Recent Graduate Student Alumni are listed below.

---

Alumni - 1996-Present

To find out about a particular alumni, please click on the first letter of their last name:
ABCD E F G H I J KLMNOP Q R ST U V W X Y Z

---

A
Name: Sigal Abramovich
Advisor: Gerta Keller
Defense Date: October 2002
Thesis Title: Paleoecology and Paleoenvironment of Maastrichtian Planktic Foraminifera: Examples from Low and Middle Latitude Localities
Presently at: Assistant Professor at Ben Gurion University, Israel

Name:   Richard Martin Allen
Advisor:  W. Jason Morgan, Guust Nolet
Date of Defense: December 2000
Title:  The Mantle Plume Beneath Iceland and Its Interaction with the North-Atlantic Ridge:  A Seismological Investigation
Presently at: Assistant Professor, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California

Name:   Christopher Andronicos
Advisor:  Lincoln Hollister
Date of Defense:   July 1999
Title: Tectonic Evolution of the Coast Plutonic Complex
Presently at:Associate Professor, Cornell University, New York

Back to top

---

B
Name: Adam Mirza Baig
Advisor: Tony Dahlen
Defense Date: September 2003
Thesis Title: Wavefront Healing in Random Media
Presently at: Research Assistant, Laboratoire de Geophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, University of Grenoble, France

Name:   David Baker
Advisor:  Jorge Sarmiento
Date of Defense:   January 2001
Title: Sources and Sinks of Atmospheric CO₂ Estimated from Batch Least-Squares Inversions of CO₂ Concentration Measurements
Presently at:NCAR Post-doc

Name: Huiming Bao
Advisor:  Paul Koch (University of California, Santa Cruz), Bess Ward (Princeton)
Date of Defense:   September 1998
Title: Ferric Oxides Andoxyhydroxides:  Oxygen-isotope systematics and paleoclimatic reconstruction
Presently at:Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University, Louisiana

Name:  Frank D. Bilotti
Advisor:  John Suppe
Month/Year Ph.D.:  November 1996
Title:  Venus wrinkle ridges:  Structure, distribution, and implications for tectonic evolution
Presently at: Chevron Energy Technology Company, Houston, Texas

Name:   Giulio Boccaletti
Advisor: George Philander
Date of Defense:  June 2003
Title: The Thermal Structure of the Upper Ocean
Presently at: Consultant at McKinsey & Co., England

Back to top

---

C
Name: Sara Carena
Advisor: John Suppe
Defense Date: June 2003
Thesis Title: Imaging Faults in 3-D from Earthquakes, with Examples from Southern California and Taiwan
Presently at: Postdoctoral Scholar at the Dept. of Earth and Environment Sektion Geologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Luisenstr. 37, 80333 Munchen, Germany

Name: Karen Lynn Casciotti
Advisor: Bess Ward
Defense Date: September 2002
Thesis Title: Molecular and Stable Isotopic Characterization of Enzymes Involved in Nitrification and Nitrifier-Denitrification
Presently at: Assistant Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Name: Madeli Castruita
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: November 2006
Thesis Title: Iron Storage Proteins in the Marine Environment
Presently at: Post-Doctoral at UCLA, Young Hall, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Los Angeles, CA

Name:  Chang-Min Chun
Advisor:  Ilhan Aksay (Chemical Engineering)
Month/Year Ph.D.:  April 1997
Title:  Hydrothermal crystallization of barion titanate:  Mechanisms of nucleation and growth

Name: Christopher David Connors
Advisor: John Suppe
Defense Date: March 1999
Thesis Title: Studies in Planetary Crustal Deformation:  Venus and the Andes
Presently at: Associate Professor of Geology at Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia

Back to top

---

D
Name: Triparna Das
Advisor:  Guust Nolet
Date of Defense:   August 1997
Title: Crustal Structure of Western North America using Surface Waves and Marine
Multichannel Seismic Reflection Data
Presently at: ConocoPhillips Oil, Houston, Texas

