People

Prospective students: Please get in touch if you are interesting in joining the lab! 

About me

My research combines experimental petrology, numerical modeling, and state-of-the-art geochemical analyses to study volcanoes on the Earth, the Moon, and Mars. My CV is available here.

Education

B.A., 2009, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

M.Sci., 2009, Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

M.S., 2011, Geology, California Institute of Technology

Ph.D., 2016, Geology, California Institute of Technology

Contact information

Email: newcombe@umd.edu

Twitter: @PlanetaryVolc

Address: Department of Geology,

University of Maryland,

8000 Regents Drive #237, College Park, MD 20742

Liam Peterson (Graduate Student)

Liam is studying water delivery to the inner solar system. He is measuring volatile concentrations in achondrite meteorites and experimentally determining the partition coefficient of water in olivine.

Cosmo Varah-Sikes (Graduate Student)

Cosmo is working on a project involving the remote sensing of a unique lunar deposit located on the central nearside of the moon. Remote sensing techniques, such as spectral and spatial mapping, will hopefully provide insight into the petrologic origin of this deposit along with the processes producing early lunar volcanism.

Kyle Kim (Graduate Student)

Kyle is using gradients of water in nominally anhydrous minerals to work out how magma decompression rates vary during transitions in eruptive style. Kyle's field areas include Iceland and Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Sumedha Desikamani (Graduate Student)

Sumedha is a NASA FINESST recipient, working on constraining the volatile budget of ordinary chondrites. Sumedha is also experimentally studying water diffusivity in plagioclase.

Kathy Stepien (Graduate Student)

Kathy is working in Sarah Penniston-Dorland's group and she will be collaborating with us to measure water in garnet.

Pakora (group mascot)

Pakora is always available for belly rubs when experiments fail and instruments break. You can follow Pakora's adventures on Twitter @tiwarylab

Planetary Volcanism Alumni

Silvia Castilla Montagut (Graduate Student)

Silvia studied magma storage and ascent prior to three plinian eruptions of Cerro Machín. Silvia successfully defended her Master's thesis and is now working towards her PhD at University of Toronto. We miss you, Silvia!

Ayomide Ajayi (Undergraduate Senior Thesis Student)

Ayomide used gradients of water in quartz crystals to estimate magma decompression rates during the 3600 yr. BP eruption of Cerro Machín volcano, Colombia. Ayomide is now a graduate student at University of Minnesota in Duluth! (Picture credit: Liz Cottrell)

MaKayla Etheredge (Undergraduate Senior Thesis Student)

MaKayla used bubble textures in pumice to estimate magma decompression rates during the 3600 yr. BP eruption of Cerro Machín volcano, Colombia. MaKayla's thesis can be downloaded here. MaKayla is now a graduate student at the University of Oregon!

Dr. Euan Mutch (Postdoc)

Euan obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and is an expert in diffusion chronometry. His work paves the way towards reconciling geochemical and geophysical signals of volcanic unrest. Following his time at UMD, Euan became a Lamont-Doherty Postdoctoral Fellow. He recently moved to Singapore to begin an assistant professor position at Earth Observatory of Singapore / NTU. Congratulations Euan! Find Euan on Twitter @euanjfmutch


Nick Culbreth (Undergraduate Senior Thesis)

Nick studied magma ascent at Pavlof volcano. Following graduation, he became a Geo-Environmental Technician with HPTech. He is now a hydrologist! He says it's not my fault, but I did give him melt inclusions to polish.

First group picture, October 2019