Paleobotany, terrestrial paleoclimate, terrestrial paleoecology, plant evolution, plant ecophysiology - Investigate Triassic/Jurassic terrestrial paleoclimate through fossil plant remains. 1) I am collaborating on a joint International Continental Drilling Project (ICDP) - NSF proposal to drill a core in Triassic/Jurassic sediments in Utah (Colorado Plateau Coring Project). My part is investigating palynology changes, as well as mapping outcrops for fossil plants in the area. 2) Funded proposal from the Pennsylvania Geological Survey to investigate the Triassic/Jurassic of the Gettysburg Basin. My contribution is to conduct vegetation analyses. 3) Am planning on getting access to and applying for funding to investigate previously cored segments of the Hartford Basin, that also span the Triassic/Jurassic.
- Developed methodology for paleoclimate analysis on fossil plant assemblages using modern species distribution modeling. I frequently collaborate with international groups applying this methodology. I'm planning on perfecting it further and provide undergraduate research projects interested in modeling/mapping to investigate specific problems on this topic.
- Plant ecophysiology of the poorly understood east African mesic savannah ecosystems. Secured funding for a pilot study last year, and currently, in collaboration with researchers in the USA and Kenya, working on funding for more field studies.
- Evolution of Zealandia biomes and climates. This is a continued fruitful collaboration with researchers from New Zealand and Australia. Funding comes internally from the New Zealand Geological Survey, although we have applied for a Royal Society Te Apārangi Research Fund.

The first year classes at UConn that I have responsibility for, the main goal is to draw in students that are often majoring in other, non-science disciplines, or are undecided. My goals therefore are to 1) Use the study topic to introduce non-science students to the basics of scientific thinking, in a sense to make them scientifically literate, and 2) to introduce students to the broad topic of Geoscience, and to expose students to the broad scope and relevance of the Geosciences; something that often gets overlooked.
For non-science students, "science" often seems like an opaque system, but dictates part of your life. I would argue that a resistance to science, something that is often on full display in politics and the media, is a misunderstanding of the scientific process, and ultimately a failing of the education system. A wall that I often run into with students is that they have often not been taught to think about processes, deductive reasoning and testing, but rather have been taught to memorize a set of facts in order to get a high grade. The format of my classes is therefore designed to train the students how to apply what they have learned in novel scenarios, and to introduce them to scientific habits of mind: basic statistics and probability, experimental design, feedbacks, sense of scale, and graph reading. In an increasingly online world, I also think it is important that students are aware of the access and breadth of data that is accessible. In a sense, in order to open their eyes to the fact that if a scientific claim is made by a politician or in the media, that the data exists to test that claim. For example, I had students analyze climate data from a location of their choice, to test if there was an upward temperature trend, and then showed their collectively assembled data in class. For the fall semester, I'm also planning on having small graded "look-up" essays, in which I give them a prompt in class, and they have 5 - 10 minutes to look up information on that prompt and write a short response. The goal of this is to reinforce that information is more easily accessible then ever, if you know what to search for.

Geosciences as a discipline often gets viewed as a niche science, with little applicability to the real world. It is everything but that, and through Natural Disasters (something that affects everyone in an emotional manner) and Dinosaurs (something that many people have a childhood fascination with) I attempt to show first year students that, actually, everything you know is connected to Geosciences. Additionally, Geoscience is a hands-on science, which is why even in a lecture room setting I introduce students to small in-class experiments, in the form of demonstrations or group activities. For example, I used little cups of sand that were either saturated or dry, to demonstrate liquefaction when the students shook the cups. During the lockdown, I made videos of myself simulating landslides using basic kitchen goods, such as flower and breadcrumbs, pointing out important elements contributing to landslides such as erosion or water content of the soil. It is easy to tell that the students enjoy learning in this way, as it is easy to tell from quiz questions that they tend to get many questions correct when I used hands-on examples such as these. I plan to continue developing such examples. earth systems science, plant science, surface geography, evolutionary biology