Ashok Rajendar -
I investigate the complex interactions between the solar wind and outer planet magnetic fields using sophisticated computer simulations. Planetary magnetospheres exhibit a wide variety of phenomena, thus functioning as natural laboratories in which we can investigate the behavior of magnetized plasma under different conditions. Understanding magnetospheric conditions is also vital to planning spacecraft missions, as high energy plasmas can pose a substantial radiation hazard. My thesis research focuses on understanding the global implications of the production and transport of new plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere. The presence of the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn provides us with valuable data with which to validate our results and develop our numerical tools.
Ashok completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University in 2006 and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2011.
Keaton Belli -
My research interests revolve around developing sustainable solutions for environmental problems by utilizing the symbiosis between humans and nature. In the Taillefert lab I study how we can use uranium-breathing bacteria to clean up uranium-contaminated groundwater at nuclear facilities. Cost-effective remediation strategies that address nuclear waste spills are necessary to ensure that nuclear power is a safe alternative to fossil fuels. My dissertation investigates the duality of uranium as both a toxic contaminant and an energy source for bacteria and the geochemical conditions that control the fate of uranium in the subsurface.
Keaton completed his B.S. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech in 2010 and recently received the Best Talk Award at the 2013 EAS Graduate Student Symposium. He currently serves on the steering committee for the Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium and is the founder and organizer of the Careers in Science seminar series. Outside of the lab, Keaton can be found throwing pottery, globetrotting, or rocking out to live music.
Jessica Moerman -
“My research focuses on discovering how tropical rainfall and atmospheric circulation patterns varied over the past two millennia. Since data from weather stations is only available for the last several decades, I use geologic archives like stalagmites to obtain information about Earth’s climate history. Stalagmites contain a record of past rainfall variability in the oxygen isotopic chemistry of their calcite layers. To better understand how oxygen isotopes reflect climate variability, I also conduct comparison studies between instrumental precipitation data and the oxygen isotopic chemistry of modern rainfall and cave dripwater. This research has taken me across the world to conduct fieldwork in places like Borneo and Papua New Guinea.”
Jessica graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Geology. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Cobb’s paleoclimate lab. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Georgia Institute of Technology President’s Fellowship, and the P.E.O. Scholar Award.
Photo credit Jerry Wallace
Chastity Aiken -
Chastity Aiken is currently pursuing a PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. Her research with advisor Zhigang Peng focuses on studying deep tectonic tremor, a subtle fault movement in the lower crust, and its interactions with damaging earthquakes. Her work includes identifying tremor sources that are triggered by seismic waves of a large, distant earthquake along strike-slip faults where tremor has not been previously observed. In 2012, she installed seismometers in Costa Rica that recorded a magnitude 7.6 earthquake. Her research has covered much of the Western Hemisphere and has been published in international journals such as Nature Geoscience and Geophysical Research Letters. She has won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, as well as an ARCS Foundation Scholarship. In her spare time, she volunteers for Trees Atlanta, tutors high school students in physics and math, and engages in rock climbing.