Our group
Brandt GIBSOn
I am a PhD student in the Darroch Lab working on the taphonomy and paleoecology of the Ediacara biota. I use tools such as decay experiments, computational fluid dynamics, and computed tomography ('CT') to better constrain what these enigmatic organisms may have been doing and how they were preserved.
KatheRINE TURK
Kat graduated with a bachelor’s degree in geology from the College of William and Mary, where she wrote a thesis on morphological variation in Triassic insects from Virginia. Before coming to Vanderbilt, she spent two years as a collections assistant at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Her research interests include mass extinctions, Precambrian life, and 3D modeling and printing fossils.
ALI CRIBB
I am a senior undergraduate interested in the evolution of biogeochemical cycles from a deep-time ecosystem engineering perspective. I am currently completing my honors thesis on quantifying bioturbation using trace fossils from the Nama Group as a way to understand the extinction of the Ediacara biota. As of Fall 2018, I will be a full time PhD student at the University of Southern California.
BRYCE KOESTER
I am a senior undergraduate at Vanderbilt University majoring in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and minoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Spanish. Currently, I am completing my thesis investigating how foraminifera mutation frequencies and community diversity are related to heavy metal concentrations on San Salvador Island in The Bahamas. After graduating, I will be pursuing a science policy career, starting with an internship at the American Geosciences Institute in Washington, DC.
BEATRICE RODEWALD
I'm an undergraduate at Vanderbilt studying Earth and Environmental Sciences until 2020. Currently, I'm working on Ediacaran-Cambrian trace fossils from Death Valley, using point counting techniques to assess bioturbation of the samples. Who would've thought tiny marks on 550 million year old rocks could be so cool?!
HANNAH SALAVERRY
I'm an undergraduate student of Earth & Environmental Sciences and Child Studies. I usesvideo game development software to design and build models of Ediacaran organisms in order to better understand how they might have interacted with their environments, particularly in the area of fluid dynamics. I also work on scanning and segmenting fossil samples to get a glimpse of their internal structures.
BETH PETRAS
I am an undergraduate Earth and Environmental Sciences and Political Science major at Vanderbilt University. Currently, I am working on scanning Ediacaran fossils in the lab using the microCT facility, and segmenting out preserved structures.