I am a paleoclimatologist, dendrochronologist, and earth systems geographer specializing in the reconstruction and analysis of climate variability and change over the Common Era and the interaction between past climate and human society.

My research uses an array of techniques to develop and interpret evidence for past, present, and future climate dynamics across a range of temporal and spatial scales, from local to global and interannual to millennial. These include dendroclimatology, climate field reconstruction and spatiotemporal data analysis, stable isotopes, proxy systems modeling, and the integration of paleoclimate data with General Circulation Modeling. 

I hold joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Global Change, and the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research.

Students in my lab work on a diverse set of projects related to climate and environmental variability and change across a range of temporal and spatial scales.   Possible thesis or disseration projects include:  paleoclimate reconstruction of past drought and temperature variability; integrating climate models and earth systems data to better understand how the ocean-atmosphere system works and how it is likely to change in the future; coupled human and natural systems, particularly in Asia and the Americas; improved statistical, proxy system, and climate modeling approaches for understanding climate dynamics and environmental change in the past, present, and future.

Current projects include:

1. Drought and precipitation reconstruction using tree rings from the mountains of Central America, a project combining dendrochronology and climate model analysis with a substantial fieldwork component.

2. Analysis of North Atlantic climate dynamics at timescales from annual to multicentennial, using tree-ring reconstructions of drought, spatiotemporal statistical analysis, and climate model simulations.

3. Reconstructing past temperatures and ocean-atmosphere variability in northwestern North America (Canada and Alaska) using a novel paleoclimate proxy.

4. Reconstructing temperature, drought, and tropical storm variability over the Late Holocene in northeastern North America using tree-rings from coastal New England.

5. Stable isotope dendroclimatology and isotope-enabled proxy system modeling of the Asian monsoon over the last millennium. 

6. Understanding the link between tree growth, climate, and remote-sensing estimates of productivity in the Mediterranean.

7. Reconstructing drought over the entire Mediterranean Basin.

8. Combining climate models with paleoclimate data in understand multidecadal drought dynamics in both Asia (Mongolia) and North America (California and the American West).

9. Developing water resource relevant hydroclimatic reconstructions for western North America with a focus on snow

10. Large-scale temperature reconstructions for the Northern Hemisphere for studying the response of the Earth's climate system to radiative forcing and magnitude and fingerprint of internal climate system variability.