We are always looking for curious and highly motivated students to join our research. For more information please contact me.
Lab Manager
Dr. William Matthews
Dr. Matthews is an expert in zircon U-Pb dating and (U-Th-Sm)/He dating. His research interests are in methodological developments as well as the application of geo- and thermochronology to various geologic questions. Will has been working in many places such as Iran, Madagaska, western U.S. and particularly in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera. Contact: Office: ES522 Phone: +1 (403) 210-7766 Email: wamatthe@ucalgary.ca
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Scott Jess Dr. Jess has expertise in apatite fission track and (U-Th-Sm)/He dating and their application to a variety of tectonic settings. Previous work has included the topographic evolution of West Greenland and Baffin Island, as well as snowball earth phenomena. Office: ES570B Email: scott.jess@ucalgary.ca Website
Dr. Tobias Stephan Dr. Stephan received a DFG (German Research Foundation) research fellowship and is joining our group for 2 years, starting December 2020. Tobias is interested in developing a statistical approach to analyze large paired geo-thermochronological datasets. He previously worked on reconstructing the structural evolution of collisional orogens.
Graduate Students
Kade Damant (Master student)
Kade has been part of our group since 2018. He has investigated the exhumation across the Columbia River Fault near Revelstoke for his undergraduate thesis. Kade will start his graduate research in summer 2020. For his master thesis he is interested in studying the erosional evolution of the Intermontain belt in southern British Columbia.
Cecilia will join our team in September 2019. Cecilia has a Master degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and worked the past 4 years as a Geologist at the Oil and Gas Corporation Limited, India. Cecilia will start working on the thermal evolution of the Devonian and Cretaceous strata in the Mackenzie Basin (NWT).
Kelley joined the group in summer 2018. Kelley conduct apatite fission track and U-Th/He dating on bedrock samples she collected along the Rocky Mountain Trench in the southern Canadian Cordillera. Kelley has already experience in geo-and thermochornology conducting zircon FT dating on samples from the southern Appalachians during her senior thesis project at the Appalachian State University.
Scott is conducting a summer research project that investigates the geomorphology and upper crustal processes of the Intermontain belt of the Southern Canadian Cordillera. Scott received an NSERC undergraduate student research award.
Molly is conducting a summer research project that investigates the upper crustal cooling history of the Southern Canadian Cordillera by reviewing and compiling low-temperature thermochronology data. Molly received an NSERC undergraduate student research award.
Gabby is staring to work on samples from the southwestern Northwest Territories. Comparing the thermal history of the Cambrian basin strata above the basement. This project is in collaboration with the NWT Geologic Survey.
Andreas is starting an exciting project that aims to investigate the exhumation history of the Death Valley shear zone. He will use apatite (U-Th)/He dating and thermal history modeling. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Ghislain Trullenque colleague's from Uni LaSalle.
Alyson MacDougall (undergraduate research project)
Alyson will conduct mineral separation and apatite U-Th/he dating on rock samples collected from the intermontane belt in central BC. She will be working closely together with Kade Damant.
Ryan McKay (M.Sc. 2020) Ryan joined the group in summer 2018 where we went to the Richardson Mountains (N.W.T.)for sampling. Ryan investigated the exhumation history at the northeastern margin of the Canadian Cordillera. This project was in collaboration with Thomas Hadlari from the Geological Survey of Canada. The manuscript highlighting Ryan's research has been submitted to Tectonics and is currently under review. Ryan is now working for Coeur Mining at the Silvertip Mine, a Ag-Pb-Zn mine in northernmost BC.
Jenny Arkle (Ph.D. 2019) Jenny investigated the tectonic-climate-surface process interactions of Trinidad and Tobago. She used geomorphic analyses (GIS) and traditional field mapping in tandem with a variety of dating tools, such as low-temperature thermochronology, cosmogenic, and optically stimulated luminescence dating. Jenny is now a faculty member at Augustana College and the Program Manager for the Upper Mississippi Center. Parts of her thesis have been published in Arkle et al., 2017 Geomorphology
Ryan Grieco (B.Sc. 2019) Ryan investigated the exhumation history of the Rocky Mountain Trench in the Valemount, B.C. area. The region of Valemount marks the transition from normal faulting along the southern Rocky Mountain trench to strike-slip faulting along the northern trench. Ryan used apatite U-Th/He analysis and temperature-time path modeling to quantify timing, rates and amounts of exhumation across the main structure of the trench. Ryan presented his results at the GeoREX conference in April 2019, where he received the best poster award.
