News Article

Rachel started out as an analytical chemist with a focus on nanofabrication and nanoparticles (Harvey Mudd College, BS, University of Minnesota, MS). She then spent several months doing Hurricane Katrina recovery in New Orleans and saw first hand how human alterations to the landscape impact our water systems and the ecosystem services they provide. Inspired to study watersheds, she went to the University of Colorado Boulder (MS, Water Resources Engineering, PhD, Environmental Studies) where she worked with the Boulder Creek CZO studying organic matter in soils and streams.

Rachel is excited about the interdisciplinary nature of the iUTAH project, and particularly the chance to study watersheds in an urban system. In the six months she’s been with iUTAH, she participated in several sampling campaigns along Red Butte Creek and the Logan River with a focus on how to use biogeochemical tracers to understand the connections between the landscape and the stream.