People | noiselab

Dr. Morgan Reed Raven

Assistant Professor

Morgan is an organic geochemist and geobiologist. After finishing her PhD at Caltech in 2016, she worked as an Agouron Geobiology Fellow at Washington U. in St Louis before joining the UC Santa Barbara Earth Science faculty in July 2018.

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Dr. Aaron Martinez

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Aaron is an organic geochemist and geobiologist exploring ocean-based CDR techniques. He completed a PhD in Geosciences at UC Riverside working on ancient paleoenvironments and mass extinctions, then did a postdoc stint at Rutgers in tidal river biogeochemistry. In his free time, he can usually be found drinking a cup of tea in the garden, wondering which vegetables to grow.

Dr. Natalya Evans

Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Talia is a postdoc in the NOISE lab investigating the anoxic degradation of terrestrial biomass as a potential carbon sequestration method. She is interested in evaluating the microbial processes, fate, and byproducts released from this sequestration method, as well as its feasibility, environmental impacts, and climate justice implications. She has a PhD in chemical oceanography from USC, where she researched nitrogen, iron, and iodine cycling in both the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zone and coastal Oregon waters, and a BS in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College. When not plumbing gas lines, she’s probably playing pickup sports or in the ocean.

Lena Capece

PhD Student

Website: https://lena-capece.weebly.com

Lena (she/hers) joined the NOISE lab in September 2019. She is interested in learning about sulfur cycling, carbon storage and microbial-mediated preservation of organic matter in low-oxygen environments such as coastal vegetative habitats and oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Lena holds a M.S. in Geology from UC Davis where she worked with Dr. Tessa Hill to investigate the sources of organic matter to seagrass sediments in estuaries in California using bulk sediment geochemistry. She received her B.A. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University (CT) in 2016. Lena can usually be found outside climbing, running or hiking.

Molly Crotteau

PhD Student

Molly (she/hers) joined the NOISE Lab in September 2021. She studies sulfur cycling and organic matter sulfurization in low-oxygen zones, such as Santa Barbara Basin, and in sinking marine particles. Her research aims to better understand the microenvironments in which organic matter sulfurization can occur, which has applications to determining the magnitude of the effect of organic matter sulfurization on carbon burial. She received her B.S. in Geochemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering from Caltech in 2021. In her free time, you can find Molly running, swimming, or baking.

Marianna Karagiannis

Ph.D Student

Marianna (she/hers) joined the NOISE lab in September 2022. She is interested in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies, organic matter preservation, and using stable isotopes to track chemical cycling in the ocean. Marianna graduated from the University of Chicago in 2021 with a BS in Geophysical Sciences and Environmental Science, and spent one year as a research assistant studying the biological carbon pump at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Outside of research, she loves mushroom foraging, baking, and dancing.

Katrina Doyle-Jacobsen

Undergraduate Researcher

Katrina Doyle-Jacobson (she/her) joined the NOISE lab in Summer 2023. She is pursuing a B.S. in Earth Sciences at UCSB. Her research involves working to understand the morphology of pyrite rods in the Monterey Formation, as well as assisting in the carbon sequestration project. In the future she hopes to further her education and learn more about the world and how it works. In her free time, she enjoys baking, watching T.V., and reading.

Avery Leppones

Undergraduate Researcher

Avery (she/her) joined the NOISE Lab in April 2023. She is a third year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Earth Science with an emphasis in Climate and Environment. Currently she works alongside Lena Capece to better understand the role of organic matter composition in the sulfurization potential of blue carbon biomass using experimental methods in the laboratory and field. She hopes to continue to learn more about these research methods for studying mechanisms of carbon dioxide storage to conduct her own independent research project. Avery enjoys spending her free time outside and can be found running, hiking, or reading at the beach.

Jordan Fishburn

Undergraduate Researcher

Jordan (he/his) is a first year undergraduate student who joined the NOISE Lab in April 2022. He is currently pursuing a degree in Chemistry within the College of Creative Studies. His research involves studying sulfur cycling and organic matter sulfurization in low-oxygen zones. His hope is to learn more about research methods for carbon sequestration so he can create an independent project of his own. When time permits, he enjoys watching baseball games, playing spikeball, and trying new food.