Geochemistry, geology, education in a digital world

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How science made me believe in Santa Claus

5 minute read

Published:

These days, I bounce ideas often with James Adams, an anthropologist who is also a postdoctoral researcher in the CLIMATE Justice Initiative. He has motivated me to read more of non-Latour authors about the topic of scales and Earth. Real growth since the last time I talked about Latour! Recently, our conversation has turned to information and the Internet. Our conversation reminded me about a secret that I have held for decades, but I am ready to come clean: Science made me believe in Santa Claus. Okay, let me explain.

Excel vs. IgPet. An informal geochemistry plotting showdown

14 minute read

Published:

Note from present day Thi (February 2024): This software/data narrative about my dissertation work was written in 2022 just a few months before I completely switched over to using R. Fascinating stuff.

Thoughts from reading Bruno Latour

2 minute read

Published:

I was recently encouraged to check out the book Science in Action, by a geoscience educator friend of mine. By happenstance, I stumbled upon a forum where Bruno Latour’s work non-human agency was referenced in relation to anthropomorphizing COVID. I usually don’t expect old philosophers’ writing to be immediately relevant in the year 2022, but in fact, Bruno Latour has been quite active, writing, speaking, and exploring new fields, all while emeritus. And it turns out Latour has picked up an interest in the Earth Sciences. In fact, he’s collaborated with geologists to propose an expansion of work on the Critical Zone. I was surprised to find on his website, several articles and lecture transcripts going back to at least 2016 about this topic.

Introducing myself

1 minute read

Published:

Hi, my name is Thi. I am pursuing a doctorate in Geology. I seek to understand processes occurring in Earth’s interior, in the present-day, and ideally, the past. I have found that academic blogs in geology tend to fall into one of these categories….

portfolio

publications

The trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope geochemistry of Juan Fernandez lavas reveal variable contributions from a high-3He/4He mantle plume

Published in Chemical Geology, 2018

Research about the enigmatic and heterogeneous mantle source of the Juan Fernandez Islands, SE Chile. Evidence of a well-mixed, but heterogeneous plume at Juan Fernández Islands. Lava samples from this small island group near Chile have puzzled geochemists since the 1980s. In the 1980s-early 1990s, mantle geochemists were beginning to construct the flavors of mantle endmembers that might be sampled by oceanic islands. Juan Fernández lavas exhibited an uncommon range of high and low-3He/4He signatures. Yet, they displayed near-constant 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotopes. Solving for two possible mixing components with high and low 3He/4He but unchanging Sr-Nd isotopes was not possible.

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talks

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.

Teaching experience 2

Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.