Education

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FJ6Hr-UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Affiliations

Awards

2023: American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Award in Organic Chemistry

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=709979640931836&set=pcb.709979977598469

2019: Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 1st Place Special Award from the Geological Society of America

https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/intel-isef-2019-special-awards-winners-announced/

https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2019/19-20.aspx

2018: Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Honorable Mention Award from the American Chemical Society

https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/intel-international-science-and-engineering-fair-2018-special-award-winners/

2017: International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environment Project Olympiad Second Place Award in Energy Category

https://www.facebook.com/ISWEEEPprojectolympiad

Yearly Professional Engagements

2026 Engagements

January - December: DFT, XAS, and RIXS-Informed Study of Lanthanide Complexes with Amino Acid and Carboxylate-Derived Ligands

Supervisors: Drs. Shubham Vyas & Nicholas Bedford

February: Presentation of Research Poster at the Inaugural Mineralogical Society of America Annual Meeting

https://msaweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/MSA-Tucson-Meeting-2026-Program-Final.pdf

March: Fundamentals of XAS Analysis Course offered by Brookhaven National Laboratory

Instructors: Bruce Ravel, Lu Ma, Akhil Tayal, Jorge Moncada Vivas, Dali Yang, Dominick Wierzbicki, & Steve Farrell

April: RIXS and XAS Measurements at Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (8.0.1.4)

Supervisor: Dr. Nicholas Bedford

2025 Engagements

January - December: Selective Extractions of Biosolid-Amended Soil Analog Systems and Quantitation of Elemental Constituents by ICP-MS

Supervisors: Drs. Yoshiko Fujita, Junko Munakata Marr, & James Ranville

February: Presentation of Research Poster at the Critical Materials Innovation Hub Winter Meeting at the Colorado School of Mines

https://cmi.mines.edu/

June: Publication of Manuscript Describing Experiments with Putatively Stereoselective Alditol Oxidoreductase Enzymes

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0325955

November: XAS Measurements at Argonne National Lab's Advanced Photon Source (10-ID-B)

Supervisor: Dr. Nicholas Bedford

2024 Engagements

January - March: Design of Activity and Kinetic Screening Experiments for Putatively Stereoselective Alditol Oxidoreductase Enzymes

Coworkers: Drs. James Henriksen, Prithwiraj De, Claudia Boot, Eliza Walthers, & Rich Conant

March - May: Confirmation of Product and Catalytic Activity of Putatively Stereoselective Alditol Oxidoreductase Enzymes

Coworkers: Drs. James Henriksen, Prithwiraj De, Claudia Boot, Eliza Walthers, & Rich Conant

May - June: Development of a Fluorimetric Method to Study Carbohydrate-Derivative Sorption to Clay Surfaces of Variable Chemistry

Coworkers: Drs. James Henriksen & Prithwiraj De

August - December: Training on Laser Ablation ICP-MS for Investigation of Relationship between Composition and Color in Garnet

Supervisor: Dr. Zhaoshan Chang

2023 Engagements

January - May: Spectrophotometric and Fluorimetric Study of Lanthanide-Anthocyanin Complexes: Involvement of Auxochrome Dihydroxyl Groups

CSU_2023_honors_program_theses

Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Thompson

January - May: Operation of JEOL JSM-5800 FESEM for CSU's Analytical Resources Core in Morphological and Compositional Characterization

Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Miller

May - August: Spectrophotometric Measurement of Optical Density to Track Bacterial Growth on Energetically Unfavorable Carbohydrates

Supervisor: Dr. James Henriksen

May - August: Design of Intake and Flow Chamber for Picarro Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer Used in Quantitation of CH4, N2O, CO2, and NH4

Supervisor: Dr. James Henriksen

2022 Engagements

June - August: Development of Anthocyanins as Colorimetric Indicators of Micro-Scale pH Changes During Dissolution of Calcite and Dolomite

Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Thompson

August - December: Spectrophotometric and Fluorimetric Study of Lanthanide-Anthocyanin Complexes: Involvement of Auxochrome Dihydroxyl Groups

CSU_2023_honors_program_theses

Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Thompson

August - December: Operation of JEOL JSM-5800 FESEM for CSU's Analytical Resources Core in Morphological and Compositional Characterization

Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Miller

2021 Engagements

January - August: Examining Bioaugmentated PFAS Degradation by Trametes versicolor and Bench-Scale Testing of Freeze Desalination

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1187019.pdf

https://serdp-estcp.mil/projects/details/fdd6a233-2299-4458-bfeb-b83e12397fed/er-2718-project-overview

Supervisors: Drs. Jens Blotevogel, Andrea Hansen, & Thomas Sale

June - December: Course Assistant for Grading of Assignments and Laboratory Reports for Physics and Astronomy Courses

Supervisor: Dr. Emily Hardegree-Ullmann

June - August: Operation of Flame Ionization Detector Gas Chromatograph and Installation of Atmospheric Denuders on Towers

