TRACE Lab Personnel
Are you interested in climate, environmental science and global change? PI Cotton is looking for motivated students to join the lab. Email for research opportunities for both masters and undergraduate students
Jen Cotton
PI and Associate Professor
Jen grew up in central Massachusetts, moving east to Boston for her undergraduate degree. After earning a B.S. degree in chemistry and a B.A. in sculpture in 2007, Jen began her slow westward journey, stopping for graduate school at the University of Michigan. She jumped ship from pure chemistry for an opportunity to study the environment through geochemistry and earned her Ph.D. in earth and environmental sciences in 2013. Continuing westward, she then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at both the University of Utah and Oregon State University as part of the Inter-University Training for Continental Scale Ecology (ITCE) program through 2015. After a few months of traveling around the Pacific Northwest, Tasmania and New Zealand, she finally arrived in the promised land of Los Angeles in January of 2016. In Her free time, she likes to bike, climb, hike and cook.
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Shelby Littleton
Masters student
Shelby is a graduate student in the Department of Geological Sciences at CSUN. Originally from the Austin area, she completed a bachelor's degree in Environmental Management and Protection with a minor in Geology at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2020. Prior to her arrival at CSUN, she worked at Pinnacles National Park doing invasive weed removal and habitat restoration. Her research interests are in paleoclimate, and she is currently working with Dr. Cotton to study the effects of precipitation on the expansion of C4 grasses using stable isotopes from paleosols as a proxy. In her free time, she enjoys painting, gardening, hiking, and rock climbing.
Madison Rafter
Senior Thesis Student
Madison is an undergraduate at CSUN currently researching paleoclimate proxies for precipitation. Born and raised in Southern California, she has been interested in geology since elementary school when she fell in love with studying the world around her. Madison graduated high school and acquired two A.A.s in Geography and English while continuing her pursuit of science with a B.S. in Geology. Her main geologic interests lie in paleoclimate and environmental geology. She enjoys reading science fiction novels, playing soccer, learning about local history, and spending as much time outdoors as possible!
FORMER LAB MEMBERS
Adit Ghosh
M.S. Geology, 2021
Adit is interested in the co-evolution of life and landscapes on earth. His masters thesis work investigated the possible feedbacks between climate change, fire frequency and the spread of C4 grasses in northwest Argentina during the Miocene-Pliocene. Adit is currently pursuing his PhD at USC.
Justin Pardo
M.S. Geology, 2020
Justin's research focused on determining if a secret nuclear meltdown occurred in the Santa Susana Mountains outside Los Angeles in 1959 by analyzing tree rings and museum specimens for Cesium-137. Justin is currently teaching geology courses at CSUN.
Tyler Hayduk
B.S. Geophysics, 2020
Tyler is interested in environmental science, climate change and soil soil science. His work focused on determining the timing of the spread of C4 grasses in Northwest Argentina. Tyler recently completed an Americorps internship at Pinnacles National Park.
Max Pearson
B.S. Geology, 2019
Max is interested in understanding the impact of anthropogenic landscape and climate changes on ecology through time. His senior aimed to understand the cause of vegetation change in the high elevation meadows of the San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains over the past 100 years. Max is currently a PhD student at UC Santa Cruz.
Alex Thoben
B.S. Geology, 2019
Alex has broad interests in climate, environmental and tectonic changes through time. His senior thesis work focused on understanding climate and environmental changes on Santa Barbara Island, CA over the past 1200 years as recorded through the C and N isotopes in deer mouse bone collagen.
Michelle Jimenez
B.S. Geology, 2019
Michelle's research focused on tracing changes to the hydrologic cycle in Southern California over the past 100 years using the O and H isotopic composition of deer mice. She recently completed an internship at the Natural History Museum of LA.
Natalie Packard
B.S. Geology, 2018
Natalie is interested in understanding long term changes to the hydrologic cycle. Her senior thesis work aimed to determine if the isotopic composition of deer mice could record hydrologic changes in the forests of the Pacific Northwest over the past 100 years. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Michigan.
Erica Loza
B.S. Geology, 2018
Erica is interested in environmental change and environmental quality. Her senior thesis focused on environmental change in the LA region over the past 100 years as recorded by the carbon isotopic composition of deer mice. She recently completed her Masters degree at CSU Sacramento.