Dr. Lizzy Trower

Associate Professor of Geological Sciences

Chemical sedimentology, process sedimentology, Precambrian geology, historical geobiology
Lizzy applies a variety of methods - experiments, modeling, field work, and in situ geochemistry - to characterize how chemical sediments and sedimentary rocks formed in order to improve their utility as paleoenvironmental proxies and geobiological records.

Juliana Olsen-Valdez

PhD 2025, NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Juliana combines carbonate sedimentology and stable isotope geochemistry to study past climate and environmental change as recorded in ancient lacustrine (lake) carbonate rocks. Juliana is currently studying carbonate rocks formed in the Sheep Pass Formation lake basin (Nevada) during the Paleogene. More generally, Juliana is interested in using past greenhouse climate records to inform future climate predictions.

Tyler Lincoln

PhD Candidate

Tyler is interested in investigating microbial interactions with carbonate minerals using various microanalysis techniques, both in lacustrine environments like Great Salt Lake and in marine environments.

Bri Hibner

PhD Candidate

Bri's geological interests are in modern island building processes in carbonate systems, especially the role of microbial mats in that process. She also also gets excited about how calcifying algae have already been affected by climate change. Her “free time” interests involve hiking, biking and skiing and another other connecting medium between moving her body and nature.

Nicole Mizrahi

PhD Candidate, NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Nicole is using in situ Si isotope analyses of early Paleozoic siliceous fossils (sponge spicules and radiolarians) to understand the early evolutionary history of silica biomineralization.

Stacey Gerasimov

PhD Student, NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Stacey is examining the relationship between extreme climate and the early history of complex multicellularity, with a particular focus on improving geochronological constraints on the rocks that record this critical interval of geological time.

Aggela Polymenis

PhD Student

Aggela is building a record of ooid sizes from Cenozoic lakes in the western US to assess whether the ooid size proxy, combined with an evaporative model of the geochemical evolution of water chemistry in closed basin lakes, can be used as a new approach to constrain the levels of CO2 in ancient atmospheres.

Ryan Flat

Post-Bacc Researcher

Ryan recently completed an honors thesis project investigating the mineralogy and paragenesis of microbialite clasts and ooids in sediment cores from Great Salt Lake. He has recently started a new research project developing carbonate mineral precipitation experiments.

ChemSedGroup Alumni (postdoc/grad)

Dr. Cedric Hagen: Postdoctoral Researcher (2023-2024), now research scientist at NEON
Jim Gutoski: PhD student (2022-2024)
Catherine Fontana: IQBio rotation (Fall 2022)
Taleen Mahseredjian: PhD student (2019-2020)
Ginny Wala: PhD student (2019)
Dr. Miquela Ingalls: Postdoctoral Researcher (2017-2018), now Assistant Professor, Penn State U

ChemSedGroup Alumni (undergrad)

Ryan Flat (B.A. CU Boulder, 2025) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Kate Drobnich (B.A. CU Boulder, 2024) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Amir Romly (B.A. CU Boulder, 2024) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Nicolas Bell (B.S. Carleton College, 2023) - Undergraduate Researcher (Carleton College honors thesis), Post-Bacc Researcher 2023-2024
Jim Gutoski (B.A. CU Boulder, 2021) - Undergraduate Researcher
Drew Brown (B.A. CU Boulder, 2020) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Tyler Lincoln (B.A. CU Boulder, 2020) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis (returned as a PhD student in 2021)
Sarah Jamison-Todd (B.A. CU Boulder, 2019) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Sophia Bridgers (B.A. CU Boulder, 2020) - Undergraduate Researcher
Chris Benben (B.A. CU Boulder, 2019) - Undergraduate Honors Thesis
Pim Maydhisudhiwongs (B.A. CU Boulder, 2020) - Undergraduate Independent Study, Fall 2018
Andrew Chan (B.S. Caltech, 2021) - Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow 2018 at CU Boulder, coadvised by Miquela Ingalls and Katie Snell
Lydia Kivrak (B.S. Caltech, 2019) - Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow 2017
Anusha Sinha (B.S. Caltech, 2016) - summer internship 2015