Name: Mark Davidson
Advisor: Tullis Onstott
Defense Date: April 2008
Thesis Title: Sulfate Reduction in the Deep Terrestrial Subsurface: A Study of Microbial Ecology, Metabolic Rates and Sulfur Isotope Fractionation
Presently at: Consultant at Geosyntec Consultants, Pasadena, CA

Name:  Subarnarekha De
Advisor:  Peter J. Heaney (Penn State University), Thomas Duffy (Princeton)
Date of Defense:  July 2000
Title:  Microanalytical Studies of Carbonado and Synthetic
Polycrystalline Diamond

Name:  Michael May Deal
Advisor:  Guust Nolet
Month/Year Ph.D.:  February 1997
Title:  Tomographic image enhancement in slab regions:  Tonga to Japan via the nullspace shuttle.
Presently at: Committee Chair, ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, Texas

Name:   Curtis Deutsch
Advisor: Jorge Sarmiento
Date of Defense:  November 2003
Title: Biogeochemical Constraints on the Modern and Glacial Oceanic Nitrogen Cycle
Presently at:Professor, UCLA

Back to top

---

E
Name: David Edwards
Advisor: Satish Myneni
Defense Date: June 2005
Thesis Title: Molecular Studies of Hydroxamate Siderophore Interactions with Aqueous and Solid Phase Iron
Presently at: Assistant Professor in the Chemistry and Physics Department at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia

Name: Eileen Beth Ekstrom
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: January 2007
Thesis Title: Investigations into the Mechanisms of Biotic and Abiotic Mercury Methylation
Presently at: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Hansel Lab, School of Engineering & Applied Science Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Name: Erik Egleston
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: January 2008
Thesis Title: Biological, Chemical, and Policy Aspects of the Relationship Between Productivity and the Ocean Carbon Cycle
Presently at: Management Consultant, McKinsey and Company, New York, NY

Back to top

---

F
Name: Yuri Fialko
Advisor: Allan Rubin
Date of Defense: September 1998
Title: Fluid driven fracture and melt transport through lithosphere on earth and terrestrial planet
Presently at:Associate Professor, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, LaJolla, CA.

Name: Alexandre Fournier
Advisor: Peter Bunge
Defense Date: December 2003
Thesis Title: Incompressible Fluid Flows in Rapidly Rotating Cavities
Presently at: Assistant Professor, Laboratoire de Geophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, University of Grenoble, France

Name:   Dargan Frierson (Applied Math Student)
Advisor:  Geoffrey Vallis
Date of Defense:   September 2005
Title: Studies of the General Circulation of the Atmosphere with a Simplified Moist GCM
Presently at:Post-doc, University of Chicago

Back to top

---

G
Name:   Edwin Gerber (Applied Math Student)
Advisor:  Geoffrey Vallis
Date of Defense:   January 2006
Title: A Dynamical and Statistical Understanding of the NAO and Annular Modes
Presently at:Post-doc, Columbia University

Name: Ramon Antonio Gonzalez Mieres
Advisor: John Suppe
Defense Date: February 2007
Thesis Title: Thickness-Relief Methods for the Analysis of Shortening, with Examples of Active Detachment Folds and Ramp Anticlines
Presently at: Exploration Geologist, Chevron ETC, San Ramon, California

Back to top

---

H
Name: Alexander Hall
Advisor: S. Manabe
Graduation Date: November 1998
Dissertation Project:  "The Role of Water Vapor Feedback in Unperturbed Climate
Variability and Global Warming"
Presently at: Associate Professor, UCLA

Name:  Scott Harper
Advisor:  George Philander
Date of Defense:  November 2001
Title: The Influence of Subtropical Forcing on the Density Structure of the Tropical Ocean
Presently at:ONR Program Manager

