Dr. Evan Collins earned a B.S. In Biology and a B.A. in chemistry from Wheeling Jesuit University in 2015 and a M.S. in Environmental Science from Duquesne University in 2017. He earned his PhD is in Geology and Environmental Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2023 where he focused on Biogeochemistry and the microbial ecology of sediments in East African soda lakes. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Michael Ramsey's lab where he is focused on collecting high temperature infrared emissivity spectra of rocks and minerals to simulate both Earth and Venusian volcanic processes. He is also working on using a convolutional neural network to help detect and back-cast volcanic activity and to hopefully predict future eruptions around the globe. Dr. Collins wants to expand his work to astrobiology and exobiology research using high temperature Earth analog environments.
