Rhiannon Nolan
Ph.D. Student
Year entered program: 2021
Department: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Mentor: Corinne Myers, Ph.D.
Interests: Sedimentology/Stratigraphy/Paleoclimate/PaleontologyRhiannon Nolan was born and raised in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Her family loves museums and once spent Easter break in Washington DC for the express purpose of going to as many of the Smithsonian museums they could visit in a week. However, what she remembers from the trip is that the National Museum of American History didn't have the iconic ruby red slippers Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
Nolan received a degree in Geosciences from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She did her undergraduate thesis work in paleontology with Dr. Sara Pruss, studying the extinction of lower Cambrian archaeocyathan sponges in the southwestern United States. During a semester abroad, Nolan worked with Dr. Jonathan Davidson at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, using drone mapping to measure the slip effects observed in landslides before vs. after a tropical storm. After college, she spent two years as a postgraduate associate at Yale University, working with Dr. Noah Planavsky and Dr. Lidya Tarhan on a variety of geochemical and paleontological projects, including collecting and analyzing estuarine sediment cores to study bioturbation intensity in modern anoxic environments and reducing LA-ICP-MS data of Ediacaran arenites to study cementation using Ge-Si ratios.
Nolan is currently working on a master's project with Assistant Professor Corinne Myers at the University of New Mexico, applying the Niche Center Hypothesis to paleoecological abundances of marine bivalves across the Pleistocene through modern.
Department: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Mentor: Corinne Myers, Ph.D.
Interests: Sedimentology/Stratigraphy/Paleoclimate/Paleontology
Bio
Nolan received a degree in Geosciences from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She did her undergraduate thesis work in paleontology with Dr. Sara Pruss, studying the extinction of lower Cambrian archaeocyathan sponges in the southwestern United States. During a semester abroad, Nolan worked with Dr. Jonathan Davidson at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, using drone mapping to measure the slip effects observed in landslides before vs. after a tropical storm. After college, she spent two years as a postgraduate associate at Yale University, working with Dr. Noah Planavsky and Dr. Lidya Tarhan on a variety of geochemical and paleontological projects, including collecting and analyzing estuarine sediment cores to study bioturbation intensity in modern anoxic environments and reducing LA-ICP-MS data of Ediacaran arenites to study cementation using Ge-Si ratios.
Nolan is currently working on a master's project with Assistant Professor Corinne Myers at the University of New Mexico, applying the Niche Center Hypothesis to paleoecological abundances of marine bivalves across the Pleistocene through modern.
