Ph.D. Committees
Student Research
Undergraduate Students
Dr. Connolly mentors undergraduates through a variety of venues. In particular, the Research Experience for Undergraduates, funded by NSF to CUNY and AMNH has been of great success. This program lasts 8 weeks in the summer and brings together students from all over the country for a unique experience of research focused projects at the AMNH. Dr. Connolly has mentored the following students:
Summer:
2006
Devin Schrader
Devin produced an abstract of his research for the 2009 Lunar and Planetary Science conference and later a referred paper from this research. Please visit his website for information.
2008
Jacque Beard
co-mentored with Prof. M. K. Wesiberg
2009
Stuart A. Sweeney Smith
Marsha Allen
Zeng Fang
Stuart produced two abstracts for the Lunar and Planetary Science conference in 2010 and Marsha produced one. Their research focused on the petrographic characterization of CAIs. From Stuart's research, two new minerals have also been discovered! Zeng is currently finishing his research on the characterization of a CAI and expects to produce an abstract from his research for the 2011 Lunar and Planetary Science conference.
Current Graduate Students
Devin Schrader is my Ph. D. student whom I co-mentor with Dr. Dante S. Lauretta and he is a member of the Nine Circle Cosmochemistry group as is Dr. Connolly, at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. Devin's research focuses on the petrographic and geochemical characterization of primitive planetary materials, specifically CR2 chondrites. The key aspect of his research is constraining the origin and evolution of planetary materials and the processes that occurred in the earliest time period of the Solar System through a full characterization of opaque, silicates, and oxide minerals within CR2 and defining the petrology of their components. Devin has numerous awards, grants, and publications. For more, please click on the image to find his webpage.
John Wolbeck is my Ph. D. student at The Graduate Center of CUNY. He started in the fall of 2009 and will be researching the origin of the Earth-Moon system by combining astrophysical-based modeling with the petrology, geochemistry, and isotope geochemistry of the Earth-Moon system. He has written one abstract on his research that was presented at the 73rd annual Meteoritical Society meeting in NYC.