Prof. Ryan Thigpen (Group Director)

I am drawn to understand fundamental structural, tectonic, and geodynamic processes and their associated linkages. To do this, I investigate complex structural, thermal, and dynamic evolution from both forward and inverse approaches. I apply these techniques to a range of problems, including classic structural/tectonic problems, studies of critical mineral genesis, active tectonics and earthquake hazards, geomechanical and basin analysis studies, holistic characterization of orogenic wedge evolution, surface process, and even studies that include climate and flood hazards. Our group is cuurently supported by multiple grants from multiple NSF programs, the American Chemical Society, USGS, and the Natiional Park Service. I am also an avid rock climber and mountaineer, a skillset that is critical in many of the areas that we work.

Summer Brown (Lecturer)

Summer has a B.S. and M.S. in Geosciences from Virginia Tech. She also worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation surveying hazardous landslide and rockfall sites. Her M.S. work focused on the uplift history of the Teton Range and this project has become a major part of our research group. Although she works as a Lecturer in the department, Summer remains heavily involved in both the research and training components of our group’s research. She is also a professional photographer and is responsible for much of the media we produce. 

Sarah Johnson (Ph.D. 2022, currently Lecturer)

Sarah completed a Ph.D. at UK that was co-advised by Ryan Thigpen. Sarah’s Ph.D. work with our group involved an integrating remote sensing and geophysical data to understand the various contributions of rivers and glaciers to erosion of Teton Range. Sarah’s other interests lie at the nexus of landslides, remote sensing, geological engineering, and hazard mitigation. She is currently a lecturer in the department but she remains heavily involved with many of our ongoing research projects. Along with Summer Brown, she is also a key mentor for the younger researchers in our group.

Meredith Swallom (M.S. 2019, currently Ph.D. student)

Meredith joined the Structure and Geodynamics team in August 2017, after securing her B.S. in Geological Sciences from UK. Having been drawn to the geoscience because of her love of the outdoors, Meredith decided that her research should include more high-impact field projects. Her M.S. and part of her Ph.D. research focused on the Teton Range, but her recent move to a full-time position at the Kentucky Geological Survey while completing her Ph.D., led her to start new projects focused on landslide hazards and flood modeling in Kentucky.

Ryan Goldsby (Ph.D. student)

Ryan came to UK to work on the greater Tetons through both NSF and USGS-EDMAP sponsored grants, but he became involved in many other projects during his time here, including working on parts of our salt tectonics and geomechanics projects in the Paradox Basin, UT, and the Lusitania Basin along the coast of Portugal, both funded by the ACS-PRF program. Ryan is a talented field mapper, and has recently accepted a USGS Pathways position to continue his mapping in the northern Appalachians.

Sarah Morse (Ph.D. student)

Sarah joined our group after completing an M.S. at the University of Arkansas focused on structural and metamorphic petrology of the Picurus Mountains in Colorado. As part of our group, Sarah is continuing her hunt for metamorphic phase equilibria and rare earth phosphate minerals in the Northern Highland terrane of northwest Scotland, where she hopes to contribute to the long-standing challenge of unraveling the complex metamorphic history of that region.

Terri Zach (M.S. student)

Terri joined us from the incredible Geology undergraduate program at the College of William and Mary. As a kid, Terri collected rocks constantly but never thought a career could come this. She sees Earth as one giant puzzle that reveals an incredible, complex story, with geologic mapping plays an essential role in helping us understand and write about our world’s epic history through space and time. Terri will be continuing our group’s efforts to map the northern Tetons as part of our ongoing USGS EDMAP partnership.

Riley Grove (Undergraduate researcher)

Riley joined our group in Summer 2023 to work with M.S. student Terri Zach and Ph.D. student Ryan Goldsby on the northern Tetons mapping project. Riley also has a emerging talent in GIS analysis and she is using these tools to help us with our greater Tetons work, supported by NSF and USGS-EDMAP.

John Thomas “J.T.” Gribbins (Undergraduate researcher)

J.T. joined our in Fall 2023 and will be doing research focused on critical mineral genesis and distribution in the southern Appalachians. This work emphasizes a very real societal problem of critical mineral evaluation in the United States, but it is a primary outgrowth of our ongoing work to understand the fundamental metamorphic and tectonic processes at play during continent-continent collisions. As an aspiring teacher, J.T. is also has a double major in Education, in addition to his B.S. in Geology.

Morgan Garrity (Undergraduate researcher)

Morgan Garrity joined our in Fall 2023 and will be doing research focused rare earth element composition of REE-bearing phosphate minerals that we use for geochronology of metamorphic assemblages. Morgan’s work will emphasize samples from the southern Appalachians, Scotland, and potentially the Himalayas and Pakistan. Morgan is a talented early career chemist, with a double major in Chemistry and other research projects in Materials Science, however we will keep doing our best to keep her on our geochemistry “dark” side.

Bianca Salinas (Undergraduate researcher)

Bianca also joined our group in Fall 2023 and like J.T. and Morgan she will be carrying out research in geochronology, metamorphism, and critical mineral genesis, with an emphasis on our southern Appalachian work. Bianca is also a double major in Spanish. Although Bianca is still trying to decide which facet of geology interests her the most, she has been assured that its OK to be excited about all of it.

