Recent Dissertation Topics

Andrea Goltz - McDonnell Center Fellow
Petrology, geochemistry, and experimental studies of mafic enclaves and amphibole at Shiveluch Volcano, Kamchatka, 2021, Advisor: Professor M. Krawczynski

Garv Chauhan 
Probing New Physics Beyond the Standard Model via New Neutrino Interactions, 2021, Advisor: Professor Dev

Zhen Tian 
Potassium Isotope Cosmochemistry, 2021, Advisor: Professor K. Wang

Kaushik Mitra 
Iron and Manganese Oxidation by Oxyhalogen Species: Implications for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction on Mars, 2021, Advisor: Professor Catalano

Madison Hughes
Landscape Evolution of Gale Crater: The role of water and wind at Mount Sharp, 2021, Advisor: Professor Arvidson

Nathan Walsh
SuperTIGER Elemental Abundances for the Charge Range 41 ≤ Z ≤ 56, 2020, Advisor: Professor Israel

Zachary Hughes
Toward an understanding of high-mass gamma-ray binaries: an investigation using current observatories and the development of a future GeV instrument, 2020, Advisor: Professor Buckley

Yicong Sui 
New Physics with Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos, 2020, Advisor: Professor Dev

Quincy Abarr - McDonnell Center Fellow
X-rays from Warped Black Hole Accretion Disks, 2020, Advisor: Professor H. Krawzcynski

Benjamin P. Groebe 
Flux Variability in Gamma-Ray Blazars, 2020, Advisor: Professor H. Krawczynski

Steven P. Harris 
Transport in Neutron Star Mergers, 2020, Advisor: Professor Alford

Scott Beeler – McDonnell Center Fellow
Controls on the Formation and Morphogenesis of Microbialites, 2019, Advisor: Professor Bradley

Michael Bouchard
Quantifying Lithochemical Diversity of Martial Materials Using Hierarchical Clustering and a Similarity Index for Classification, 2019, Advisor: Professor Jolliff

Roger Bryant – McDonnell Center Fellow
Environmental Controls on Sulfur Isotope Ratios in Sedimentary Sulfide Minerals, 2019, Advisor: Professor Fike

Brendan Haas
Correlated SEM, FIB, and TEM Studies of Material Collected by the NASA Stardust Spacecraft, 2019, Advisors: Professors Floss and Ogliore

Timothy Hahn, Jr.
Applications of Big Data Analytics in Planetary Science: Novel Methods for Investigation and Classification of Planetary Materials, 2019, Advisor: Professor Jolliff

Maneesh Jeyakumar
A Test of the Equivalence Principle using a Long-Period Torsion Balance, 2019, Advisor: Professor Cowsik

Augusto Medeiros Da Rosa
Adiabatic Dark Matter Density Cusps Around Supermassive Black Holes And Dark Matter Detection, 2019, Advisor: Professor Ferrer

Yiyang Zhang
Astrophysical Observables of Cosmic First Order Phase Transitions, 2019, Professor Ferrer

Banafsheh Beheshtipour
Simulation of black hole inner accretion disk-corona and optimization of the hard X-ray polarimeter, X-Calibur, 2018, Advisor: Professor H. Krawczynski 

Kathryn Powell 
Spectral and stratigraphic mapping of layered sulfate deposits on Mars using advanced CRISM data processing techniques, 2018, Advisor: Professor Arvidson 

Ecaterina Coman 
Effects of regolith properties on UV/VIS spectra and implications for lunar remote sensing, 2017, Advisor: Professor Jolliff 

Valerie Fox
Aqueous alteration of Endeavour and Gale Craters, Mars, using orbital remote sensing and rover-based measurements, 2017, Advisor: Professor Arvidson 

Josiah Benjamin Lewis 
Stellar and interstellar origins of meteoritic nanodiamonds, 2017, Advisors: Professors Ogliore and Floss 

Sarah (Valencia) North 
The Evolution of Igneous Rocks on the Moon: Insights from Lunar Meteorites and Apollo 12, 2017, Advisor: Professor Jolliff 

Michael Abercrombie
Development of a Long-Period Torsion Balance for Tests of Einstein's Equivalence Principle and a Search for Normal Mode Torsional Oscillations of the Earth, 2016, Advisor: Professor Cowsik

Rashied Baradaran Amini 
Modern assessment of the high-energy background environment at small atmospheric depths using the X-Calibur X-ray polarimeter and its implications, 2016, Advisor: Professor H. Krawczynski 

Avery Michael Archer 
Modern assessment of the high-energy background environment at small atmospheric depths using the X-Calibur X-ray polarimeter and its implications, 2016, Advisor: Professor Buckley 

Wenlei Chen 
Probing intergalactic magnetic fields from [gamma]-ray observations, 2016, Advisor: Professor Buckley 

Pierre Haenecour
Stardust in primitive astromaterials:  Insights into the building blocks and early history of the Solar System, 2016, Advisors: Professors Floss and Jolliff

Janie Katherine Hoormann 
Using simulations of black holes to study general relativity and the properties of inner accretion flow, 2016, Advisor: Professor H. Krawczynski 

Satyanarayana Kumar Mallavarapu
Superfluidity and vortices in dense quark matter, 2016, Advisor: Professor Alford

Wing Chi (Teresa) Wong 
Plate Tectonics Initiation on Earth-Like Planets: Insights from Numerical and Theoretical Analysis of Convection-Induced Lithospheric Failure, 2016, Advisor: Professor Solomatov