Yellowstone - Monitoring the Fire Below • Director | Producer
Three of the most catastrophic volcanic eruptions in geologic history occurred at a place now visited by nearly four million people a year: Yellowstone National Park. The magma chamber responsible still lies beneath, and continues to steam, heat, and shift the park landscape. A team of scientists and geologists monitor these disquieting signals to understand where this active region lies in its volcanic life span.
Yellowstone National Park, WY
Moving Mountains • Producer
One paradox of geology is that weathering a mountain down can actually make it rise higher. Scientists have learned of this peculiar feedback process only in recent years, and the St. Elias Erosion/tectonics Project (STEEP) team is at the forefront of understanding how climate and the movements of Earth’s crust interact to build towering peaks. In this feature video, meet geologists of every stripe collaborating on STEEP in Alaska’s St. Elias Range, one of the most rapidly growing mountain ranges in the world.
St Elias National Park, AK
Caving for Cures • Producer
Chemist Brian Bachmann of Vanderbilt University has combined his professional interest in natural products drug production with his hobby of caving to set up the first systematic program to search for novel drugs produced by cave-dwelling microorganisms. Microbes that thrive in these highly competitive environments are good candidates for producing compounds that can be used to fight disease.
Nashville, TN