BACKGROUND:

Originally from Lemont, IL, I grew up on the bluff of the Des Plaines river, overlooking the historic quarries of the Lemont Dolomite. My childhood was filled with adventures of playing in the woods and slogging through the wetlands in the river valley. After considerable experience with glacial geomorphology and limestone quarries, I found myself at Augstana College, this time on the bluff of the Mississippi. While my glacial experience further developed, my interest in more exotic environments took hold and I turned my interest toward the desert. Thus, for graduate school, I made my way to Arizona to experience rocks exposed at the surface of the Earth.
My masters was a field-based remote sensing project in which I mapped the composition of the rocks and soils in the Bradshaw Mountains, in the transition zone of central AZ. After defending in 1998, I worked on Mars while pursuing a number of extracurricular activities, including bicycle planning with the city of Tempe. This led me to start taking classes for the fledgling ASU Transportation Systems Planning Certificate near the end of my PhD in geology.
After 10 years in the desert, I reluctantly left to try out a much wetter place. Portland is everything it's cracked up to be. The community, bikes, planning, environmental conciousness, and most importantly the geologic backdrop are amazing. My significant other, Ashlee Rudolph is currently pursuing her MS in Envionmental Science at Portland State University. From Aug 2006 to Aug 2007 (and part time since then) I was at home in Portland, and teaching at the University of Portland. I'll be back again in the summer of 08, but I am currently taking full advantage of the opportunities and east-coast geology at Colgate University in Hamilton NY. 

EDUCATION:

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ May 2006
PhD, Department of Geological Sciences, (now the School of Earth and Space Exploration) advisor: Philip R. Christensen
Dissertation: The Distribution, Characteristics, and Origins of Rocky Surfaces on Mars from Remote Thermal Infrared Observations. Defended January, 2006.

Arizona State University, Tempe AZ May 1998
MS, Department of Geology, advisor: Philip R. Christensen
Thesis: Compositional Mapping of the Bradshaw Mountains, AZ, Using Thermal Infrared Multispectral
Scanner (TIMS) Data.

Augustana College, Rock Island, IL May 1996
Bachelor of Arts with Honors, Geology major, Physics minor.

High School: Benet Academy, Lisle Il.