Current Members

  • Aiyana Vazquez Ochoa

    Senior Thesis Student

    Aiyanna is a senior major in Geosciences. As a Sophomore Early Research Intern Aiyanna is working on preliminary Ar-Ar dating of schists in the Nashoba Terrane and NYC. Aiyana is working 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.

  • Emlynn Merrill

    Senior Thesis Student

    Emlynn is a rising senior geoscience major. She is currently working on a senior thesis in collaboration with Nick Roberts at Hamilton College that combiners 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.

  • Scout Painter

    Senior Thesis Student

    Scout is a senior Geosciences major and Chemistry minor with an interest in secondary STEM education. She is currently working on a thesis project focused on constraining the exhumation history of the Manhattan Schist with garnet diffusion speedometry, and biotite+muscovite Ar/Ar thermochronolgy. She is also spearheading a Castro Lab colloboration with the NYC-area non-profit Christodora to develop place-based geoscience curricula. Her favorite mineral is “rock.”

  • 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!

  • Eliza Zizka

    Undergraduate Research Assistant

    Eliza 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.