Read through the submitted updates from our alumni, published in the Winter 2025 Newsletter
Lexi Arlen (BA 2022) is currently a 3rd (going on 4th year) PhD student in Earth Systems Science at Stanford University studying small scale sea ice dynamics under Professor Earle Wilson. She is currently working on wrapping up her first and second papers that develop a model using a computational tool from granular physics to understand the fracture processes giving the emergent sea ice floe size distribution. She has also mentored three undergraduate research projects and is finishing teaching a course on climate change to high school students. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors, trail running, mountaineering, and rock climbing with the Stanford Alpine Club.
During the first year of her PhD, she spent 45 days on an icebreaker with Arrigo group studying phytoplankton blooms in the Chukchi Sea.
Photos, credit Lexi Arlen: 1. Arlen standing in front of a research vessel with an ice tool
Meredith Berwick (BA 2005) joined the St. Louis law firm Kennedy Hunt P.C. this year, after 6 years with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She continues litigating civil rights cases in the field of employment law on behalf of workers who have been wronged by their employers.
Cole Bishop (BA 2014) graduated from Washington University with a degree in isotope geochemistry in 2014 and completed his Ph.D. in noble gas geochemistry from UC Davis in 2024 . He now studies nuclear physics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His work focuses on synthesizing superheavy elements and studying isotopic chemistry.
Photos, credit Cole Bishop: Bishop with lab equipment
Jessica Brown (BA 2024) is pursuing a master’s degree at UGA-Savannah in the River Ecology Lab and was just awarded the Department of Energy’s Nuclear University Nuclear Leadership Program (UNLP) fellowship providing funding for graduate school over 3 years.
Photo, credit Jessica Brown: Brown conducting field work for the river ecology lab at UGA
Claire Elias (BA 2018) received her Master's of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke in 2023, with a focus on watershed management and stream restoration. Since graduating from Duke, she has been living in Boulder, CO, and working for AECOM as an environmental planner. She assists federal land management agencies such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Reclamation, and US Forest Service with National Environmental Policy Act compliance, specializing in projects focused on geology, soils, and water resources.
Margaret A. G. Hinkle (PhD 2015) has been promoted to Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Geoscience at Washington and Lee University, and received a collaborative research grant through the NSF to study critical metal binding to manganese oxides at acid mine drainage sites.
Photo, credit Margaret Hinkle: Hinkle with students hiking the Tongariro Crossing in Aotearoroa/New Zealand for my spring term class- Regional Geology of New Zealand.
William Jud (MA 1967)
Jud’s project for the past year has been developing exploration techniques to explore for mineralized buried asteroids. His article "ASTEROID MINING ... IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI?" was published in the October, 2024, issue of Mensa Bulletin, available on the Legend Minerals website. It can be found on the supporting research page of the following website www.legendminerals.com
Photo, credit William Jud: Recent photo of William Jud
Elizabeth Koprowski (BA 2000) was recognized with the FEDS Spotlight Award in October 2024 for her work on energy efficiency and renewable energy within the facilities and operations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the past 13 years. From the press release:
“Elizabeth Koprowski has served as the environmental program manager under the Occupational Safety and Environmental Programs (OSEP) Unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Headquarters for more than 10 years and, more recently, as OSEP's assistant unit chief.
Beth currently provides headquarters-level support for several ongoing efforts to further reduce emissions, including plans to initiate operations of five new on-site solar photovoltaic arrays in Fiscal Year 2025–2026 totaling 1.7 megawatts. Koprowski was also involved with efforts leading to reductions in energy use intensity (EUI) at the FBI, which achieved a 16% decrease in EUI across its portfolio of facilities under her direction.”
Photo, credit Beth Koprowski: Koprowski (second from left) is honored by the Department of Justice with a FEDS spotlight award
Katie (Balfany) Mangum (BA 2018) spent a few years after graduation in St. Louis, working in environmental justice-focused philanthropy before moving to Durham, North Carolina with her husband (a fellow Wash U grad, Daniel Mangum) in order to go back to school and explore topics related to climate action from faith-based perspectives.
Last year, in May 2024, Katie graduated with her Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School (with a Certificate in Faith, Food and Environmental Justice, a Certificate in Preaching, and an award for excellence in preaching). She periodically serves as a guest preacher or speaker for churches and faith groups, highlighting issues of climate change and environmental justice in our communities.
