Students

CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS

Rebekah Kennedy, PhD student

Email: Rebekah.Kennedy1@student.montana.edu

Rebekah is reconstructing the deep-time thermal history of southwest Montana with a focus on the timing of Rodina Rifting, development of the Great Unconformity, and Mesozoic-Cenozoic burial and exhumation. NSF Award 2140482.

Joe Moll, M.S. student Email: joseph.moll@student.montana.edu

Joe is working on characterizing the provenance and REE/trace element distributions of paleo-placer deposits of the Cambrian Flathead Sandstone, northern Rocky Mountains. 

Brandon Botha, Ph.D student 

Email: brandon.botha@student.montana.edu 

Brandon is working on deciphering the provenance and tectonic origins of mélanges of the western Sierra Nevada Foothills, California to test models of subduction polarity during the latest Paleozoic-Mesozoic. NSF Award 2346567

Current Undergraduate Students: 

Nathan Quigley 

Nathan is working on the petrology of igneous and metamorphic rocks of the western Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. NSF Award 2346567

---

Former Graduate Students

Jessica Zehner (M.S., 2025): Geospatial analyst, Geospatial Core Facility 

Natalee Weis (M.S., 2024): Environmental Scientist, Quiddity Engineering

Spencer Dixon (M.S., 2023): Geologist, Ethos Geological 

Mariah C. Romero (Ph.D., 2022): Department of Defense

Chance Ronemus (M.S., 2021): PhD University of Arizona 2025, now NSF Postdoctoral fellow

Former Undergraduate students

(24 student 2018-2025; 12 pursued graduate school post B.S.) 

2018-2020: Sarah Massar, Matthew Yaeger, Chance Ronemus, Christopher Kussmail, John Murphy, Shaun Reddington, Misia Zilinsky

2021-2023: Sophie Black, Saré Campbell, John Cook, Tobias Babcock, Jaden Blackburn, Samantha Dittrich, Grace Gilbreth, Robert Manta, Nicole Stine, Ethan Oleson, Zachary Morrow

2024-2025: Logan Light, Ian Colliver, Emma Sweet, Carly Ross, Liam Arnold, Griffin Bouma