Name: Meredith Galanter Hastings
Advisor: Daniel Sigman
Defense Date: April 2004
Thesis Title: Studies of Reactive Nitrogen in the Atmosphere Using Global Modeling and Stable Isotope Measurements
Presently at: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington, JISAO/Atmospheric Sciences, Seattle, Washington

Name: Michael Hay
Advisor: Satish Myneni
Defense Date: June 2007
Thesis Title: Advances in the Molecular-Scale Understanding of Geochemical Processes: Carboxyl Structure in Natural Organic Matter, Organosulfur Cycling in Soils, and the Coordination Chemistry of Aqueous Aluminum
Presently at: Research Associate/NRC Postdoctoral Fello, USGS, Menlo Park, CA

Name:   Cara Cartwright Henning
Advisor: Geoffrey Vallis
Date of Defense: November 2003
Title: The Effects of Mesoscale Eddies on the Stratification of the Ocean
Presently at:Global Risk Assessments, Inc., California

Name:   Theresa Holloway
Advisor:  Hiram Levy
Date of Defense:   November 2001
Title: Transboundary Air Pollution in Asia: Model Development and Policy Implications
Presently at:Professor, University of Wisconsin

Name: Kathryn Ann Hoppe
Advisor:  Paul L. Koch (University of California, Santa Cruz), Francois
M. M. Morel (Princeton)
Date of Defense:  September 1999
Title:  The Biogeochemistry and Paleoecology of Late Pleistocene Proboscideans from the Southern United States
Presently at: Research Associate, Geology and Paleontology, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Back to top

---

K
Name:   Henk Keers
Advisor: F. A. Dahlen, Guust Nolet
Date of Defense: July 1997
Title: Chaotic Ray Behavior and Asymptotic Waveforms in Regional Seismology
Presently at: Schlumberger Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Name: Klaus Keller
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: June 2000
Thesis Title: Trace-Metal-Carbon Interactions in Marine Phytoplankton:  Implications on the Cellular, Regional, and Global Scale
Presently at: Assistant Professor, Penn State University, Department of Geological Sciences, PA

Name:   Shree Khare
Advisor:  J. Anderson/G. Vallis
Date of Defense:   January 2005
Title: Observing Network Design for Improved Prediction of Geophysical Fluid Flows-Analysis of Ensemble Methods
Presently at:Risk Management Solutions, England

Name: Andrzej Klonecki
Advisor: Hiram Levy, II
Date of Defense:  May 1999
Thesis: "Model Study of the Tropospheric Chemistry of Ozone".
Presently at: NOVELTIS, France

Name: Caroline Klug
Advisor:  K. Cashman (University of Oregon), A. Navrotsky (Princeton)
Month/Year Ph.D.:  April 1997
Title:  Vesiculation and fragmentation of silicic magma as recorded in volcanic pumice
Presently at: Portland, Oregon

Name: Angela Noel Knapp
Advisor: Danny Sigman/Bess Ward
Defense Date: January 2006
Thesis Title: The Stable Isotopic Composition of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen and Nitrate in the Subtropical Ocean
Presently at: Postdoctoral Fellow at NOAA Climate and Global Change and her host institution is the University of Southern California

Name: Anne Kraepiel
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: June 1999
Thesis Title: Biogeochemistry of Trace Metals:  Mechanisms of Metal Partitioning in Aquatic Systems
Presently at: Associate Research Scholar, Chemistry Department, Princeton University

Back to top

---

L
Name:  Sergei Alexandrovich Lebedev
Advisor:  Guust Nolet
Date of Defense:  April 2000
Title:  The Upper Mantle Beneath the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia
Presently at: Utrecht University, Ph.D. Staff Member, Department of Earth Sciences, Netherlands

Name:   Alessandra Leri
Advisor: Satish Myneni
Date of Defense: June 2007
Title: Halogen Dynamics in Environmental Systems: An X-Ray Spectroscopic Study
Presently at: Associate Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Marymount Manhattan College, NY

Name:  Liangquan Li
Advisor:  Gerta Keller
Month/Year Ph.D.:  February 1997
Title:  The Maastrichtian:  An integrated multi-disciplinary approach to evaluating climate,
sea-level, and the biotic changes in the marine realm
Presently at: UBS, New York, New York

Name:   I-Ching Lin
Advisor:  Alexandra Navrotsky (University of California, Davis), Peter Heaney (Princeton)
Date of Defense:   November 1997
Title: Thermodynamics and Glass Formation in Fluorozirconates and Related Systems
Presently at: System Administrator with NEC Solutions, The Woodlands, TX

Name: Li-Hung Lin
Advisor: Tullis Onstott
Defense Date: November 2003
Thesis Title: Radiolytic H₂ and Microbial Communities in the Witwatersrand Basin
Presently at: Assistant Professor, National Taiwan University

Name: Jennifer Anne Linton
Advisor:  Alexandra Navrotsky (University of California, Davis), Thomas Duffy (Princeton)
Date of Defense:   October 1997
Title: Phase transitions in the FETIO₃-MGTIO₃-CATIO₃TENARY field at high pressures and
temperatures
Presently at: Staff Scientist, Argonne Nat'l Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois

Name: J. Guadalupe Lopez-Oliva
Advisor: Gerta Keller
Defense Date: June 1996
Thesis Title: Stratigraphy of the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) Boundary Transition in Northeastern and East-Central Mexico
Presently at: Autonome University of Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico

Back to top

---

M
Name: Brian Mailloux
Advisor: Tullis Onstott
Defense Date: December 2002
Thesis Title: The Role of Aquifer and Microbial Heterogeneity on the Transport and Activity of Bacteria in the Columbia Aquifer, Oyster, Virginia
Presently at: Assistant Professor, Barnard College, New York

Name:   Irina Marinov
Advisor: Jorge Sarmiento
Date of Defense:  January 2005
Title: Controls on the Air-Sea Balance of Carbon Dioxide
Presently at: Post-doc, WHOI

Name: Simona  Masina
Advisor: G. Philander
Graduation Date:  November 1996
Dissertation Project:  "Tropical Instability Waves in the Pacific Ocean"
Presently at: INGV, Bologna, Italy

Name: Bryan Keegan Mignone
Advisor: Jorge L. Sarmiento/Anand Gnanadesikan
Defense Date: May 2006
Thesis Title: Scientific and Political Economic Constraints on the Solution to the Global Warming Problem
Presently at: "Science and Technology Fellow" in the Foreign Policy Studies Program of the Brookings Institution, a large independent think tank in Washington, DC

Name: Irina Molodetsky
Advisor: Alexandra Navrotsky
Graduation Date:  April 1999
Dissertation Project:  Energetics of Zirconia Stabilized by Cation and Nitrogen Substitution
Presently at: Materials Scientist with Schlumberger Ltd. Princeton Junction, NJ

Name: Raffaella Montelli
Advisor: Guust Nolet
Defense Date: October 2003
Thesis Title: Seismic Tomography Beyond Ray Theory
Presently at: ExxonMobil Corporation, Houston, Texas

Back to top

---

N
Name: Dianne Newman
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: June 1997
Thesis Title: Microbial Respiration and Precipitation of Arsenic
Presently at: Caltech, Howard Hughes Medical Inst., Division of Geological & Planetary Science and Division of Biology, California

Name: Tarje Nissen-Meyer
Advisor: Guust Nolet
Defense Date: October 2007
Thesis Title: Full-Wave Seismic Sensitivity in a Spherical Earth
Presently at: Postdoce, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Name:  Enrique Francisco Novoa-Cancela
Advisor:  John Suppe
Month/Year Ph.D.:  November 1996
Title:  Two and three dimensional analysis of structural trends in the Santa Barbara  Channel,
California, USA
Presently at: Statoil, Harstadt, Norway

