Aniket Dhar is a fourth-year PhD student broadly interested in using geochemistry and mineralogy in carbonate archives, such as cave calcite formations (speleothems/stalagmites), to reconstruct past and observed climatic trends. His current research focuses on reconstructing late Quaternary shifts in southern Indian hydroclimate using speleothem geochemistry. Aniket is interested in understanding the kinetics of calcite precipitation and dissolution in karst systems, and the chemical exchange during the growth of speleothems, using mineralogy and the trace-element (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca) composition of stalagmites.

Email: aniketdhar@arizona.edu

Alexandra is a second-year Ph.D. student at the Department of Geosciences, after completing her M.S. here from 2023–2025, working on benthic foraminiferal proxies. She is originally from upstate New York and received her BS degree in Atmospheric Science from SUNY Albany. Currently, Alexandra works with stable isotope measurements on foraminifera to reconstruct past climate regimes and variability.

Research Interests: Paleoclimate/Paleoceanography, Stable Isotope Geochemistry, ENSO and other large-scale climate dynamics

Email: aokeefe@arizona.edu

Originally from Northern Virginia, Amanda is a first-year M.S. student who joined Dr. Thirumalai’s Paleo² Lab in the Fall of 2024. Previously, she earned her BA in Earth and Climate Sciences from Middlebury College. Amanda is broadly interested in what foraminiferal proxies like Mg/Ca ratios and stable isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) can reveal about past ocean and climate conditions.

Email: amanoogian@arizona.edu

Ammoose is a third-year Ph.D. Scholar from the Central University of Kerala, India. She joined Dr. Thirumalai's Lab in Fall 2022 as a Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellow. Her doctoral research mainly focuses on the paleoceanographic investigations of sediments from the Bay of Bengal using planktic foraminifera as a proxy. At the University of Arizona, she will be working on the fate of the East India Coastal Current (EICC) during the Holocene Epoch and H1 event, correlating with excessively strong and weak phases of ISM variability.

Email: ammooseakj1@gmail.com

Natalia is a Ph.D. student at the University of Vigo, advised by Drs. Gianluca Marino & Kaustubh Thirumalai. Natalia is interested in modeling the impacts of bioturbation on foraminiferal datasets, individual foraminiferal analyses, and ocean-atmosphere dynamics of the tropical Indian Ocean.

Email: nbienzobasmontavez@gmail.com