Dr. Tripti Bhattacharya – Principal Investigator
Dr. Bhattacharya received her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Her current work focuses on midlatitude circulations in past warm climates, Earth system feedbacks, and hydroclimate dynamics. She is a Sloan Foundation Fellow, Kavli Fellow, and has won an NSF CAREER Award. She is an associate professor, and holds a Thonis Family Professorship
Dr. Meghan Spoth-Ascencao
Meghan focuses on midlatitude climate dynamics with sedimentary-derived climate proxies. Current projects pair biomarker stable isotopes with pollen assemblage records to better understand links between paleoecology and abrupt climate change. Meghan received her PhD in 2025 from University of Maine and joined us as a postdoctoral scholar in July 2025.
Dr. Jared Nirenberg
Jared is a postdoc in the Paleoclimate Dyanamics Lab, coming to SU after finishing his PhD at Brown University. His work focuses on high-latitude climate and oceanography during the past warm climates of the Neogene. He uses biomarkers in marine sediment cores to reconstruct ocean temperatures, terrestrial hydroclimate, and ice sheet dynamics.
Allie Thompson – PhD Candidate
Allie received her Masters at Western Washington University, and is a PhD candidate. She is developing Last Interglacial (Eemian) records of hydroclimate, fire, and vegetation from western North America.
Tyler Logie – PhD Candidate
Tyler is an organic geochemist working on applying isotopes to questions of deep time carbon cycling, as well as Cretaceous hydroclimate. He is co-advised with Chris Junium.
Steph Bullinger – Laboratory Manager
Steph Bullinger received her MS from Georgia Tech, and began her position in the lab in April 2022. She is a wizard with our hydrogen gas generator as well as the DI water system, and continually applies her industry experience with gas chromatography. Simply put, nothing in the lab would work without her.
Christopher Paradis – Undergraduate Researcher
Chris is a major in Earth and Environmental Sciences and is working on his senior thesis, focusing on Eocene deposits from the Gulf Coast.
Heidi Atkins – Undergraduate Researcher
Heidi is an Earth and Environmental Sciences major, and is presenting a poster on her compound-specific isotopic analyses at SU EES Symposium in April 2026. She plans to graduate this year.
Daria Gerzetich – Undergraduate Researcher
Daria is a junior in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and is a participant in SU’s SOURCE program. She enjoys combining her love of physics and Earth science.
Former Members
Dr. David Fastovich – Postdoctoral Researcher, current Assistant Prof at University of Georgia
Dr. David Fastovich received his PhD in August 2022 from University of Wisconsin Madison, and held a postdoctoral position from August 2022 – June 2025. He is interested in proxy reconstruction, abrupt climate change, and the interface between paleoecology and paleoclimatology in diverse settings, including eastern USA. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia. Check out his website here:
Dr. Peter R. Brennan – PhD, current Fellow at US Geological Survey
Peter received his BS from Boston College in Environmental Geosciences in 2017. For his PhD, Peter focused on understanding the causes of high SSTs along the coast of North America in the mid-Pliocene, and the consequences of these temperatures for hydroclimate. He is currently a Climate Data Science Fellow at the US Geological Survey
Dr. Claire Rubbelke – PhD, current Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Notre Dame
Claire received a triple major in geology, geography, and atmospheric and oceanic sciences from UW Madison in 2020. She completed her PhD in May 2025, focusing on Plio-Pleistocene records of hydroclimate from South Africa. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of Notre Dame
Dr. Tiffany Napier – Research Scientist, currently at Geological Society of America
Dr. Tiffany Napier works on high resolution biomarker records of marine heat waves, upwelling, and drought in the Pacific Ocean. She pioneered new techniques to analyze seasonal and subseasonal processes in high-resolution sediment cores. Dr. Napier receives her PhD in 2017 from the University of Michigan, and completed a three-year postdoctoral position at MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany. She is currently an Administrative Coordinator at the Geological Society of America
Kia Lynn Riccio, grad student, SU Archaeology
Kia is a graduate student in archaeology. She spent time in our lab using organic geochemical techniques to analyze ceramic residues to understand dietary changes in the Caribbean and Central America in archaeological contexts
Lucy Weisbeck – Undergraduate Researcher, current research technician at Cornell
Lucy received her BS degree at SUNY ESF. She worked in several labs on topics ranging from fish conservation to geochemistry, and is passionate about environmental conservation. She is currently a research technician at Cornell Biological Field Station
Ellen Jorgensen – Undergraduate Researcher, current PhD Candidate at Brown University
Ellen was an undergraduate researcher who did an honors thesis in the lab. She received a BS in Earth Sciences with distinction, along with a minor in Physics, in Spring 2023. She was a NOAA Hollings Scholar and Goldwater Scholar. She is current pursuing a PhD at Brown University