Groundwater is the largest terrestrial reservoir of liquid water where it serves as a habitat for a significant fraction of Earth's biosphere and is a key resource for human needs. Understanding the aqueous geochemistry of water in the continental subsurface and the feedbacks between geology, biology, and hydrology in these systems. This project supported by the SD Space Grant Consortium is focused on assessing geochemical variability in water in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota.

The Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) was a period of global cooling and environmental change that marks the shift into the icehouse climate that persists into the present day. Marine records indicate a global average cooling trend of ~2.5°C, however terrestrial records  indicate climatic change was more heterogenous. This project supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant #2311532) is focused on using the geochemistry, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of lacustrine carbonates from the White River Group of western South Dakota to reconstruct paleoclimatic conditions in this region during the EOT.

Ferromanganese nodules are mineral concretions that can preserve information about the paleoenvironmental conditions during their formation and serve as a resource for numerous critical minerals. I am involved in several ongoing research areas related to ferromanganese nodules from the Pierre Shale of central South Dakota. These include characterization of the nodules and their formational processes as well as development sustainable methods for their utilization as a resource such as bioleaching techniques.