Current Members

  • Riley Weed

    Riley is a junior Geoscience and Economics double major. She is currently working on a project that combined careful petrography with thermodynamic modeling and geochronological data to unravel the polymetamorphic history of the Manhattan Schist spanning Manhattan to Connecticut. Her hobbies are crafting, reading, and playing bass/writing music for her excellent band Drawing Cats (check them out on Spotify!). Her favorite mineral is quartz, and her favorite rock is schist.

  • Gena Pansera

    Gena is a junior Geoscience major. As a research assistant in the lab she has spent countless hours picking garnet for Sm-Nd geochronology, and is now working on her project focused on constraining the metamorphic history of the Mt. Mineral Schist and Littleton Formation in Central Massachusetts. Gena’s hobbies are cross stitch, playing guitar, and riling up other people’s dogs. Her favorite rock is chert.

  • Nivale Baxendell

    Nivale is a junior Geoscience and Computer Science double major. She has worked on a variety of projects in the lab, and has most recently focused on applying phase equilibria techniques to unravel the dynamics of melt segregation and loss during anatexis. She is also the (awesome) Learning Assistant for Earth Materials. Nivale’s hobbies are backpacking, playing drums, and coloring. Her favorite mineral is sillimanite and her favorite rock is slate.

  • Josie

    Josie is the world’s best at sniffing out outcrops. Excels at running, jumping, sniffing and playing! Josie’s favorite mineral is grass.

  • Abigail Jarcho

    Abby is a Junior Geoscience major. As a lab member she worked on Mn tracer-diffusion modelling of garnet from the Manhattan Schist to help constrain the duration of near-peak metamorphism. She is currently an REU student at the American Museum of Natural History, where she is using infrared spectroscopy to quantify water in eclogites from kimberlite pipes within the Sask craton, and investigating correlations between water content and REE compositions in pyroxene and garnet to investigate the formation and metasomatic evolution of the cratonic root. Her favorite mineral is a “nice euhedral garnet.”

  • Cam

    Cam’s the new kid on the block! She’s still learning the geologic ropes, but has yet to meet an outcrop she doesn’t want to eat! Cam’s favorite mineral is belly rubs.

Former Members

  • Jannitta Yao

    Post-Bac Researcher

    During her time in the Castro Lab, Jannitta worked to unravel the pressure-temperature history of enigmatic kyanite-bearing migmatites in Central Massachusetts. She has now started a PhD at Dartmouth College. Congrats!

  • Eli Zizka

    Undergraduate Research Assistant

    Eli worked on the metamorphic history of the Manhattan and Hartland schists in Central Park, NYC in an effort to uncover the tectonic nature of Cameron’s Line. They graduated in spring of 2022 as a dual Geoscience and Math(!) major. They are now an Assistant Park Ranger at Shenandoah National Park!

  • Katherine Morin

    Katherine completed a senior thesis focused on constraining the pressure-temperature evolution of garnet-kyanite migmatites in NYC. She is also deeply interested in astronomy, space exploration, and broadening participation in STEM. She will start a Master’s in Geoscience at Weslyean university Fall 2024 – Good luck Katherine!

  • Isabella Marie Brunet

    As a First-Year Apprentice, Sophomore Early Research Intern, and Research Assistant Izzy assisted in all manner of sample prep, field work, and petrographic analysis of rocks from Central MA and NYC. For her Senior Thesis, Izzy employed garnet petrochronology to investigate the timing of metamorphism in the Manhattan Schist, New York City.

  • Scout Painter

    Scout employed biotite+muscovite Ar/Ar thermochronology and garnet diffusion modeling to constrain preliminary cooling histories in the Manhattan Schist. She also spearheaded a Castro Lab colloboration with the NYC-area non-profit Christodora to develop place-based geoscience curricula. Her favorite mineral was “rock.”

  • Aiyana Vazquez Ochoa

    Aiyana with Samantha Tramontano at the American Museum of Natural History to provide experimental constraints on diffusive modification of olivine growth in shallow mafic magmas. Her favorite mineral is probably olivine. She is now a graduate student at UCLA!

  • Emlynn Merrill

    Emlynn Merrill

    Emlynn worked on a senior thesis in collaboration with Nick Roberts at Hamilton College that synthesized phase equilibria modeling with petrochronolgy to constrain robust pressure-temerpature-time paths for Archean greenstones from the Pilbara, Australia. She wanted to say her favorite mineral is olivine, but she didn’t want to copy Aiyana.