Olga Tumanova, University of Texas at Austin
Title: Ancient Maya Wetland Agricultural Field-Building in the Northeast Sector of the Birds of Paradise Fields
Bio: Olga Tumanova is a senior undergraduate researcher in the Soils and Geoarchaeology Laboratory in the Department of Geography at the University of Texas at Austin, under the mentorship of Drs. Tim Beach and Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. She researches human-environment interactions in the context of ancient Maya wetland agricultural fields in northwestern Belize. Olga studies soil chronology and soil geochemistry to analyze change over time and how the Maya both propagated and responded to environmental and climatic change. She has presented her research at American Association of Geographers and Geological Society of America conferences and is excited to submit her undergraduate honors thesis work for publication this year. Olga will graduate with her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, a minor in geosciences, and a certificate through the Liberal Arts Honors program this May. She will further her studies in a master’s program in geomorphology beginning in Fall 2026.
Bryan Schuetze, M.S., University of Edinburgh
Topic: CO2 storage in saline aquifers
Bio: Bryan recently completed a masters of science degree in Geoenergy at the University of Edinburgh and has returned to his hometown, Austin, Texas. He is looking to begin a career in the low-carbon geology sector.
Isabel Johnson, Graduate student, University of Texas at Austin
Bio: Isabel is a master’s student at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is studying geology with a focus in sedimentology, field geology, and stratigraphy. Her research is focused on identifying an outcrop analog for the mixed carbonate-siliclastic Strawn Group of north-central Texas in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico.