I am a geochemist/petrologist conducting research in the way minerals evolve in geobiological, geothermal and magmatic systems.  Currently, my main focus is on the interaction between microbes and common low-temperature minerals (clays), the effect of clays on bacteria and virus viability, and how microbe-mineral aggregates stabilize organic and inorganic metabolic products in aquatic and soil environments.   In my other research I use structural analysis of minerals to interpret the degree of low-grade metamorphism in geothermal clays.  In my high-temperature research, I focus on how mineral structure, chemistry and rock texture can be used to reconstruct the crystallization history of mafic intrusions and extrusive flows in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP).  Lastly, I am also involved in the development of cyberinfrastructure (geoinformatics portals and databases) as a collaborator in the IEDA Facility at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.