behaviour in the sedimentary record (Indraswari et al., 2025, Chemical Geology). This work sits at the interface of volcanology and environmental geochemistry, using the sedimentary record both to track ancient volcanic forcing and to disentangle it from other environmental processes, a distinction that is critical for robust interpretation of Hg anomalies throughout Earth history.Â