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People
Principle Investigator
William Leavitt
Assistant Professor of Earth Science
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Chemistry
william.d.leavitt at dartmouth.edu or wil.leavitt at dartmouth.edu
Dartmouth Faculty Profile (see for latest C.V.)
Google Scholar (see for latest publications)
Post-doctoral Scholars
Jeemin Rhim
Dartmouth Society of Fellows post-doctoral fellow
Ph.D., Geobiology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020
Google Scholar
Graduate Students
B.A., Biology, Bates College.
M.S., Marine Science, UT Austin
I am a Ph.D. student studying H-isotope fractionation in archaea. My interests include biogeochemistry, stable isotopes, and polar regions.
Carolynn (Carrie) Harris
Ph.D. student 2020 - present
Jiawen Li
Ph.D. student 2021 - present
B.S., Peking University
M.S., University of California, Los Angeles
I am interested in using isotope signatures, especially tools like clumped isotopes, to resolve the provenance of methane gases. My goal is to combine lab incubation and modeling to understand the mechanism of clumped isotope fractionation in methanogenesis and methane oxidation. My research are mainly in the field of biogeochemistry, stable isotope and clumped isotopes.
Josie Benson
M.S. student 2021-present,
co-advised with Sarah Slotznick
Undergraduate Students
Rowan Gregoire '23
Research assistant, Earth Sci. Major
thesis advisor: B. Keller
Amanda Calhoun '23
Sr. Thesis Student, Earth Sciences
I am a senior interested in microbial biomarker production and its implications for the co-evolution of Earth and life, as well as astrobiology. I am working on a thesis to constrain the origin of the unique archaeal lipid, crenarchaeol, through analyses of lipid distributions and geochemical parameters in Yellowstone hot spring environments.
Abigail (Gale) Shepherd '23
Research Assistant, Sr. Project, English and Earth Science major.
I am a senior growing halophilic archaeal lipids to see whether their hydrogen isotope ratios can be used as a climate proxy for life billions of years ago both on Earth and wherever else we find evidence of life.
Whitney Thomas '24
Research assistant, Biology Major
co-advised with O. Zhaxybayeva
I am a junior majoring in Biology and minoring in Public Policy with an interest in ecological genetics. Currently, I am researching the influence of temperature on protein expression and clumped isotope fractionation in methanotrophic bacteria.
Olivia Pendas '25
Research assistant, Earth Sci. Major
Gone, but not forgotten:
Vinitra Nathan, Masters Candidate 2021-22, now Feng lab, Dartmouth College.
Beverly Chiu, Lab Manager & Research Assistant 2017-22, moved to Sr. Rsrch Assoc. at C16 Biosciences, Inc.
Laura Blum, M.Sc. '22, now staff at New England Biolabs
Öykü Mete '22, Sr. thesis student, Earth Sciences, moved on to PhD at Harvard Univ. in Earth & Planetary Sci.
Lucy Langenberg '22, Sr. thesis student, Earth Sciences.
Alison Piasecki, Staff Scientist 2020-21, now staff scientist at NOAA/CIRES
Carter Boyd '21, Sr. thesis student, Earth Sciences.
Theo Green '21, Undergraduate researcher, moved on to PhD at Princeton Univ.
Sophie Cho '24, WISP undergrad intern
Crystal Igwe '24, WISP undergrad intern
Emily Masuda '24, WISP undergrad intern
Maddy Spivak '24, WISP undergrad intern
Katherine Takoudes '24, WISP undergrad intern
Alan Hicking, Visiting undergraduate, Keene State
Alec Cobban '19, Sr. thesis student Bio, postgraduate research assistant 2019-20,
Maria Trevino '23, WISP undergrad intern
Yujiao Zhang, visiting Ph.D. student 2020, Chinese Academy of Science, now in science policy
Lina Taenzer, M.Sc. 2019, moved on to PhD at MIT/WHOI in Chemical Oceanography
Alice Zhou, M.Sc. 2019, moved on to PhD at Univ. Michigan in Earth Sci.
Cameron Buxton '19, undergraduate research assistant
Janel Gaube '18, Chemistry senior thesis student, moved on to Parsons Inc.
Emma Rieb '18, Earth Sci. sr. thesis student, moved on to PhD at Univ. Michigan in Earth Sci.
Melanie Prakash '21, WISP undergrad intern
Fiona Harrigian, Visiting undergraduate from Wellesley College; moved on to MSc at Bowling Green Univ.
Jason Tor, Visiting faculty Hampshire College; moved to Integrated Science Lab Director W.M Keck Science Department
Jennifer Howley, Lab Manager; moved to New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Service
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