Dr. Branwen Williams’s research develops the techniques that we use to generate records of our past ocean and climate variability, and uses these records to understand mechanisms driving environmental changes. She got her B.Sc. in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the University of Guelph. She then got her M.Sc. in Biology at GEOTOP with the Université du Québec à Montréal. She then went to complete at her Ph.D. in Geological Science in the School of Earth Sciences at the Ohio State University. From there, she did a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She is now an Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences in the W.M. Keck Science Department , a science department that is shared among three colleges of the Claremont Colleges: Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, and Scripps College.
Sophie Bernstein is the current NSF Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellow at the MEC Lab in the W.M. Keck Science Department. Using geochemical and sclerochronological approaches, her research tests for biological control in the coralline algae C. compactum to better understand mechanisms of marine resilience to environmental change. Sophie received their B.A. in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College and has a background in food justice.
Sage Haviland Fletcher was a senior thesis student from Pitzer College in the Williams MEC Lab. Their thesis tested Crustose Coralline Algae (CCA) Clathromorphum compactum as a Climate Proxy in the Labrador Sea. She examined relationships between Mg/Ca (trace element) records in the CCA and instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) records, growth rates of the CCA and instrumental SST, and a sea ice proxy and sea ice cover within the Labrador Sea. They also worked on radiocarbon analysis for the Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada CCA samples.
Williams Lab Research Team Fall 2022
Branwen Williams 