Recent Ph.D. Grads Hired as Faculty

The Earth & Environmental sciences department is proud to have such an accomplished student body. There is no shortage of awards, honors, and financial support given to our students for their excellence during their time here. We are also proud that their high achievement continues after they graduate. We prepare our undergrads for a number of different futures. Many go on to exciting careers in the earth sciences, or environmental geosciences. Many also pursue academic or professional graduate degrees. Our graduate students also enter into the geoscience workforce or into academia, as researchers, postdocs, or faculty. We are always proud to hear where our talented students land, and enjoy staying in the loop with our alumni as they enter the next chapters of their lives.

Recently, we have had a number of impressive and accomplished Ph.D. students defend, then immediately go on to faculty positions at universities across the country. In fact, in the last year, we have had 5 students line up faculty positions either before defending or immediately following. Hannah Blatchford, Clem Hamelin, Jabari Jones, Maddy Nyblade, and Jennifer Taylor have been brought on as new faculty in geoscience departments across the US. This is impressive because many of these folks were up against candidates with more experience under their belts: postdocs, researchers, or people who already had faculty offers or positions. For them to succeed in their respective searches says a lot about who these students are and the importance and impressiveness of the work they do. Below are brief profiles on these accomplished alumni and what they’re up to in their new roles.

Hannah Blatchford (Summer '22)
Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University

"The geology program at Eastern Michigan University grants bachelors degrees to students hailing primarily from SE Michigan. I teach undergraduate courses in mineralogy, structural geology, igneous/metamorphic petrology, and field methods. I am working to get research started to characterize the deformation recorded in and around Archean gneiss domes of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The U.P. has a great amount of Archean and Precambrian rocks that could stand to be investigated using modern approaches in metamorphic geology, and the proximity to EMU makes the area very well-suited for undergraduate research projects."

Maddy Nyblade (Fall '23)
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, associated faculty member with the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

In her new position, Maddy will continue building relationships and research collaborations with Indigenous Nations across the Great Lakes to support tribal sovereignty and water justice. She is excited to get involved in SUNY ESF's Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and their relationships with the Haudenosaunee Nations around the Syracuse and New York area. She will be starting up a lab with graduate students, as well as teaching courses in Environmental Geosciences, Native Peoples and the Environment, and a graduate seminar in Community-Driven Science Methods.

Clem Hamelin (Summer '22)
Assistant professor, William & Mary

"The overarching goal of my research is to investigate the conditions (pressure, temperature) and timing of metamorphism, deformation, and physicochemical processes involved in the transformation of the Earth’s lithosphere, with a focus on the deep crust. Using multi-scale analytical methods and approaches from the metamorphic petrology, structural geology, tectonics, geochronology, isotope geology, and rock magnetism communities, I explore the relationships and feedbacks between metamorphism and deformation from the field- to the sub-micron scale. My work focuses on developing new ways to access and read the record of metamorphism at maximum depth (peak-pressure) in chemically and mechanically refractory rocks and minerals. My research includes field sites in France, central Australia, New York State, and utilizes sample collections from around the world."

Jabari Jones (Summer '23)
Assistant Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science, Bowdoin college

"My research is centered around the complex role of humans as a geologic agent on Earth. I am interested in how rivers change through time, ranging from individual flood events to centuries. At Bowdoin, I’m excited to develop local projects in New England focused on stream restoration, dam removal, and the effects of climate change and sea level rise. I am also interested in environmental justice – how environmental benefits and harms are distributed among different groups of people, and what processes lead to that distribution. I am currently investigating this issue through a project examining the geographic siting of stream restoration projects.

Finally, I am interested in how institutions promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. I address this in my teaching, in research about student activism, and by engaging in community science – where people outside of traditional scientific institutions (government, universities) are empowered to ask and answer scientific questions."

Jennifer Taylor (Summer '23)
Assistant Professor, University of Tennesee, chattanooga

Thesis Title: Exhumation on the Micro to Regional Scale: Case Studies from Central Idaho, USA, and West Antarctica
Thesis advisor(s): Christian Teyssier & Donna Whitney