Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni
Professor of Geodynamics
Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles
Introduction
Welcome to the tracKing lagranGian Buoyancy (KGB) Lab. Our research focuses on the connection between Earth’s surface processes and the forces below the surface that drive and shape them. Recently, we reexamined how strong the Earth’s mantle is, and ventured into the connection between thermodynamics and fluid dynamics for our planet. The latter is particularly fascinating as it suggests that the thermodynamics of mantle materials exert a deep control on the thermal and perhaps biological evolution of our planet. We have also developed and applied joint techniques on particle image velocimetry and thermometry to the visualization and understanding of flow in very viscous fluids.
The Principal Investigator, Prof.Lithgow-Bertelloni, Carolina, is the Louis B. and Martha B. Slichter Endowed Chair in Geosciences of the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences in the University of California, Los Angeles since 2018. She received her B.S. in Geology from the University of Puerto Rico in 1987, and completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. She then moved on to a post-doc at Institut für Geophysik, Universität Göttingen, as an NSF postdoctoral fellow, and faculty positions at University of Michigan and University College London. Her honors include the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering in 2001 and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. For more details, you can read her CV.
Interests
- Plate Tectonics
- Mantle Dynamics
- Thermodynamics of Mantle Minerals
Education
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PhD in Geology, 1994
University of California at Berkeley
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BSc in Geology, 1987
University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez
