Research

My research focuses on interactions between climate, specifically vegetation, and terrestrial life. I love using various modeling and statistical techniques to uncover stories from data. These are my current projects:

Paleo weather

Extreme weather events affect societies, yet our understanding of their behavior in high-CO₂ climates is still lacking. This project focuses on modeling warm climates from the Pliocene to the Cretaceous. By researching past climates we can use proxy data to validate climate models or use data assimilation to improve our model estimates. This work is part of my postdoc under the guidance of Jessica Tierney and in collaboration with NCAR. I focus on understanding interactions between vegetation and the climate. I’m interested in understanding to what extent vegetation can account for global and local unknowns.

Climate and human evolution

Climate has influenced human evolution by driving adaptations and migration patterns. As early humans encountered changes in environmental conditions, they either had to adapt to those new conditions or migrate to a more favorable location. This project explores the relationship between paleoecology/paleoclimate and human populations by combining climate modeling and statistical data analysis with archaeological data from hominin sites. My research explores the adaptability of our ancestors to shifting climates and diverse environments. This was my primary PhD research project and is part of an ongoing collaboration with the climate and life team at ICCP.