I am working as a PhD student (started March 2014) at the Geology and Geochemistry section (Department of Earth Sciences, VU Amsterdam). Because of close collaborations with the Stratigraphy & Paleontology group, I am a guest researcher at the Universiteit Utrecht.

Aim of my PhD:

Time-stratigraphic correlations in (lignite-rank) coal repetitions in fluvial and coastal sedimentary successions of the lower Paleocene Fort Union Formation, Williston Basin (USA), to test if orbitally-forced climate changes may control phases of peat formation in fluvial systems.

Aspects:

1 - Examine the lateral extent of coal seams, the vertical scale(s) of coal repetitions and the timescale(s) involved. 
2 - Explore if this examination can be used to seperate autogenic controls (processes that arise spontaneously, inside sedimentary systems such as river-meandering and channel-avulsion) from allogenic controls (processes that act outside sedimentary systems but can invoke sedimentary change, such as orbitally forced climate change and tectonic uplift and subidence events). 
3 - Determine how orbital-scale climate changes may possibly affect peat formation in fluvial systems considering the upstream (sediment supply) and downstream (sea-level) components. 

Main methods:

1) Logging, sampling and field correlations of multiple stratigraphic sections
2) Correlations of ash layers through mineralogy, geochemistry and physical (macro-scale) characteristics
3) Magnetostratigraphy (using past reversals of Earth's magnetic field for stratigraphic correlations) 

Part of NWO funded VIDI-project: Tephrostratigraphy and geochronology of the Paleocene Fort Union Formation: implications for coal deposition and the Geological Time Scale.