Aquatic Organic Geochemistry » Students

New Faces in the Lab

rickkeil — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:30:58 +0000

Chloe Anderson, Amanda Hacking and Kelsey Powers

AOG is proud to have recruitted three new undergraduates to work on SoundCitizen research. Welcome to Amanda Hacking and Chloe Anderson, both in their second year as Oceanography majors. Welcome back to Kelsey Powers, who was our summer intern in 2008. Thanks for (re) joining the team!

Kelsey McDuffee – MS Degree Recipient

rickkeil — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:39:56 +0000

Congratulations to Miss Kelsey McDuffee, who successfully defended her Masters Degree in Oceanography on July 9, 2009. Kelsey’s thesis “A 100 year sedimentary record of the contributions of marine, plant and soil organic matter to an anoxic fjord” provides a new level of understanding for both the geochemical processing of lignin and etherlipids in marine environments, but also establishes the first climate record based on marine records of terrestrial proxies on Vancouver Island BC.

Kelsey will spend the rest of the summer finishing up her MS manuscript and working on her PCC Certificiate in Climate Change Science.

For a slide shopw of Kelsey during her time with us, follow the link for more…

Graduation 2009!

rickkeil — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:55:10 +0000

Graduation Day 2009 was sunny and splendid. Everyone enjoyed themselves except for Rick who wept constantly at the loss of his latest batch of kids. Forever growing up and leaving the UW nest…

On the left: In keeping with Cambridge tradition, which we learned about from our dean Arthur Nowell, new alumni Ali, Tricia and Britta hold one finger of their mentor Rick as they enter UW’s Husky Stadium for the conferral of their degrees…

Follow the link below for more pictures (on two pages).

Download the hi-res versions as a single zip file (75mb)

Blast from the Past

rickkeil — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:31:17 +0000

Rick had the pleasure of meeting up with Dr. Dan Donato, class of 1997 and former AOG member, for dinner and beers. Dan is transitioning from his PhD at Oregon State University to a new postdoctoral appointment with the US Forest Service. You may remember Dan from such amazing AOG events as the FirstFriday debacle of November 1994 or the infamous trip to the sugarcane fields of Brasil in 1995, but he is perhaps best known as the lead author of the Biscuit Fire Paper of 2006 where he (gasp!) used science to refute a Bush administration policy. There is even a wiki page about the Biscuit Fire Publication Controversy. We stand beside Dan and wish him the best of luck has he travels the rim of fire quantifying carbon storage in tropical mangrove systems. Rick asked if his former helper needed a helper, but it looks as if Rick is staying put in cold and soggy Seattle for a while longer…

Clayoquot Cruise a Success

rickkeil — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:30 +0000

[[Show as slideshow]]

images from leg 1: Rick, Cheryl, Kelsey P, Christine, Julie, Mitch, Miles, Shayma and Ray

Sixteen days at sea aboard the RV Barnes. Maybe that is a little too long. Thanks from Rick to Miles, Cheryl, Kelsey, Kelsey, Julie, Mitch, Christine, Brandon, Esther, Shayma and Ray for making the cruise a success. All our samples were collected, the experiment went well, and we collected many water, particle and sediment samples for analysis back in the lab.

[[Show as slideshow]]

Images from leg 2: Rick. Miles, Kelsey M, Brandon, Esther, Shayma and Ray

Graduation Day 2008

rickkeil — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 05:13:43 +0000

We had a wonderfully fun UW graduation day. The morning ceremony was very nice, the food excellent, and the company fun. The UW event in Husky Stadium was also fun – especially leading our seniors (oops- I mean our new alumni) into the stadium to a crowd of cheering loved ones. Check out the photos by following the ‘read more’ link and you can click here to download the video…

Lab Group Shrinks and Grows

rickkeil — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:18:50 +0000

Brandon in Glacier Bay

With the sad departure of Jon in March and now Kailey-Kimberly, the lab group has shrunk to a critically small size. Fortunately, we are also growing this summer. Welcome to Liana Meireles-Singh, Brandon Knox, Brittany Kimball, Christina Biladeau and Kelsey Powers, all of whom will be joining the research group for the summer. Liana is a 2007 alum, the next first three newbies are Oceanography majors about to graduate and Kelsey is a Chemistry major (ocean minor) inbetween her second and third years.

What will all the newbies be doing? It will be an exciting summer.

Liana will be creating the sediment archive and helping collect rainwater samples.
Brandon Knox will be analyzing previously collected samples for their lignin content with Kelsey McDuffee.
Kelsey Powers will be analyzing food products for their spice concentrations and beginning development of urban field sampling protocols.
Christina Biladeau will be processing sediment samples for mineral surface area and XPS.
Brittany Kimball will be analyzing existing and new samples on the GC-MS in order to evaluate the presence of trace organic contaminants in local waters.

Rick ‘discovers’ his halfling student Christina

rickkeil — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:33:57 +0000

Late Friday afternoon during Oceanography Happy Hour, Rick and Christina discovered that they not only share responsibilities for the sediment trapping on the upcoming senior undergraduate thesis research trip to Glacier Bay Alaska, but they also share a birthday and nearly a birth hour. Turns out that Rick is almost exactly twice as old as newly 22-yr old Christina. Viva la March 2… Happy birthday to Dr. Suess, who was also born on that wonderful day and would be 104 if he were still alive.

Rick has taken calling Christina ‘the halfling’. Christina is plotting her revenge. You can read about the senior thesis class at the blog: http://courses.washington.edu/ocean444

Dr. Jon Nuwer – newly minted PhD

Rick Keil — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:02:09 +0000

Congratulations to Jon Nuwer, who successfully defended his PhD on Friday February 8th. Jon now joins the ranks of UW AOG alumni that include distinguished individuals such as Fred Prahl, Stuart Wakeham, Brian Bergamaschi, Greg Cowie, Thorarinn Arnarson, Jeff Abell, Brook Nunn and Anthony Aufdenkampe. Jon departs the UW AOG group in March 2008 to take up new challenges at SAIC Inc.