Our Team
Describe your team here.
Tanzhuo Liu is an expert on rock varnish, borehole geology, and recent climate change who has worked in the AGES lab since 2015. He is responsible for day-to-day operations on the Daisy VG 5400.
Sydney Maguire is a PhD student within the AGES lab at Columbia. Her work utilizes geochronology to measure the timing and rate of deformation along fault zones to better interpret fault zone evolutions. To better understand long-wavelength deformation along plate boundaries, Sydney is also interested in interpreting landscape evolution through the lens of tectonic geomorphology. Lastly, Sydney is passionate about working with undergraduate students and conducting geoscience outreach. Please send her an email if you want to connect!
Sydney earned her Master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023 and her Bachelor of Science from UC Santa Barbara in 2019.Stephen Cox is a postdoctoral research scientist in the NGL. His background is in geochronology and mass spectrometer development for terrestrial labs and spaceflight. At Lamont, he has led the development of new instrumentation and techniques while working on the history of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the Turkana Basin in Kenya, and projects in the western US. He is also interested in the field of enogeology, the intersection of agriculture, winemaking, geology, and climate.
Sidney Hemming is a professor and chair of the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She has led the AGES argon geochronology laboratory in the LDEO NGL since 1996. She is a historical geologist who uses the records in sediments and sedimentary rocks to document aspects of Earth’s history from deep time to recent climate change. She works in all parts of the Earth but Mono Lake in eastern California holds a special place in her heart.
Mike Kaplan is a research professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He mainly studies how glaciers, ice sheets, and climates behaved in the past and how they changed landscapes. He uses different
geologic dating tools to address a range of questions at varying timescales, to provide insight into pre-anthropogenic forcing mechanisms in the Earth system.Malka Machlus is an Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at LDEO and has been a long time collaborator in the AGES lab. She is a field geologist and stratigrapher with a keen interest in developing and applying high precision chronology techniques to understanding past environmental change. Her favorite field area is the Green River Formation, but she has broad interests in using sedimentary archives to understand past climate and tectonics.
Kelly Fenton-Samuels is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Her current research reconstructs ice-rafted debris flux and provenance to examine Antarctic Ice Sheet stability during the late Neogene and Quaternary. This work enhances our understanding of the Earth's climate system and informs predictions of sea-level change in a rapidly warming world. She aspires to use her geochemistry background to pursue a research career investigating paleoclimate through laboratory techniques.
Jenna Everard is a a PhD student in the AGES lab. They are fascinated by global fault zones and applying noble gas geochronology techniques to refine seismic histories and larger scale geologic evolutions. Using a variety of mineralogy and radiometric dating techniques, their research interests include the timing of slip along the central creeping section of the San Andreas Fault, the nature and timing of shallow tsunamigenic slip in the Japan Trench, and the timing and causes of Rio Grande Rifting and associated economic mineralization.
When they're not in the lab, you can find Jenna running countless laps around Central Park as they train for their next marathon or triathlon - while admiring the fantastic glacial striations, of course! As an avid outdoor adventure enthusiast, they also enjoy a good road trip and pursuing their amateur mineral collecting aspirations.
If you're interested in learning more about their work and/or getting involved in research, please don't hesitate to reach out!
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Allison M. Franzese is an assistant professor at CUNY Hostos Community College, where she teaches courses in chemistry and in the earth and environmental sciences. Her background is in isotope geology and paleoceanography. She is a geochemist who uses marine sediments to study past ocean and atmospheric circulation, with a special focus on the Agulhas Current and its Leakage south of Africa. She is also interested in the field of earth science education.