Katharine Huntington, nee Ruhl

ASSOCIATE professor

university of washington - department of Earth & Space sciences          

Jeff Whitman, BS in ESS

Jeff used bedrock thermochronometry to quantify the timing of deformation within the footwall of the Main Central Thrust in the Modi Khola region, Central Nepal Himalaya, to test models of the structural evolution of the range and possible relationships between deformation and climate-driven erosion through time.

If you’re interested in applying to GRAD SCHOOL, in general I tend to recruit PhD students rather than MS students, but I am NOT looking for any new graduate students for fall 2015.   However, I would be eager to be on your thesis committee if you come to UW to work with one of my colleagues, or collaborate with you and your advisor at a different institution.

If you are a POSTDOC and have funding or would like to write a proposal or fellowship application with me, I would be happy to talk with you about potential collaboration. I am particularly interested in developing projects involving detrital thermochronology or stable isotopes and carbonate clumped-isotope thermometry to investigate the topographic and climatic evolution of uplifted regions or the thermal history of the shallow crust.

I strive to foster a challenging and supportive learning environment for students regardless of background, and seek to increase the participation and success of women and under-represented minorities in the physical sciences. Visit RESOURCES tab for links to information on scholarships and resources for women and minorities.

Christopher Maffucci, BS in ESS

Chris worked to characterize modern and ancient flood deposits in the Siang River valley, NE Indian Himalaya, in order to constrain the flow characteristics of ancient glacial outburst floods from Tibet, laying the groundwork for studies relating the history of flooding to river incision.

Luke Bergman, BS in ESS

Luke used the modeling tool HEC-RAS to simulate floods on the Green River, Washington state, in an attempt to quantify the effects of land use change on flood hazard in the region. Green River flood hazard has figured prominently in the news following damage to the Hanson Dam, and is a major safety and economic concern in Washington.

Gerd Winterleitner, visiting research student and Marshallplan Scholar (1/2010 - 6/2010)

Gerd’s interests are in carbonate sedimentology, facies and basin analysis, and while at UW he focused on the application of carbonate clumped isotope thermometry to investigate diagenesis and fracture systems in carbonate reservoirs.

Katy Atakturk, BS, 2012

Katy conducted a provenance and erosion study using sediments from the great rivers draining the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis, Arunachal Pradesh, NE India. She went on to a PhD program in geology at UT Austin.

David Birlenbach, BS, 2012

David conducted calcite precipitation experiments for clumped isotope thermometry and worked on sample purification methods using the carbonate prep line in UW’s IsoLab. He went on to a PhD program at the University of Illinois.

Mika Usher, BS in ESS

Mika worked on provenance studies of river and flood sediments from the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis. She also works on polar science with Prof John Stone - including fieldwork in Antarctica.

Nathan Peters, MS, 2012

Nathan studied modern soil carbonates in Argentina to document how clumped-isotope thermometry and stable isotopic analyses of such materials reflects climate and elevation. His study included sampling and instrumenting soil pits over a range of elevations and comparing the results to climate reanalysis data and models. 

Sarah Bergman, MS, 2012

Sarah’s research investigated basin evolution and structural diagenesis in western North America. She developed applications of clumped isotope paleothermometry to invest the temperature of diagenetic calcite growth associated with faulting and history of fluid flow in the shallow crust.

[ Sarah’s Personal Website ]