2022 Participants

 

Andrew Bierbower

Andrew is from Galveston, Texas, studying Geoscience with a concentration in Geochemistry at the University of Houston-Downtown. He will be working with Jonathon Ajo-Franklin, Alan Levander, and Fenglin Niu over the summer in the Seismology and Earthquake Physics REU group. When not at local coffee shops battling his caffeine addiction, Andrew likes to bake fresh loaves of bread and find the best shady spots in Houston’s local parks. His favorite rock type is chalcopyrite.

Gabrielle Burke

Gabi (she/they) is from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and is currently majoring in Geology with a minor in Mathematics at Tennessee Technological University. During the summer REU, she will be working in Dr. Mark Torres’s lab studying the presence of weathered silicates in water samples and the relationship to carbon sequestration. In their spare time, they enjoy collecting rocks, hiking on local trails, and discussing theories related to the space-time continuum. She also has a passion for artistic expression and enjoys playing creation-based video games and drawing as much as possible.

 

Vincenzo De Vita Sifonte

Vincenzo, or Enzo, is originally from Venezuela and has been living in Katy, Texas for 7 years. He is pursuing a career in the engineering field with and interest to minor in geophysics. During the 2022 summer REU he will be working in a geophysics cluster with Dr. Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, Dr. Alan Levander, and Dr. Fenglin Niu to develop a code to autocorrelates ambient noise and seismic data that will determine the location of natural resources with respect to Earth’s layers. During his free time, Enzo enjoys game and movie marathon nights. His favorite rock is gneiss.

 

Yamini Patel

Yamini Patel is a senior at Arizona State University majoring in Earth and Space Exploration (Geological Sciences). She has a love for volcanoes and planetary geology and hopes to become a volcanologist one day. In the REU program she will be working in Dr. Rajdeep Dasgupta and with Dr. Vincent Clesi on hydrous mantle melting on Mars. Outside of school, she likes to hike and explore the Arizona outdoors as well as to read and spend time with friends. Her favorite rocks are pumice and blue schist.
 

Evan Ritchey

Evan is from Knoxville, Tennessee and is a student at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga majoring in Geology and minoring in Chemistry. During his time at RICE, Evan will be working in Prof. Richard Gordon’s lab assisting with a paleomagnetic study analyzing ~67 million years old magnetic anomalies recorded by oceanic crust to determine if the Earth reoriented relative to its axis of rotation during the Cretaceous Period. When he isn’t working, Evan likes sport climbing, hiking, and reading (his favorite books being the Lord of the Rings series). He is also skilled at playing Appalachian style banjo.

 

Stephanie Suniga

Stephanie Suniga is from Houston, Texas and is majoring in Physics with a Premedical-Physics concentration and a minor in Chemistry at Texas Southern University in Houston TX. She’s excited to have been chosen to participate in this summer’s Rice PHOST REU and to be working in Dr. Mark Torres’s lab. She is also studying for the MCAT in her downtime and will take the exam in early September this year. In her free time, she likes to spend time with her family and friends, play video games, and catch up on her Netflix shows.

 

Daniel Walker

Daniel is a student at LoneStar Community College in Houston,Texas and is transferring to Baylor University in Fall 2022. At Baylor, he wants to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. While working with MATLAB this summer, he will be cross-correlating seismic data found by different types of sensors and will be testing for their effectiveness in picking up ambient noise. For this REU, his mentors will be Drs. Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, Fenglin Niu, and Alan Levander. Daniel likes to read books, study Japanese, and workout whenever he can.