About

I lived most of my life in Colfax, Illinois hoping extraterrestrials would put a crop circle in the cornfield adjacent to my house. I got a B.S. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2018. Now I’m working on a DPhil in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics at the University of Oxford.

I want to understand the mechanisms that can stabilize and destabilize the climates of Earth and “Earth-like” planets. To this end, I develop and apply numerical models across the hierarchy of complexity to simulate the behavior and evolution of rocky planet atmospheres and their interactions with planetary surfaces. My published work has touched on climate dynamics and geochemical proxy evidence of the Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth, the influence of planetary rotation on climatic hysteresis, and physicochemical controls on the feedback between planetary climate and the weathering of silicate crusts. Ongoing projects include modeling the properties of atmospheres with multiple non-dilute condensable components; examining global physical limits to rainfall and runoff on land-bearing planets like Earth; finding the circumstances under which CO2 can plausibly condense onto the surface of otherwise Earth-like planets; and examining the impact of continental drift and mountain building on the efficacy of the silicate weathering feedback as a climate stabilization mechanism.

At base, most of my work is motivated by a desire to develop a theoretical (and eventually observational) understanding of how rocky planets might provide stable, long-lasting abodes for complex life like ourselves and our many multicellular friends here on Earth.