{"id":829,"date":"2023-03-30T15:43:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T23:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/?page_id=829"},"modified":"2025-10-14T13:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:41:10","slug":"alumni","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Taylor Dorn (PhD class of 2023)<\/strong> is a tenure-track professor in GIS at Front Range Community College. At UCLA, his wide-ranging research interests covered sedimentary processes on Earth and Mars. In his dissertation, entitled “The Transport, Accumulation, and Abrasive Capacity of Sediment in Aeolian Dominated Landscapes on Earth and Mars”, Taylor combined field work, remote sensing, and experimental studies to answer the many unknowns in this diverse research field. Aside from research, while at UCLA Taylor was also involved in student leadership as an officer in the Earth, Planetary, and Space Science Student Organization (EPSSSO) and involved in the \u2018Letters to a Pre-Scientist\u2019 program that allows middle school students a more accessible and personal view of science. Prior to joining the GALE lab he received his Master’s degree in Geology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Geography at Texas State University. More of Taylor\u2019s work can be found at tdgeology.com<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dorn, T.<\/strong>, & Day, M. (2025). Spatial variability in aeolian abrasion: Ibex Dune Field, Death Valley National Park. Sedimentology<\/em>, 72<\/em>(1), 258-274. https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/sed.13233 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorn, T.,<\/strong> and M. Day, “Exploring the transition between water-and wind-dominated landscapes in Deep Springs, California, as an analog for transitioning landscapes on Mars,” Earth Surface Dynamics<\/em>, 11<\/em>(2), (2023), 149-165. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5194\/esurf-11-149-2023 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorn, T.,<\/strong> and M. Day, “Intracrater sediment trapping and transport in Arabia Terra, Mars.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets<\/em> 125.9 (2020): e2020JE006581. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2020JE006581<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day, M. and T. Dorn,<\/strong> \u201cWind in Jezero crater,\u201d Geophysical Research Letters, 46, (2019), pp.3099\u2013 3107. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2019GL082218<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Scholar for Taylor Dorn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Jordan Bretzfelder<\/strong>(PhD class of 2024)<\/strong> is currently a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. At UCLA, her research leveraged her background in Physics to probe how sediment moves in exotic planetary environments. Her dissertation, titled “Wind-driven sediment transport across the Solar System” included experimental, field, and remote sensing studies. Jordan’s expertise in Earth and Planetary Science is broad, as evidenced by her scientific contributions to many different planetary bodies (Earth, Mars, the Moon, Io, Pluto, Venus, and more). Jordan completed her B.S. in Physics at the University of Southern California in 2019. Prior to joining UCLA and concurrent with her studies at USC, she spent three years researching the lunar mantle at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Her interest in Planetary Sciences began with a summer spent mapping surface features on Europa for the Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bretzfelder, J. M.<\/strong>, Stack, K. M., Fraeman, A. A., Day, M., Dietrich, W. E., & Bryk, A. B. (2024). Aeolian bedrock ridges in Gale crater, Mars. Icarus<\/em>, 408<\/em>, 115855. https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0019103523004347 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bretzfelder, J. M.,<\/strong> & Day, M. (2021). “Alien aeolian bedforms: A comparative sedimentary analysis of the Dingo Gap bedform and Hidden Valley ripple traverses, Gale crater, Mars.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets<\/em>, 126, e2021JE006904. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2021JE006904<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bretzfelder, J. M.<\/strong>, Klima, R. L., Greenhagen, B. T., Buczkowski, D. L., Petro, N. E., & Day, M. (2020). “Identification of Potential Mantle Rocks Around the Lunar Imbrium Basin.” Geophysical Research Letters<\/em> 47.22 (2020): e2020GL090334. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1029\/2020GL09033<\/a>4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Scholar for Jordan Bretzfelder <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Imani Lawrence<\/strong> (MS class of 2025)<\/strong> is currently a staff environmental scientist at GEI Consultants in Sacramento, CA. At UCLA, her research focused on dunes migrating across polar ice on Mars. Using numerical modeling of heat transfer between warmed basaltic sand and underlying water ice, Imani studied whether dunes on Mars could have provided habitable environments for microbial life. Imani graduated from Purdue University in 2023 with a BS in Planetary Science. She built on this foundation and contributed to field and modeling projects at UCLA, integrating Earth and Planetary Science. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sori, M. M., Lawrence, I. T<\/strong>., Izquierdo, K., & Granger, D. E. (2024). Implications of MOLA topography on the presence of liquid water under the south polar cap of Mars. Icarus<\/em>, 416<\/em>, 116083. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.icarus.2024.116083<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Taylor Dorn (PhD class of 2023) is a tenure-track professor in GIS at Front Range Community College. At UCLA, his wide-ranging research interests covered sedimentary processes on Earth and Mars. In his dissertation, entitled “The Transport, Accumulation, and Abrasive Capacity … Continue →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"featured_image_src":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2608,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/829\/revisions\/2608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.epss.ucla.edu\/~mday\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}