In 2025, I was awarded the SEDI Award for graduate research, while at AGU I was presented the award at the reception and had the opportunity to attend the awards dinner! I am honored to receive this award, which reflects years of hard work and the invaluable support of my mentors at Michigan State University, while also highlighting the critical role of experimental mineral physics in advancing our understanding of Earth’s interior and that of other planetary bodies.

During the summer of 2025, I move and started as a post doctoral scholar at ASU. Over the summer my family and I drove from Michigan to Arizona, making numerous stops along the way. Rio (pictured) loved the drive the most. Since arriving, I have gradually adjusted to intense summer heater and comfortable winters. I have conducted experiment at APS, Omega, and FORCE!

In April, I had the opportunity to return to Augustana for the first time since graduating in 2018, this time as an invited speaker. It was great to see how much the campus has grown and to meet with faculty and current students. During my visit, I gave two talks: one to an upper-level geology class titled From Diamonds to Mantle Dynamics: The Role of Davemaoite in Earth’s Deep Interior, and another to the physics department later that day, titled Reproducing Planetary Interiors in the Lab Through Extreme Pressure–Temperature Experiments.

While at Augie, I also had the chance to tour the impressive new physics labs and check out the geology department’s new 3D models of perovskite—some of which are shown in the photo above.

I’m happy to share that on April 2nd, I successfully defended my thesis: The Physical Properties of Iron–Nitrogen–Carbon Alloys Within Planetary Cores. The full thesis will be available on ProQuest next year!

Shortly after the defense, my advisor, friends, and colleagues organized a celebration; complete with balloons, drinks, snacks, and incredible donuts decorated to look like planets!~

Recently I was awarded the Zeits endowed fellowship to research the stability of lower mantle perovskites within laser-heated diamond anvil cells at Michigan State University.

Perovskites are the most abundant materials within Earth’s interior and are used in a range of material science applications (photodetectors, lasers, solar cells, LEDs, and neuromorphic devices).  Components of my PhD thesis investigate the trends in perovskite stability to discover new materials. The perovskites that are of interest to me are stable within Earth’s lower mantle, davemaoite (CaSiO₃) and bridgmanite (MgSiO₃), and makeup ~80 vol% of all minerals on Earth. These lower mantle minerals are not stable on Earth’s surface and can be grown within a laboratory setting using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell.