I am interested in understanding the impact of anthropogenic activities on the seismic hazards that they might pose for infrastructure and loss of lives. There are a number of human related subsurface activities that might induce earthquakes, such as wastewater disposal, CO2 storage, oil and gas production and the impoundment of large reservoirs.... Read more about Josimar Alves da Silva
Yu Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow. His research has focused on developing new theories and parameterizations of turbulence in the atmospheric boundary...
Post-Doctoral Fellow Perez-Mercader Lab, Rowland Institute
Thomas Draper completed both his BSc and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK, focusing on catalysis and air-sensitive inorganic synthesis, with Professor Robin Bedford. He earned his PhD jointly under Dr John Turner and Dr Qiao Chen, at the University of Sussex, UK in 2016. His PhD, situated at the inorganic/physical border, involved air-sensitive organometallic synthesis, small molecule activation, heterogeneous photocatalysis, and nanotechnology. Afterwards he worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate under Professor Andrew Adamatzky at UWE Bristol, UK for 2.5 years, studying the creation, optimisation, and use in unconventional computing, of liquid marbles. He joined Dr Juan Pérez-Mercader’s group as a Post-doctoral Fellow in November 2019 on the “Top-down Synthesis of an Ex-novo Chemical Artificial Living System” project.
I’m interested in connections between the geologic and biospheric carbon cycles. Specifically, my work aims to understand how processes occurring in river basins transfer carbon between these two cycles in order to regulate atmospheric CO2 concentrations over geologic timescales. To do so, I combine a suite of isotope geochemistry techniques (including compound-specific isotope measurements and novel reaction monitoring methods) with inverse models, satellite products, and geospatial analysis. My current projects include analysis of multi-year time-series samples from the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Congo Rivers, high-frequency samples from mountainous rivers in Taiwan, isotope analysis of bacteriohopanepolyols in continental shelf sediments, and development of the Ramped PyrOx radiocarbon instrument. I'm additionally working on reconstructing the mechanisms that control Cenozoic CO2 variability using inverse modeling methods.
Post-Doctoral Associate Perez-Mercader Lab, Rowland Institute
Yuandu Hu studied in Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan China and earned his PhD in June 2013, majoring in Polymer Chemistry and Physics. He focused mainly on the fabrication of functional soft materials (e.g. shape controllable microgels and stimulus-responsive photonic crystal microparticles) by combining microfluidic techniques and self-assembly of colloidal particles together. Prior to joining the Perez-Mercader group in September 2014, he spent one year in the University of Notre Dame in Indiana as a postdoctoral research associate. His work at Notre Dame dealt mainly with the fabrication of Janus microgel particles and self-propelling materials to mimic mircoorganisms' motion behavior.
Ding Ma received his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. Advised by Prof.ZhimingKuang, his dissertation research investigated three dominant patterns of large-scale atmospheric variability, namely the South Asian monsoon, Madden-Julian Oscillation and the annular mode.Beforemoving back to Harvard, he was an Earth Institute Fellow at Columbia University, where he was working with Prof. Adam Sobel to explore extreme weather associated with large-scale variability. His work emphasizes a combination of observational analysis andnumerical modeling. Guided by observations, numerical experiments are designed and conducted to pursue a better theoretical understanding of the large-scale atmospheric variability in the past, present and future. The main goal of his work is to identify essentialphysical mechanisms governing the large-scale circulation variability.... Read more about Ding Ma
I am a postdoctoral scholar interested in a wide range of subjects mainly related to large-scale atmospheric dynamics. My current primary project is...
Before joining the Knoll Group, Drew received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Geosciences from Virginia Tech. As a paleontologist and geobiologist, his work focuses on fossils of complex eukaryotes in the late Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic interval (~1000-450 Ma) of the geologic record. By studying the paleobiology and paleoenvironments of these fossils, his work aims to understand the rise of animal life and its impact on the Earth system.
Post-Doctoral Fellow Perez-Mercader Lab, Rowland Institute
Dr. Samuel Pearce is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Perez-Mercader group. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Bristol, UK in February 2019 under the supervision of Professor Ian Manners. His graduate studies focused on the synthesis of uniform 1D and 2D block copolymer nanostructures using solution-based self-assembly protocols. He then moved to Harvard University in November 2019. Samuel’s research interests broadly encompass innovative synthetic approaches involving materials chemistry and self-assembly, with a view for their application in fields such as nanoscience and origins of life research. His current research focuses on the development of adaptive polymerization-induced self-assembly systems, with the aim to construct artificial cell-like structures capable of responding spontaneously to changes in their environment.
My research focuses on the transfer of water and energy in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Currently, I am investigating water stress in agricultural systems to better constrain estimates of crop yields in future climates. I am keen on using observational data from a variety of platforms including satellites, weather stations, and eddy covariance towers to model the interactions between the land and atmosphere.
