Kristen Lese

The foothills of the Appalachian Mountains were my backyard. I grew up in a 12-Volt solar-powered house surrounded by steep sandstone cliffs and broken rock caves left behind from the outwash of retreating glaciers. My time was spent climbing rocks and exploring the dark valleys and clifftop peaks that overlooked the woods. That early exposure to nature was the foundation for my career, but it wasn’t until I saw the coloring pencils and tracing paper that came with my Geology 101 lab supplies that I was certain I was on the right path. Those tools evolved into gas powered rock corers and water-cooled diamond tipped rock saws which when combined with carbide dust left me with perfect cubes of Earth, polished to a mirror shine, ready to expose the microscopic secrets just below the surface.

Twenty years later, without touching a single rock we can analyze and model Earth’s geologic history, visualizing paleogeography from the millions of years ago to illustrate how plate tectonics influences the distribution of natural resources across the globe.