Susanne Borchert, AB 1986, resigned in 2024 from the American environmental consulting engineering company JACOBS where she worked for 26 years as a Principal Technologist (specialized in in situ groundwater remediation technologies) and she started a new position in Stuttgart with a Germany-based environmental consulting company, HPC AG. As a senior consultant, she is enjoying learning about pharmaceutical-related hazardous waste around Basel, Switzerland, characterizing its impact on drinking water and developing remediation strategies. In her free time, she volunteers at a steep-sloped, old vineyard helping produce nature wines.
Jennifer Campbell, AB 2000, attended the National Association of Environmental Professionals 2026 annual conference in Anchorage, Alaska. The conference focused on case studies about wetland wastewater treatment and contaminant spill restoration projects with such different constraints at this latitude. She reports there were minor earthquakes during the conference, including one only 15km away. The keynote speaker shared that new buildings in this area are designed to withstand magnitude 9.5 earthquakes, liquefaction, and various other hazards.
Photo - Courtesy of Jennifer Campbell
Jennifer Eakins, AM 1996, has spent more than 28 years managing data acquisition for multiple seismic networks for the University of California - San Diego. She is now Head of Customer Success for Boulder Real Time Technologies, a company that provides software for seismologists and structural monitoring. Her daughter developed an interest in planetary geophysics late in her dual physics-math undergraduate years and ended up applying to WashU for graduate school, was accepted, but ultimately chose another placement.
Gabrielle Hedrick, AM 2013, is now a space technology advisor at the Office of the Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering. In her new role, she advises the Principal Director for Space Critical Technology on anything lunar, cislunar, and space domain awareness. She recently represented the office at the Value of Space Summit discussing lunar resilience, which touches on topics such as lunar resources and mining.
William Jud, AM 1968, reports his research on a (Paleoproterozoic) Precambrian asteroid impact and buried impact structure underlying most of Southeast Missouri is progressing nicely. His article and other information can be found on his research page at www.legendminerals.com.
Steven G. Katz, AB 1970, GR 1971 (and University of Texas at Austin Ph.D. '75) is retired and resides in a senior living community in Granville, Ohio. His wife of nearly 49 years, Constance "Connie" Barsky, GR '75, passed away on August 12, 2023. Last year, Katz and friend, Patricia Campbell, visited WashU last year to donate his late wife’s doctoral hood, a copy of her Ph.D. dissertation, and other memorabilia from the 1970s to the EEPS department. Katz and Campbell have traveled together and enjoy sightseeing, visiting museums, and spending time outdoors. They just returned from a month-long 3088 mile road trip to Maine, visiting beaches, seeing friends, soaking up sunshine and eating great seafood.
Photo - Courtesy George Kingsland
George Kingsland (AB 2025) after graduating from Wash U with a major in Environmental Science and a minor in Geospatial Science started working as a staff geologist at Geosyntec Consultants in Oakland, CA. He has worked on a variety of remediation related projects in the bay area. Projects include soil, groundwater, and soil vapor sampling, construction oversight and maintenance of remediation systems, and compliance inspections. George has worked on sites contaminated with chlorinated solvents, lead, hexavalent chromium, and PFAS. In addition to field duties, he has helped prepare numerous reports submitted to regulatory agencies including the state waterboard, DTSC, and the EPA.
Greg Ledingham, PhD 2024, started a new geochemistry postdoctoral position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in late August.
Jenny Marienau Zimmer, AB 2010, took on the role of Co-Executive Director of Mothers Out Front -- a national membership organization of moms and caregivers organizing to win climate and environmental health campaigns at the state and local level last year. This year, she co-founded Mothers Out Front Action, a political organization to advance the climate and environmental health policies that put kids first.
Nadia Sae-Lim, PhD 2023, will start in January 2027, an assistant professor position in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Photo - Courtesy Nadia Sae-Lim
Laura Schaefer, AB 2002, received a promotion to Associate Professor with tenure at Stanford University, Earth & Planetary Sciences.
Brian J. Yanites, AB 2002, was promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University this past spring.
Michael Yue, AB 2013, is now based out of Pensacola, FL, where he is the Chief Resident of the Navy Aerospace Medicine Residency. Prior to this, he was the flight surgeon for the VX-23 Salty Dogs, the Navy's fighter jet test squadron. Photo in Header - Courtesy Michael Yue.
