Current Researchers

Meet our Students of Micropaleontology!

Graduate Researchers

William Clark

• 4th-year PhD candidate
• National Alumni Association Graduate Fellowship

• IODP Nannofossil Paleontologist (Expedition 397 to the Iberian Margin)

I earned my master’s degree in Earth Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in July 2018. I spent 2019 as a visiting student/researcher at the University of Vienna, in Austria. I then started my PhD research at the University of Alabama with Dr. Totten in August 2020.

My research centers on quantitative and biostratigraphic analysis of calcareous nannofossil assemblages. I am interested in stratigraphic correlation, stable isotope analysis, paleoecological, oceanographic and environmental reconstruction of marine systems. My dissertation will involve an investigation of the Oligocene-Miocene evolution of the Caribbean Sea using IODP cores. I also sailed with IODP in 2022 to the Iberian Margin and will be working on those samples too!

Here I am giving a tutorial on nannofossil preparation techniques!

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Marianne Heberlein

• 1st-year PhD student
• Graduate Research Council Fellowship, GRO Award winner 2024

• NSF-THOR graduate student

I completed my BS. and professional degree in Geology at Universidad de Chile in 2024 and started my PhD research with Dr. Totten in August that same year.

My research centers in understanding the paleoenvironmental, paleoecological and oceanographic changes in both Antarctica and Patagonia. To do this, I use stable isotope geochemistry, foraminifera and diatom abundance and assemblages, sedimentology and geophysics.

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Jacob Helgeson

• 1st-year Masters student

• NSF-THOR graduate student

I completed my BS in Marine Science- Biology at UA in 2024. I worked in Dr. Totten’s lab counting over 15,000 diatom (microscopic algae) valves that were living in the seawater offshore the Dotson and Getz ice shelves in Antarctica (collected by the scientific party of Nathaniel B Palmer 22-02 cruise). I am now starting a Masters looking at hydrothermal influences on both diatom and benthic populations offshore Antarctica.

I sailed with the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor(too) cruise in September 2024, and I can’t wait to keep exploring the biology of the ocean as a career!

Undergraduate Researchers

Colton Byrne

• Sophomore Geology and Chemistry double major

• Undergraduate Research Conference Poster Award Winner 2024

I am working in Dr. Totten’s lab on sediment samples from the western Amundsen Sea Embayment, offshore Antarctica. My research is focused on reconstructing past oceanographic changes from foraminiferal assemblages and stable isotopes. I recently participated in the Undergraduate Summer School 2024 at Texas A&M University for Marine Geology.

I love thinking about how we can use geochemistry to study the earth.

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Abby Geiser

• Senior Geology major

I just started working in Dr. Totten’s lab on sediment samples from Southern Chile (Patagonia). I am interested in how organic carbon production changes with volcanic inputs to the marine environment.

I came to geology from a nursing background, and I love my major! I plan to pursue a career in exploration geology.

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Luke Skaff

• Senior Geology major, accelerated Masters of Science in Business Analytics

• Outstanding Senior in Geology

• Intern for Partlow Associates

I am excited to start working on samples from Patagonia and Antarctica. I am really excited about proxies that can be used to reconstruct environments and understand drivers of past climate change.

Here I am with the sedimentology and stratigraphy class exploring the Pottsville Formation in Tuscaloosa. (I’m the one in front.)

Graduate Alumni

Tyler Wood

• Alumnus (graduated with MS, May 2023)
• 2020-2021 Vice President, UA AAPG Chapter
• USGS EDMAP Student

I earned my Masters’s degree at UA after completing my BS at University of Houston. For my Master’s thesis, I mapped the K/T boundary in the Coatopa Quadrangle, Alabama as the first UA student to work with the USGS Edmap program. I also used foraminiferal biostratigraphy in my mapping.

The data from my thesis project will be used to aid the Geological Survey of Alabama in their development of a statewide watershed map.

Here I am at Moscow Landing along the Tom Bigbee River, next to the K-Pg boundary!

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Kyle Olsen

• Alumnus (graduated with MS, August 2020)
• Graduate Council Fellow

I earned my Master’s degree in the Dept. of Geological Sciences at The University of Alabama, working on paleoenvironments of the Norphlet Formation in Escambia County, Alabama. I earned my BS from Texas A&M in 2016.

Here I am measuring the gamma response of a Jurassic-age carbonate deposit from South Alabama (from a rock core collected ~15,000 feet below the surface)! I am now working for an environmental company in Mobile, AL.

