fall 2025: finding my group

Last fall, I started my undergraduate journey as a sophomore at Lake Superior State University. This college is known for having unique undergraduate research opportunities and the ability to work with faculty in a close-knit professional setting.

The takeaway for me in my first semester was to always “be open for opportunities”. Within my 2nd week on campus i was asked to join a senior research project for the 2025 AGU conference. I was lucky enough to meet two gentlemen working with Micro XRf on fossils of the Green River formation. My keen interest in paleontology allowed me to build taxonomic tables for the species studied and to learn more about XRf and diagenic processes of fossils.

Half way into the semester i was able to go on my first major field excursion around the Elliot Lake region of Ontario, Canada. My class was split into groups of 3 to collect data on 12 locations within the Elliot Lake syncline. The whole project taught me how to look at the Big picture of Geologic processes and how they can shape the geography, ecology, and economy of a region. The culmination of the project was a scientific seminar-style poster. The results are those of a student, but generally good practice for the real deal later in my academic career.

Magnetisms affects on field measurements

Fossil XRf Project under Shane Coykendall, Logan McQueen, and Nick Gordon