Callia Cortese (M.S. 2023)

Callia joined our group in Summer 2021 from the geology program at Appalachian State. Callia’s M.S. work emphasized lakewide mapping of earthquake deposits in Jackson Lake, adjacent to the active Teton fault. In addition to providing potentially the most comprehensive Teton earthquake record to date, Callia’s work was critical for helping our team target the recent Jackson Lake long core. Callia is currently a Project Geologist at Olson Enginneering in Denver, CO.

Elisha Miller (B.S. 2022)

Elisha originally joined our group in 2020 to work on thermochronology in the Teton Range, but it was on a Teton field season in 2021 that Elisha fell in love with lake studies and coring. During that season, Elisha worked closely with our collaborators Mike McGlue and his grad student John Dilworth to collect a multiple long cores in Moran Bay, the first of our groups long coring efforts. After that, he was hooked, and he is now pursing an M.S. and eventually a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma and working on new lake projects in east Africa.

Madison Preece (B.S. 2022)

Madison…

Alexandra Arimes (B.S. 2022)

Alex Arimes wanted a career as a professional geologic mapper and to springboard that training she joined our group to work with Ph.D. student Ryan Goldsby in the northern Tetons in support of our going work funded by the USGS EDMAP Program. Alex spent a month in Wyoming working with Ryan Thigpen and Ryan Goldsby and after finishing her B.S. degree in our department, she has moved on to another cool mapping project at the South Dakota School of Mines.

Brandon Spencer (Ph.D. 2022)

Brandon was the first Ph.D. student to join our group. As a non-traditional student, he was an excellent mentor to the younger students. His work was mostly focused the decay and collapse phases of orogenesis, which we traditionally know very little about. Much of his researched emphasized characterizing the rates and mechanisms of “quickly” collapsing orogens like the Scottish Caledonides or the orogens that never seem to decay, like the Appalachians. Brandon is now the Field Camp Director and a Teaching Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University.

Gillian Clark (B.S. 2022)

Gillian worked with Ph.D. student Brandon Spencer on understanding the distribution of tectonic stress surrounding large faults by using the incredible natural laboratory of the Brevard fault zone in the southern Appalachians. Gillian also joined us for geophysical surveys and field mapping in the Teton Range, and despite being a bit hesitant about working in the mountains, she really hit her groove there. After finishing at UK, Gillian has moved on to a mapping focused M.S. project at the South Dakota School of Mines, working in Alaska.

Stephanie Sparks (M.S. 2022)

Stephanie joined our research group in July 2016 after completing dual Engineering and Material Science B.S. degrees at Virginia Tech and spending time in the DOE Office of Science. She was very interested in collisional tectonics, and her M.S. work focused on coupling between erosion and tectonics in the frontal Himalayan system. Stephanie is now a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University, working with Prof. Kip Hodges on new problems in Himalayan orogenesis.

Bill Swanger (M.S. 2021)

Bill came to us from James Madison University and decided to focus geomechanics and salt tectonics in the Paradox Basin, UT, as part of our ongoing work sponsored by the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund. Bill’ M.S. work centered around developing predictive techniques for subseismic deformation surrounding salt in geologically young basins. Bill is currently employed as a Mapping Geologist at the Virginia Department of Energy.

Nick Powell (M.S. 2021)

Nick joined our group from Appalachian State University and he arrived with heaps of training in structural and metamorphic petrology. We put his training to work in the southern Appalachians, where Nick worked on deciphering the “footprints” of the different metamorphic events using monazite and xenotime LASS geochronology coupled with metamorphic phase equilibria modeling. Nick is also a prolific musician and has played symphony oboe. He is currently a Geologist working in the USGS Bascom Ar/Ar Lab in Reston.

Autumn Helfrich (M.S. 2020)

Autumn made the leap from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania to join our group and work on thermal and flexural modeling of the Teton Range. In addition to her modeling work, which was critical for our larger Teton project, she played key roles in fieldwork around the American west. She was a GIS wizard and also had a natural knack for interacting with students and helping us build community in our early major field fundamentals courses. Following multiple Geoscientist-In-Parks positions in Yosemite and Denali, Autumn is now a Physical Scientist at the USGS in Golden, CO.

Spencer Dixon (B.S. 2020)

B.S. student Dixon joined our group as undergraduate researcher working on our greater Teton project, with an emphasis on the low-T thermochronology component of that work. Spencer clearly had a knack for field and labwork and he quickly evolved to a role of training new undergraduate and graduate students in mineral separation techniques. Following completion of his degree, Spencer moved on to a M.S. degree at Montana State University, where he is now working with Prof. Devon Orme in the TEST Lab, where he will continue his thermochronology training.

Rachel Hoar (M.S. 2018)

Rachel has the dubious (infamous?) distinction of being the first student to graduate from our group. Rachel worked in the Teton Range and used low-T thermochronology of range transects to further refine the uplift age and magnitude of the Teton Range, helping us move toward our larger goal of understanding Teton fault evolution. Following completion of her M.S., she spent two years at Texas A&M but ultimately decided that she needed to be back in the Tetons full-time. She made the leap to the Teton Science School and now to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, where she inspires us to never let anything stand in the way of what you are chasing.