Joseph Merrill
Graduate Student in the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, UCLA
B.S. Physics, 2020
Graduate Student in Geophysics and Space Physics
Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, UCLA
Joseph Lewis-Merrill began their college education at Las Positas College in Livermore, California, before transferring to UCLA and graduating with B.S. in Physics in 2020. Thereafter, they completed a one year post-baccalaureate position in the Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS) department at UCLA. Joseph is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics under the supervision of Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni and Jon Aurnou in the UCLA EPSS department. Their research centers on convection in planetary interiors, with a focus on the Earth’s core-mantle boundary and its role in plume formation and global heat transport. They hope their research will help to expand our understanding of the histories and futures of terrestrial planets like Earth. After their Ph.D., they plan to continue researching planetary scale convection by applying for post-doctoral scholar and, eventually, faculty positions.