My primary scientific interests relate to unraveling and understanding the engine that is our
Earth.  As an observational seismologist, I utilize seismic waves to constrain the seismic
structure near the Earth's major boundaries (the Earth's surface, the core-mantle boundary and
the inner-outer core boundary) as radial and lateral variations of seismic velocities and
anelasticity within these regions contribute some of the most vivid clues about the Earth's
thermal state and dynamics.  My current projects (as part of my PhD research) include seismic
imaging of the uppermost mantle structure beneath the Cameroon volcanic line as well as the
development and application of techniques for obtaining high-resolution radial models of the
lowermost mantle.  This research relies on the analysis of a variety of seismic phases
including body waves, surface waves, and ambient noise recorded by broadband seismometer arrays
to provide insights on the thermal interaction between the crust, mantle, and core.

Along the way I have found a number of odd non-earthquake sources of seismic energy.  The most
popular of these were footquakes - the recordings of football fans celebrating (or agonizing
over) goals in televized tournament matches.  A summary of the footquakes was presented at the
Fall AGU of 2006 (the poster can be found on my website in the posters folder).

Much of my time is devoted to processing and analysis of seismic datasets.  So it comes with
little surprise that I have written my own seismology toolbox (called project SEIZMO).  A link
to the project's webpage can be found on my main webpage.