I am a graduate student working in Dr. Jacqueline Reber’s Structure Lab towards a master’s degree. I graduated from Iowa State University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Geology and a minor in Environmental Studies. In my research, I seek to understand changes in deformation dynamics due to the brittle failure of clasts within a viscous matrix. To do this, I deform rock analogs within a ring shear apparatus, where a visco-elasto-plastic polymer, Carbopol®, acts as the viscous phase, and elasto-plastic Hydro-orbs represent the brittle phase.