Laura Sammon
 Laura G. Sammon PhD Candidate Department of Geology, University of Maryland Office: CHEM 0208 ● Email: lsammon@umd.edu Website: http://www.geol.umd/edu/~lsammon (Last updated: 4/6/22) Education Ph.D, University of Maryland-College Park, College Park, Maryland, May 2022 Advisor: William F. McDonough Project: Deep crustal characterization, heat production, and geoneutrino signal prediction B.S. Geology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, May 2015 B.A. Chemistry, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, May 2015 Advisor: Jill VanTongeren Awards, Honors, Fellowships, Grants 2021 Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship 2020 Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute PhD Exchange Program Scholar 2019 UMD Geology Best PhD pre-candidacy Graduate Student Talk 2018 UMD ESSIC Travel Award 2018 Geological Society of America Graduate Research Grant 2017 UMD Dean’s Fellowship 2015 Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Honors Scholar, magna cum laude 2015 Paul Keimig Chemical Resources Award for research in chemistry 2015 The George O. Scott Scholarship for outstanding scholastic achievement 2015 The George Rowe Award for Research in Mineralogy 2015 The Victor Gwinn Award for Excellence in Research by an Undergraduate 2014 Aresty Undergraduate Research Assistant Fellowship 2011 Rutgers Presidential Scholarship Publications 1. Sammon, L. G.*, Gao, C., & McDonough, W. F. (2020). Lower Crustal Composition in the Southwestern United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 125(3). 2. Sammon, L. G.*, & McDonough, W. F. (2021). A Geochemical Review of Amphibolite, Granulite, and Eclogite Facies Lithologies: Perspectives on the Deep Continental Crust. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126(12), e2021JB022791. 3. Sammon, L. G*., McDonough, W. F., & Mooney, W. D. (2022). The composition of the deep continental crust inferred from geochemical and geophysical data. Accepted at Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 4. Sammon, L. G.*, & McDonough, W. F. (2022). Quantifying Earth’s Radiogenic Heat Budget. In review at Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Invited Talks 2021-04 Stony Brook University, Department of Geophysics, CrustMaker: Building the Continental Crust 2020-02 University of Maryland, College Park, Department of Geology Lunchtime Seminar Series, The Ghost Particles: How we use neutrinos to study Earth and other bodies 2019-10 Charles University, Prague, Department of Geophysics, Modeling Deep Crust Composition 2018-06 Chinese University of Geosciences, Beijing, School of Earth Sciences and Resources, Joint geochemical-geophysical inversions of the lower crust Professional Development and Workshops 2019-10 Structure and Composition of the Lower Continental Crust International School, Pavia, Italy 2019-06 2-month visiting research scientist with Dr. Walter Mooney at the United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA. 2019-03 Core-Mantle Coevolution: Thermal evolution, energy sources, and associated heterogeneity. Hida, Japan. 2018-07 Summer Institute: Using Particle Physics to Understand and Image the Earth. Ferrara, Italy. Conference Abstracts, Presentations *Presenter Sammon, L.*, McDonough, W.F., and Mooney, W. D: AGU, Dec. 2021 Sammon, L.*, McDonough, W.F., and Mooney, W. D: GSA, Oct. 2021 Sammon, L.*, McDonough, W.F., and Mooney, W. D. Building compositions of the deep continental crust: EGU, May 2021 Sammon, L.*, and McDonough, W.F. Geoneutrino Contributions from the Deep Lithosphere: Neutrino Geoscience, Oct. 21-23, 2019 McDonough, W.F.*, Sramek, O., Roskovec, B., Wipperfurth, S.A., and Sammon, L., Advances in Neutrino Geophysics: AGU, Dec. 10-14, 2018 Sammon, L.*, and McDonough, W.F., Geochemical Characteristics of Granulite and Constraining the Geophysical Properties of the Lower Continental Crust: AGU, Dec. 10-14, 2018 Teaching 2018-2019 (2 semesters): GEOL 110 Physical Geology Laboratory (TA, head TA) Three laboratory sections of introductory geology; head/coordinating teaching assistant in charge of course organization and preparation for one semester 2017-2019 (2 semesters): GEOL 445 High Temperature Geochemistry (TA) Two laboratory/recitation sections of high temperature geochemistry; wrote course materials, developed laboratory procedures and problem sets, coordinated training and sample analysis on various analytical instrumentation Professional Experience FMC Corporation, Ewing, New Jersey Applications Technician, November, 2016 – July, 2017 Developed applications and executed technical service requests for current and prospective clients for food, color, and personal hygiene products; tested stability of color compounds in food products Member of the on-site emergency response force. Quality Assurance Researcher, December, 2015 – November, 2016 Planned, set-up, and executed experiments to evaluate the stability and performance of agrochemical formulations Service 2021-2022 Supervisor and mentor for high school student research internship 2019-2022 Girls’ 14U & 12U USA Ice Hockey coach, Howard County Youth Hockey Club 2021 GSA Annual Meeting session co-chair, 2021-2022 Graduate student representative for department faculty meetings 2019-2020 Kids Excelling in Math and Science mentor 2018-2020 Founder and coordinator of UMD Geology graduate student group 2017-2020 Supervisor and mentor for geology undergraduate student research 2016-2017 FMC volunteer safety brigade/on-site emergency responder 2014-2015 Rutgers Public Safety and Community Service Officer Professional Affiliations Geological Society of America (GSA) American Geophyiscal Union (AGU)