I am the W.M. Keck Foundation Professor of Geochemistry and the chair of the Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. I have conducted research on a range of problems involving noble gas geochemistry during my career. I am currently a Participating Scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission.
Currently my work concentrates on the development, refinement, and application of low-temperature thermochronologic techniques such as U-Th/He and 4He/3He. By using these techniques to reconstruct thermal histories, I seek to understand interactions between tectonic and erosive processes to decipher the drivers of long-term landscape evolution over a range of time scales.
My background is in helium thermochronometry and argon geochronometry. I studied at Columbia University as an undergraduate and worked in the AGES lab. At Caltech, I have continued to work on helium dating while also pursuing the (U-Th)/Ne and cosmogenic neon chronometers and the heavy noble gases krypton and xenon. More information about these systems is available on my personal website.