Epithet Assignment

Epithet Assignment

Rock Licker

I’m just a couple classes (including this one) from graduating with a degree in geology. This means that I’ve spent more time than most people thinking about rocks, fiddling with rocks, and yes, sometimes licking rocks (it’s a legit thing!). The research I’ve been helping with recently is focused on hazards related to tectonics, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Since I grew up in Utah, which has world-class geology, and along the Wasatch front, which is due for and also very unprepared for a major earthquake, in hindsight it seems pretty understandable that my interests have evolved this way. I want to help create a world where the people living in hazardous places understand those hazards and take the right preventative actions to mitigate them.

Lover of Exploration

I love going new places and trying new experiences. I’m always up for an adventure, whether it’s digging for trilobites in Utah’s west desert  or digging for tsunami deposits in east Indonesia. Even food can be an adventure - there’s not many food “genres” that I don’t enjoy. One of my favorite regions to hike around in is the red rock of southern Utah, and I love to scuba dive when I get the chance to. I really think that opportunities for personal growth should be taken up whenever possible, even if the experience is uncomfortable, out of the way, or difficult.

Tinkerer

From a distance a lot of my hobbies seem to be all over the board, but they often have an underlying theme of figuring out a process. As an example, one of the more unusual ones is that I breed ornamental freshwater shrimp (on a very small scale). I also grow aquatic plants in the same tanks, so the whole thing involves finding a balance where the plants can grow, the sensitive shrimp have a stable and appropriate environment for breeding, and other issues like algae outbreaks are minimized. I have to understand everything in these tiny ecosystems from the chemical properties of the substrate to the biological effects of macro and micronutrients on the plants and animals. My tanks are all small, so there’s very little room for error, and while that means I screw up a lot, it’s really satisfying to make tweaks in my process and overcome problems to reach a balance in the environment.

Snuggler of Cats

Much to my mom’s dismay, a feral cat gave birth to kittens in our family backyard when I was a kid. I had never been allowed to have a cat or dog (again, mom hated pets), so I immediately fell in love with them and slowly got them to learn to trust me. I’ve been a cat lady ever since, and 12 years later, I still go to my parents’ house regularly to give them love and snuggles. Luckily they’re only a short drive away; I don’t know how I’d survive if they were states away like many students’ pets are. I’ll always stop to say hi to a cat on the street no matter where I am, and at parties you’ll find me in the corner chilling with the host’s kitty.