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My early
enthusiasm for earth sciences was
fed by a steady diet of outdoor activities and PBS documentaries. When
it became clear that I would not be the next Jacques Cousteau,
however, I found that I could combine my tastes for backpacking and
physics as a
geology/geophysics major. As a Harvard undergraduate, I constructed
physical
models of mountain-building processes between stints as a U.S. Forest
Service
ranger, then moved to Cambridge, England, where I conducted my PhD
research
on magma migration in the mantle with Prof. Dan McKenzie.
I currently hold a joint appointment between the Departments
of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES)
and Applied Physics/Applied
Mathematics (DAPAM) at
Columbia. My group and I have been extending magma migration
theory into a
more
general one that describes the interactions between solids and fluids
in
the earth. Magma migration provides an important link between
large-scale
mantle convection and petrology/geochemistry and my research seeks to
close
the gap between these two disciplines. This work also lends new
insights
into other fluid-flow problems; current research includes understanding
the fundamental mathematics of coupled fluid/solid problems as well as
applications to magmatism and reactive flow at plate boundaries.
My work is primarily computational and my
students,
colleagues and I are implementing new techniques and technologies to
take
advantage of advanced high-performance scientific computing
particularly in collaboration with CIG
and the PETSc
group at Argonne National Labs. With a
quantitative basis for
fluid-flow
research, we hope to integrate this theory with Lamont's strong
observational
programs in petrology, geochemistry and mantle dynamics. This work
forms a major component of our NSF IGERT joint program
in Theoretical
Earth Sciences, joint between the Departments of Earth and
Environmental Sciences
and Applied Physics/Applied Math . |
Post-Docs/Research
Scientists
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Students
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