Back to top

---

O
Name: Gregory Daniel O'Mullan
Advisor: Bess Ward/Lars Hedin
Defense Date: October 2005
Thesis Title: Diversity and Composition of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Assemblages in Aquatic Environments
Presently at: Assistant Scientist, Earth Microbiology Initiative, Lamont Earth Observatory of Columbia University, New York

Name: Rebecca Orris
Advisor: V. Ramaswamy
Graduation Date:  June 1997
Dissertation Project: A Test of the Consistency of Models and Observations in the Middle
Atmosphere
Presently at: The Land Trust Alliance, Washington, DC

Back to top

---

P
Name:   Alfonso Pardo Juez
Advisor:  Gerta Keller
Date of Defense:   December 1997
Title:  Planktic Foraminiferal Turnovers Across the K-T and P-E transitions in the Northern Tethys Realm
Presently at:Universidad de Zaragoza

Name: Haewon Park
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: January 2008
Thesis Title: Cadmium Carbonic Anhydrase of Marine Diatoms: Diversity and Expression
Presently at: TBA

Name:   Olivier Pauluis
Advisor:  Isaac Held
Date of Defense:   January 2000
Title: Entropy Budget of an Atmosphere in Radiative-Convective Equilibrium
Presently at: Professor, NYU

Name: Benjamin Ross Phillips
Advisor: Hans Peter Bunge/W. Jason Morgan
Defense Date: June 2005
Thesis Title: Global Mantle Convection Models with Mobile Continents
Presently at: Postdoctoral fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

Name:   Robert Lee Putnam
Advisor:  Alexandra Navrotsky
Date of Defense:   August 1999
Title:  Formation Energetics of Ceramic Waste Materials for the Disposal of Surplus Weapons Plutonium
Presently at:Staff Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

Back to top

---

S
Name: Mirko Schoenitz
Advisor: Thomas Duffy
Defense Date: September 2001
Thesis Title: High-Pressure Mineralogy and Thermodynamics in the System CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O
Presently at: Assistant Research Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Newark, NJ

Name:  Tapio Schneider
Advisor:  Isaac Held
Date of Defense:   January 2001
Title: Structural Analyses of Climate Data
Presently at:Professor, CalTech

Name: Sang-Heon Shim
Advisor: Thomas Duffy
Defense Date: June 2001
Thesis Title: Stability, Crystal Structure, and Equation of State of Silicate Perovskites
in the Earth’s Lower Mantle
Presently at: Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Name: Karin Sigloch
Advisor: Guust Nolet
Defense Date: March 2008
Thesis Title: Multiple-Frequency Body-Wave Tomography
Presently at: Dept. Geo & Environmental Sciences, Sektion Geophysik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Munich, Germany

Name: Bianca Silver
Advisor: Tullis Onstott
Defense Date: April 2008
Thesis Title: The Nutritional and Energetic Constraints on Life in the Deep Biosphere of South Africa
Presently at: ExxonMobil, Houston, TX

Name: Sergio Speziale
Advisor: Thomas Duffy
Defense Date: September 2003
Thesis Title: Elastic Properties of Earth Materials
Presently at: Post-doctoral Fellow, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany

Name: Heather Stoll
Advisor: Daniel P. Schrag (Harvard); Francois Morel(Princeton)
Date of Defense: June 1998
Title: Strontium Geochemistry in the Ocean:  Records of Past Climate and Sea Level Changes
Presently at:Assistant Professor at Williams College in the Geosciences Department, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Name: Parvadha Suntharalingam
Advisor: J. Sarmiento
Graduation Date: January 1997
Dissertation Project: Modeling the Global Nitrous Oxide Distribution
Presently at: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Name: Makoto Suwa
Advisor: Michael Bender
Defense Date: April 2007
Thesis Title: Chronologies for Ice Cores Constrained by their Gas Records and their Implications for Climate History for the Past 400,000 Years
Presently at: Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer / Japan International Cooperation Agency, Kigali, The Republic of Rwanda, Science/Math Teacher at Lycee de Kigali

Back to top

---

T
Name:   Chi-Yang Tam
Advisor:  Gabriel Lau
Date of Defense:   January 2004
Title: The Impact of ENSO on Tropical and Extratropical Atmospheric Variability on Intraseasonal and Synoptic Time Scales as Inferred from Observations and GMC Simulations
Presently at:Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center, S. Korea

Name: Philippe Tortell
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: June 2001
Thesis Title: Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives on Carbon Acquisition in Phytoplankton
Presently at: Assistant Professor Botany/Oceanography,University of British Columbia, Canada

Name:  Hsin-Yi Tseng
Advisor:  Tullis C. Onstott
Month/Year Ph.D.:  April 1997
Title:  A tectonogenetic origin for the deep subsurface microorganisms of Taylorsville  Basin,
Virginia:  Thermal and fluid flow model constraints
Presently at: Research Scientist, Exxon, Houston, Texas

Back to top

---

V
Name: Suzan van der Lee
Advisor: Guust Nolet
Defense Date: June 1996
Thesis Title: The Earth’s Upper Mantle: Its Structure beneath North America and the 660-km Discontinuity beneath Northern Europe
Presently at: Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Name: Frederic Vitart
Advisor: J. Anderson
Graduation Date: January 1999
Dissertation Project: Tropical Storm Interannual and Interdecadal Variability in an
Ensemble of GCM Integrations
Presently at: ECMWF, Berkshire, England

Back to top

---

W

Name: Andrew Wittenberg
Advisor: George Philander
Date of Defense:  June 2002
Title: ENSO Response to Altered Climates
Presently at: GFDL, Princeton, NJ

---

X
Name: Hongwu Xu
Advisor: Peter J. Heaney
Graduation Date: July 1998
Dissertation Project:  Structural Effects of Atomic Substitutions in Silicates
Presently at: Staff Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

Name: YanXu
Advisor: Francois Morel
Graduation Date: February 2008
Dissertation Project: Novel Metalloenzymes in Marine Phytoplankton: A Link Between Trace Elements and Macronutrients in the Oceans
Presently at: Postdoc, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Back to top

---

Y
Name:   Huiyang Yang
Advisor:  Hiram Levy II
Date of Defense:   September 2005
Title: The Modeling of Tropospheric Photochemistry and Black Carbon Aerosol: Examinations of Radiation, Transformation Concentrations and Emission Reduction Aspects
Presently at:Post-doc, Rutgers University

Name: Donald Yee
Advisor: Francois Morel
Defense Date: June 1996
Thesis Title: Cobalt Substitution for Zinc in Marine Phytoplankton
Presently at: Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute, California

Name: Li-Fan Yue
Advisor: John Suppe
Defense Date: March 2007
Thesis Title: Active Structural Growth in Central Taiwan in Relationship to Large Earthquakes and Pore-Fluid Pressures
Presently at: Structural Geologist, Chevron, Houston, Texas

Back to top

---

Z
Name: Yunqing Zhang
Advisor:  I. Held
Graduation Date:  June 1997
Dissertation Project:  "On the Mechanisms for the Mid-Winter Suppression of the Pacific
Stormtrack"
Presently at: Professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Name: Alon Ziv
Advisor: Allan Rubin
Defense Date: September 2001
Thesis Title: Application of Fracture Mechanics to Geophysical Problems
Presently at: Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

Name: Ying Zhou
Advisor: Tony Dahlen/Guust Nolet
Defense Date: November 2004
Thesis Title: Surface Wave Propagation in Laterally Heterogeneous Media with Application to Global Upper-Mantle Tomography
Presently at: Assistant Professor of Geophysics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

Back to top