I am a petrologist interested in the physical and chemical evolution of terrestrial bodies. I use thermodynamics, experiments, and field work to investigate how magma is generated and transported from depth and its fate as a rock exposed to surface processes. As part of the Grotzinger group I am working on the petrology of river sediments that are derived from basaltic terranes. The research is motivated by field results from the Mars Science Laboratory, which has encountered a diverse and complex suite of sediments that have a basaltic affinity. The aim is to study the petrology of different basaltic watersheds on the Earth and constrain which variables (e.g., igneous texture, watershed relief, grain size, climate) are the dominant controls of the chemical and mineralogical variabililty of sediments.