Nathaniel Bootes (M.Sc. 2018) Nate investigated the Late Miocene to Pleistocene borehole material from the Yakutat shelf in Southeast Alaska. The primary goal of the project was to investigate changes in exhumation rates in the adjacent St. Elias Mountains throughout the past using detrital zircon fission track and U-Pb dating. This project was funded by the ACS – PRF and conducted in collaboration with Dr. Richard Lease (USGS). Nate's thesis was published in Bootes et al., 2019 Tectonics. Nate followed his girlfriend and moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where he works for Toyota.
Sedighe Khodaparast (PhD 2019) Sedighe is a visiting PhD student from the Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran (Iran). In her thesis research she is investigating the spatial and temporal evolution of the 160 km long Kushk-e-Nosrat strike-slip fault located in central Iran. Sedighe is visiting the thermochronology laboratory for 6 month to conduct apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He analyses on her samples, which she will integrate with her structural measurements and mapping data.
Sonia Sanchez Lohff (M.Sc. 2018) Sonia is working on the sedimentary record of the Cook Inlet forearc basin in southern Alaska. She uses detrital zircon fission track and U-Pb dating to investigate how varying subduction styles (spreading-ridge subduction, oceanic plateau) affected southern Alaska since the Jurassic time. This project was funded by the NSF and in conducted in collaboration with Dr. Emily Finzel (University of Iowa).Sonia's reserch results were published in Enkelmann, Sanchez Lohff, Finzel, E. 2019. GSA Bulletin Sonia is now employed at FracGeo in Houston, TX
Anna Schartman (B.Sc. 2018) Anna's research project centers on the quantification of the timing and spatial pattern of rock exhumation at the northern end of the Fairweather Fault located in the Yakutat Bay area in Southeast Alaska. Her results are now published in Schartman et al., 2019 (Lithosphere). Anna is now a PhD student at the Ocean Science Department at UC Santa Cruz working in the group of Dr. Polissar to study paleovegetation and paleo climate changes since the Miocene.
Catherine Dunn (M.Sc. 2016) Katie has been working on glacio-marine sediment samples obtained from 5 boreholes that have been drilled in 2013 by the IODP Expedition 341. She used detrital zircon fission track and U-Pb dating (double-dating) to investigate the sediment provenance and routing from the St. Elias Mountain to the shelf and the deep sea, as well as the exhumation history of the source region. Catherine published her research in Dunn et al., 2017, JGR-ES. Katie is now the separation lab manager at the Department of Geological Sciences at Stanford University.
Adam Piestrzeniewicz (M.Sc. 2015) Adam investigated the temporal and spatial pattern of rock exhumation in the St. Elias syntaxis and north of it, located in the Kluane National Park (Yukon, Canada). He conducted apatite fission-track analysis and combined the data with zircon fission-track, and apatite and zircon U-Th/He data from the same sample. Adam's research has been published in Enkelmann, E., Piestrzeniewicz, A., Falkowski, S. et al., 2017 (EPSL). Adam moved back to southern California and is a staff geologist at Haley & Aldrich (Environmental and Geotechnical Consulting)
David Grabowski (M.Sc. 2012) David investigated cobbles from the Seward-Malaspina Glacier system to identify lithologies that have been exhumed extremely rapidly underneath the ice that covers the St. Elias Mountains. He combined field mapping, petrology on thin section and zircon U-Th/He dating to characterize varying exhumation sources. David published his thesis research in Grabowski et al., 2013 (JGR-ES) Since graduation David is a full time staff geologist at Walter & Partner GbR in Tauberbischofsheim (Germany).
Gabriel Merli (Diploma 2014) Gabriel investigated the cooling record of detrital apatite grains that were deposited in the Eocene Chumstick Basin in Washington State (USA). Gabriel conducted apatite U-Th/He dating and thermal history modeling to reveal the varying thermal history of the basin and timing of basin inversion. His result together with apatite fission track analysis are published in Enkelmann, Ehlers, Merli, Methner 2015 (Tectonics). Gabriel is now employed as a engineering and field geologist at Henke and Partner GmbH.