Bella is a PhD student in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and a Gund graduate fellow. She is fascinated by earth processes, especially regarding water resources and climate change. Bella’s research is focused on Cuban water quality and erosion rates. She joins an established team of Cuban and American scientists to pursue this work. When travel to Cuba is again possible, Bella hopes to derive the first erosion rates for eastern Cuba using cosmogenic nuclide geochronology. In the meantime, she is looking at a landslide prone slope in Burlington and the risk it poses to the community and future development.

Prior to joining the UVM community, Bella managed a mineral separation lab at MIT, isolating zircon minerals in rocks from around the world to be dated using uranium-lead geochronology. She received her BA in environmental studies and minor in geology from Skidmore College, though the majority of her geoscience education took place during semesters abroad in New Zealand and Iceland respectively. Bella loves to spend her free time outdoors hiking and skiing with her partner and their dog Duncan Idaho.

Advisor: Paul Bierman