Supervisors: Drs. I-Ting Ku & Jeffrey Collett

2020 Engagements

January - August: Sampling Terraces and Fluvial Systems for Cosmogenic Nuclide and Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating

Supervisors: Drs. Sean Gallen & Eyal Marder

August - December: Analysis of Mercury Content in Oil Shales and Carbonaceous Sedimentary Lithologies

Supervisors: Drs. Holly Stein & Judith Hannah

2019 Engagements

January - May: Energy Dispersive XRF, Powder XRD, and Petrographic Study of Cripple Creek Diatreme Metamorphic Lithologies

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2018/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2019/Attendees/Judge/Directory.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Steve Weaver

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: Colorado College

March: Presentation on Effective Educational and Outreach Methods for Pre-Collegiate Students in the Geosciences

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2019SC/webprogram/Paper325787.html

May - July: Department Assistant for Colorado College Department of Geology

Supervisor: Mandy Sulfrian

August - December: Potassic-Bearing Mineral Separation for Subsequent Ar-Ar Geochronologic Determinations 

Supervisor: Dr. Matthew Zimmerer

2018 Engagements

January - May: Synthesis and Structural, Compositional, and Electromechanical Characterization of ZnO-NiO P-N Heterojunction Transducer

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2018/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2018/Attendees/Judge/Directory.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Veronica Corral-Flores

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: University of Colorado Colorado Springs

August - December: Energy Dispersive XRF, Powder XRD, and Petrographic Characterization of Cripple Creek Diatreme Metamorphic Lithologies

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2019/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2019/Attendees/Judge/Directory.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Steve Weaver

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: Colorado College

2017 Engagements

January - May: Attempted Synthesis of Alpha Phase Silicon Dioxide and Characterization of Natural Quartz as Piezoelectric Transducer

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2017/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

Mentor: Bryce McLean

Access to testing equipment provided by: Coronado High School

Mentor: Dr. Katharina Pfaff

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: Colorado School of Mines

August - December: Synthesis and Structural, Compositional, and Electromechanical Characterization of ZnO-NiO P-N Heterojunction Transducer 

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2018/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2018/Attendees/Judge/Directory.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Veronica Corral-Flores

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: University of Colorado Colorado Springs

November: Presentation on Cripple Creek Mineralogy and Historic High Grading at the New Mexico Mineral Symposium

38th_annual_new_mexico_mineral_symposium_schedule

2016 Engagements

January - May: Study of Fault Injection Modes for Igneous-Hosted Sedimentary Injectites using Gelatin Analog Models 

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2016/Attendees/Programs/Final.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Christine Siddoway

Access to laboratory facilities and field sampling provided by: Colorado College

August - December: Attempted Synthesis of Alpha Phase Silicon Dioxide and Characterization of Natural Quartz as Piezoelectric Transducer

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2017/Attendees/Programs/Book.pdf

Mentor: *Dr. Abby Jennings*

Access to laboratory facilities provided by: Air Force Academy

September: Presentation on the Mineralogy of the Cripple Creek and Victor Deposit at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show

the_denver_gem_and_mineral_show_fifty_years_in_the_making

September: Presentation on Involvement of Pre-Collegiate Students in Geosciences as Exemplified by the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2016AM/webprogram/Paper283087.html

2015 Engagements

September: Presentation on the Mineralogy of Pyrite at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show

the_denver_gem_and_mineral_show_fifty_years_in_the_making

September - December : Study of Fault Injection Modes for Igneous-Hosted Sedimentary Injectites using Gelatin Analog Models 

https://sspcdn.blob.core.windows.net/files/Documents/SEP/ISEF/2016/Attendees/Programs/Final.pdf

Mentor: Dr. Christine Siddoway

Access to laboratory facilities and field sampling provided by: Colorado College

March: Presentation at the Western Interior Paleontological Society Symposium on the Evolution of Flight 

https://westernpaleo.org/2015-2/

2014 Engagements

September: Presentation on the Mineralogy of Smithsonite at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show

the_denver_gem_and_mineral_show_fifty_years_in_the_making

September: Presenting on Dendrochronology, Dendroclimatology, and Dendroctonus ponderosae at CAEE Annual Meeting

https://caee.org/sites/default/files/documents/2014%20Awards%20Booklet.pdf

2013 Engagements

September: Presentation on the Mineralogy of Garnets at the Denver Gem and Mineral Show

the_denver_gem_and_mineral_show_fifty_years_in_the_making

Volunteer Experiences

2022: Mentor for Elementary School Students in the Triunfo Program at Colorado State University

2017-2019: Nature Camp Counselor at Fountain Creek Nature Center in Fountain, CO

2017-2018: Volunteer Interpreter with Colorado College's Mobile Earth and Space Observatory

2015-2018: Volunteer Park Ambassador for the Colorado Springs Parks and Recreation at North Cheyenne Canon

2015-2018: Volunteer Interpretive Park Ranger for the National Park Service at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument