Meet Our Team
GEMS grew out of Earth Sciences Mentor Match and the Graduate Admissions in the Earth Sciences programs. We merged to expand our reach and ability to provide accessible and free mentorship to any undergraduates interested in applying to graduate school or fellowships in the Earth Sciences.
Steering Committee
Christina Richardson
Christina is currently a postdoc at UC Santa Cruz studying nutrient cycling in freshwater and estuarine systems. Research Website
Araceli Serrano
Araceli is currently an Assistant Specialist at UC Santa Cruz studying soil and water biogeochemistry in agricultural regions. Research Website
Sarah Hurley
Sarah is an assistant research professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She studies microbial oceanography through time. Research Website
Ben Johnson
Ben is an assistant professor at Iowa State University. He studies geosphere-biosphere interactions over Earth History. Research Website
Isabel Hong
Isabel is an assistant professor at Villanova University. She studies coastal records of geohazards. Research website
Leah Shteynman
Leah is currently a Ph.D. Student at Arizona State University studying the effects of shock metamorphism on geochronology of impact craters.
Kristen Rahilly
Taylor is a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut modeling the transient response of past climate and ice sheets to external forcings.
Ciara Asamoto
Ciara is a PhD student in the Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies how microbial physiology can impact the stable isotopic signature of nitrogen cycling processes.
Christine Bruno
Christine is a PhD candidate in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her research investigates the interactions between microplastic particles, toxic metals, and suspension-feeding zooplankton in marine and estuarine ecosystems. Research Website
Katie Biegel
Katie is a postdoctoral scholar and environmental seismologist at UC Davis. She studies debris flows and glacial outburst floods at Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. Research Website
Amina Abdulsalam
Amina is a PhD student in Geosciences and Climate Science at Penn State University. Her research interests include contaminant transport and remediation, hydrological modeling, sustainable water resource management, and climate impacts on hydrology.
Past Team Members
Maddie Wood
Evans Onyango
Christine Bassett
Markus Petters
Marjahn Finlayson
Trang Vo
Dannielle Fougere
Yiyi Huang
Xiaonan Tai