PEOPLE – EARTH SYSTEMS STUDIO

Raquel Bryant (she/her): Principal Investigator

Dr. Raquel is a paleoceanographer and micropaleontologist. Her research integrates microfossil and geochemical archives to understand how the ocean and its ecosystems respond to intervals of global warmth in the geologic past. She is also interested in developing new methods to cultivate leadership skills among Geoscientists.

Current Researchers

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Bella Nunn (she/her) ’24: Lab Coordinator, joined Spring 2023

Bella is a recent Wesleyan graduate in Earth & Environmental Science with a minor in Data Analysis. She’ll be continuing her work as lab coordinator in the Earth Systems Studio lab this summer. In the fall, she will be beginning her Masters of Library Science courses at Southern Connecticut State University and starting as a 5th grade teacher in her Apprentice Teacher program at New Canaan Country School.

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Aidan Trendell (he/him) ’25, joined Spring 2023

Aidan is a senior Earth & Environmental Science and College of Integrative Sciences double major. He’s loved the ocean and the water his entire life and is constantly surrounded by the ocean, hailing from Rhode Island the Ocean State. He is a member of the Varsity Swim Team and Club Water Polo Teams here at Wesleyan, and involved is many other ogranizations. His research interests are broad with interests in the evolution of the earth and climate system, and intergrating multi-proxy techniques to decipher the past climates. Aidan’s current research involves the morphometric characterization of the Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 Foraminifera bioevents of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. Aside from science he is also interested in interrogating the colonial origins and history of geosciences and how it effects the field today in order to understand that past and move geosciences in a more equitable, and impactful direction.

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Annabelle Miller (she/her) ’25, joined Spring 2024

Annabelle is a senior Earth & Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, and Integrated Design, Engineering, Arts, & Society (IDEAS) student from Kansas City, Missouri. This summer she is studying fossil foraminifera from sediment cores near the Greenland Ice sheet. Annabelle will be looking at morphometric differences between forams to correlate with paleoclimate variations that may have influenced ice sheet melt.

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B Frankenstein (they/them) ’25, joined Spring 2024

B is a senior double majoring in Earth & Environmental Science and Government. Outside of academics, they are interested in community advocacy (especially that which involves the overlap between STEM and environmental justice) and like to make digital art, write, and over-analyze music. This summer, in lab, B is working on counting/cataloging the forams in core catcher samples and on a project analyzing the soil composition in the Miller/Bridge neighborhood. Outside of lab, they are working with Wesleyan’s Committee for Investor Responsibility to draft a divestment proposal from companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

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Em Moran (they/them) ’26, joined Spring 2024

Em is a junior E&ES major from Harvard Massachusetts. They are on the crew team and this summer will be working with foram data from Demerara Rise (Grace’s Thesis) and the Western Interior Seaway (Raquel’s Paper). Em is interested in marine biology and paleo oceanography and can probably tell you way too much about horseshoe crabs.

A man with short brown hair and a green sweatshirt sits in a restaurant smiling at the camera. There is a dessert in front of him with two lit birthday candles.

Kellen Horst (he/him) ’26, joined Spring 2024

Kellen is a junior majoring in Economics and Earth & Environmental Sciences. This summer, he is washing and drying core samples from off the coast of Greenland. Kellen will also be analyzing these samples looking for microfossils (forams). Outside of Academics, he on the wrestling team at Wesleyan and also really enjoys running and golfing.

A Black woman with short hair and a white dress smiles at the camera with her hands on her hips. She is outside in the grass in front of a tree.

Shekinah Mba (she/her) ’26, joined Summer 2024

Shekinah is a junior and a declared double major in the College of Letters and Environmental Studies, with a minor in IDEAS. This summer, she will be analyzing the 100 year-old fossils of forams to understand the climate they lived in and how they responded to warmer periods in the ocean’s history. Shekinah will also be studying sediments collected from the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. She is particularly excited for the second project as she is Nigerian herself! Shekinah is a singer, dancer, poet, writer, painter, and overall artist. You can find her listening to music, humming, singing, dancing, or all four!

Earth Systems Alumni

Five people standing smiling at the camera with their arms around each other in a wood paneled room. — Sav Russo ’23, Guy Bennevat Haninovich ’23, Chloe Odabashian ’23, Laurel Goulbourne ’23, & Raquel