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Lauren Parker

• Alumna (graduated with MS, December 2019)
• UA National Alumni Association Fellow
• Vice President, UA Geology Club
• UA Outstanding Senior Award in Geological Sciences, 2015

I graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor’s of Science in Geology in 2015, Cum Laude and Honors College, with minors in Mechanical Engineering and Astronomy. I started my Master’s degree in Geology at the University of Alabama in 2017, joining Dr. Totten’s research group. For my thesis, I analyzed grain size, stable isotopes, and diatoms in Weeks Bay, AL, in order to study flood events and eutrophication patterns during the Holocene.  The analysis of long-term environmental changes is used to assess paleo-flood frequency and coupled human impacts on coastal estuaries.

I am now working for an environmental company in Maryland, and enjoying lots of fieldwork!

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Leah Travis Taylor

• Alumna (graduated with MS, August 2019)
• UA McNair Fellow
• UA National Alumni Association Fellow
• UA Outstanding Senior Award in Geological Sciences, 2017

I am from Alexander City, Alabama. I received my Associate of Science from Southern Union State CC (2015) and a BS in Geology from the University of Alabama (2017). I just finished my MS in Geology at UA with a specialty in Paleontology and Paleoclimatology. My thesis work with Dr. Totten investigates the paleobiology of Clidastes mosasaurs, which were common swimming reptiles in the Mississippi Embayment of the Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous. I analyzed isotopes in their teeth to reconstruct habitat preferences. I am now working on my PhD with Dr. Martin Medina at UMass-Amherst on Holocene paleoclimate of the Caribbean from cave records!

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Adlai Fonseca

• Alumnus (graduated with MS August, 2019)

I recently finished my Master’s degree in the Dept. of Geological Sciences at The University of Alabama, in which I reconstructed sea ice and glacial history of Collins Bay, Antarctica through sedimentology, stable isotopes, and diatom assemblages in offshore sediment cores. Through this study, we hope to understand how glaciers have responded over the last 12,000 years to climatic and oceanographic variations in the western Antarctic Peninsula. Here I am counting diatoms from Antarctica, and dreaming of developing computer programs to help me do it!

Undergraduate Alumni

• Senior in Marine Science Biology

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Gabi Barnes

• Junior in Geology, UA Emerging Scholar

I worked on picking foraminifera from offshore Mississippi as part of the BOEM-funded project. I also analyzed grain size from seafloor samples from Antarctica.

Here I am running some samples on the Bettersize Laser Particle Size Analyzer!

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Trudie Murphy

• Senior in Geology, minor in Evolutionary Studies; Outstanding Rising Junior in Geology

I studied the living population of foraminifera from the seabed offshore Antarctica (in the Amundsen Sea). It is exciting to observe the living organisms to help us understand fossil assemblages! I’m from Tennessee and have been collecting fossils since I was a kid.

I am now working in the Alabama Museum of Natural History!

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Maddie Cherry

• Marine Science Biology BS, 2022

Ro Smyth

• Environmental Science BS, minor in GIS, 2021

Will Farris

• Marine Science Biology BS, 2022

Sasha Epps

• Geology BS, 2022

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Emma Tegert

• 2020 Outstanding Rising Junior, 2021 Outstanding Rising Senior, Graduated with BS 2022

I am fascinated by foraminifera and have been picking their tiny shells (tests) to help the Antarctic THOR research team. I also worked in the Alabama Stable Isotope Lab.

Here I am picking forams for radiocarbon dating!

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Robert Michael Comas

• Alumnus (graduated with BS in Environmental Science, May 2020)

I worked on marine sediment cores offshore the Abbot Ice Shelf, Antarctica for my independent research project during my senior year at UA. I got so hooked that I have now joined Dr. Julia Wellner at the University of Houston to continue working on glacial history of the Amundsen Sea for my PhD!

Here I am picking foraminifera from offshore the Abbot Ice Shelf!

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Joel Sobrado

• Alumnus (graduated with BSG, December 2019)
• US Army (ret.)

I studied past nutrient flux from carbon and nitrogen isotopes in Mobile Bay, AL as part of my independent research work in Geological Sciences. This will help us understand past conditions of Mobile Bay before European settlement, so that we can understand the natural state of the bay and help restoration efforts. I am now working for an environmental company in Arizona.

Here I am sampling a core from Mobile Bay!

Former Students

Victoria Rios Fitzgerald

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

After a career in the Army (2009-2015), I returned to graduate school to pursue a career in the geosciences, starting at KState Geology. I came to work with Dr. Totten at Alabama in January 2019 and quickly embarked on a 2-month research expedition to study Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica as part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration Thwaites Offshore Research Team. Here I am in front of Thwaites Glacier!

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Asmara Lehrmann

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow
• UA Graduate Research Council Fellow

I worked with the Thwaites Offshore Research Team as part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration funded by NSF & NERC. I used foraminifera microfossil assemblages to reconstruct past changes in the ocean seaward of Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica.

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