I cover a myriad of on the ground responsibilities including stewardship of the the wilderness, visitor communication and services, expansion our volunteer program and maintenance of the facilities. A typical day can find me deep in the woods with a chainsaw as part of our fire management strategy, or expounding on the history and value of a meadow to a crew of volunteers pulling invasives or it might mean a day of emails, phone calls and meetings with a contractor. I live on-site at the preserve and so I am also the primary contact in a crisis. If you'd like the visit the Preserve please reach out! I am always happy to show people around!

I was asked to produce a research paper at comparable level to a graduate thesis in terms of research quality and scientific value, differing only in the availability of money and time in which it was to be completed. The research I pursued attempted to pinpoint the location within the crystal lattice of serpentine that was favored by arsenic substitutions. The experiment synthesized minerals in the laboratory under a matrix of conditions, then subjected the products to a battery of tests to determine the nature of the most common forms of arsenic substitution. Through this project I acquired a variety of technical skills and also invaluable experience creating and testing methodologies, deeply pursuing and applying academic research, and communicating with clarity the often absurdly abstruse details that pervaded this project, in person and in print.

My responsibility was to prepare samples for analysis in a wide variety of experiments. The procedures I was asked to preform changed rapidly and dramatically and I was regularly expected to learn a completely new set of skills and then implement them safely and with a scientific level of precision. This work required tremendous adaptability and reliability.

I worked directly with Dr. Matt Golombek, MER Project Scientist and the leading expert on Martian landing site analysis, developing a set of data mapping and analysis methods focused on "inescapable hazards" for the Mars 2020 mission. Our methods used HiRISE and CTX imaging to identify a set of hazardous dune phenotypes and to develop photoclinometry maps which were combined, mapped and analyzed for overall risk to the landing craft. These methods are now being used to inform the landing site selection process for the Mars 2020 mission and will be used by the rover during its landing sequence and hopefully will offer a starting point for all future martian hazard mapping efforts.

I was brought on to design and run a special research project which aimed to compare the Exploratorium's development goals and progress with the efforts of similar US institutions. The research involved scouring data from tax forms, self-published information, as well as interviews over the phone and email and a specially designed electronic survey.