Current Graduate Students

Mariah Romero, PhD Student

2018-M.S. Geology, Purdue University

2015-B.S. Geosciences, University of Arizona

Mariah is a second year PhD student. She is interested in evaluating and comparing the early sedimentary record of ancient and modern forearc basins from various orogenic regions on multiple continents. Her current research focuses on the initiation and development of the Mesozoic San Joaquin sedimentary basin in central California. To better understand the onset of deposition and provenance of the basal stratigraphy of the San Joaquin basin, she is using a combination of sedimentary basin analysis, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, apatite fission track (AFT) and apatite/zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology, geochemistry, and traditional field work.

Chance Ronemus, MS Student 

2019 – B.S. Earth Sciences, concentration in Geology, minor in GIS, Montana State University

Chance is a first-year masters student interested in using geochronology and traditional field geology to answer questions of tectonic significance in the Northern Rockies.  His current research utilizes U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology to characterize sedimentary provenance within this region over the Phanerozoic.  Additionally, Chance is applying zircon (U-Th)/He deep-time thermochronology to constrain the Proterozoic-to-recent, low-temperature thermal history of the Beartooth and Tobacco Root Mountain Ranges.  He will integrate these methods with targeted field mapping to contribute to a unified understanding of the long-term tectonic evolution of the Wyoming Province and North American Western Cordillera.

Current Undergraduate Students

Sophie Black-provenance of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, Little Belt Mountains, Montana 

Saré Campbell-provenance of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, Lombard, Montana

Shawn Reddington-fission track thermochronology of southern Patagonia foreland

Misia Zilinsky-sandstone petrography of trench-slope deposits, Southern Tibet

Chris Kussmaul-metamorphic petrology of Precambrian gneiss, Beartooth Mountains, Montana

PhD or MS Committee Member:

Caden Howlett (MSU)

Aislin Reynolds (MSU)

Christopher Schiller (MSU)

William Freimuth(MSU)

William Burke (MSU)

Gourab Bhattacharya (University of Alabama)

Audrey Warren (UNLV)

Former Students 

Sarah Massar (MSU, B.S. 2018) Now a “Geoscientist in the Park” at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Matthew Yaeger (MSU, B.S. 2018)

John Cook (MSU, B.S. Expected Spring 2020)