She began her professional role as the Operations Coordinator and Sanctuary Steward at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery in Cedar Grove, NC, in September 2024. Bluestem is a community-based nonprofit and an 87-acre nature preserve which works to restore and conserve the land while also offering natural burial as an alternative to resource-intensive conventional burial practices. They currently are restoring old farm fields to native Piedmont prairie, helping rebalance Oak-Hickory woodland ecosystems, and offering families a meaningful, natural way to say their final farewells to loved ones.
This role has been a dream come true for Katie, where her love for environmental science meets her love for people. She has the privileges of helping care for grieving people, managing teams of passionate volunteers, working alongside a small-but-mighty team of skilled conservationists, and learning more about the land every day. Katie says "It is such a unique place where our human relationships with nature are healing all the time, in life and in death". Read more about community conservation at Bluestem in an article published in EcoTheo (https://www.ecotheo.org/etreview/greenburial) earlier this year.
Photo credit Katie Mangum: Katie collecting wildflowers for a natural burial service.
Yun Ke (PhD 2009) was just promoted to Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Jennifer Kidder (PhD 1995) spent a year as an adjunct instructor of Earth science and environmental science at Robert Morris College in Chicago, then spent 10 years at home with her 2 children. During that time she moved to Ithaca, NY, with her husband (Larry, Physics Ph.D. 1994) He has been at Cornell for 28 years. She spent 16 years as a content adjunct instructor of Geology and Math at the local community college and helped out at nearby SUNY Cortland for a few semesters when they were short-handed. She is now in her 3rd year working full-time at SUNY Cortland as a lecturer in geology, mostly teaching geology to future elementary teachers, but also working with some non-majors in introductory geology and occasionally mentoring some future high school Earth science teachers. She reports that it’s great to be back in a traditional Geology department and she is very happy to have found her niche.
Max Reams (PhD 1968) and his wife, Carol, are working on their 4th geology of state parks book. They have already written books for IL, MO, and IN. The field work is done and they are in the advanced writing stage for Kansas, Reams’ home state.The Illinois second edition is well along and the second edition of MO will be in color.
Photo credit Max Reams: Max Reams with his wife Carol at Mushroom Rocks State Park in Kansas.
Kimberly Wallis (BA 2004) continues her work on energy efficiency, and is now managing a suite of energy efficiency programs. Her dog, two cats, and seven chickens keep her sane.
Meenakshi Wadhwa (PhD 1994) recently accepted a new position as Vice Chancellor & Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD. On October 1st, Mini joined UCSD as Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She will also hold the Charles F. Kennel Director’s Endowed Chair.Here is the official announcement:
S. Shawn Wei (PhD 2016) recently recovered ocean-bottom seismographs in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Wei and Doug Wiens were co-Chief Scientists and two current WashU PhD students, Judy Zhang and Yuqi Liu, joined the OBS recovery cruise.
Rebecca Williams (PhD 2000) continues investigating the surface of Mars with NASA rovers, as Mastcam Deputy Principal Investigator with Curiosity, and as a WATSON Co-Investigator with Perseverance. Recently, she published a geomorphology study on Patagonian deltas with fellow EEPS alumnus Dr. Brian Hynek (2003) titled "Delta size variability at Lake General Carrera", Patagonia (doi: 10.5027/andgeoV49n2-3397). Becky was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 2023.
Photo: cover of Andean Geology issue where above mentioned article was published
Rin-rin Yu (BA 1998) is publishing her first novel in February 2026, titled "Goodbye, French Fry" (publisher: Penguin Random House). It is a light-hearted, humorous middle-grade fiction novel about a young American-born Chinese girl named Ping-Ping who has to navigate many complications in her life: a possible family move from New York to Nairobi, a schoolyard bully named Lee Beaumont, piano practicing, a difficult taekwondo kick, the fact that nobody can pronounce her name properly, and that people don't always consider her all-American, among other things. Based loosely on the author's own childhood, with a nod to her freshman and sophomore dorms at Wash U, the book gives a humorous insight into the many ways an American-born kid of foreign-born parents negotiates everyday cultural differences. Preorders are available at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon. For more information, visit rinrinyu.com.
Photo credit Rin-rin Yu: Cover of upcoming YA novel
Header Photo Credit, Lexi Arlen: Walrus relaxing on iceberg in Chukchi Sea
