I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of New Mexico investigating the role of mountain topography in controlling orographic blocking events in the western US. This work has implications for our understanding of how precipitation and associated meteoric water isotopic distribution patterns change or will change under varying climate and tectonic states. This work is funded by the three-year EPSCoR grant given to the Western Consortium of New Mexico, Nevada, and Idaho to investigate how global climate change will impact water resources in the arid, western US.