I'm a rock squeezer. I torture ice and rock-type things to learn their secrets. I am particularly interested in how the micro controls the macro, that is, how grain and phase boundaries, defect concentration, and partial melt influence the mechanical behavior of terrestrial and planetary materials. I run laboratory experiments and have been known to cheer when something works or sit there staring at a creep curve for an hour straight. I make-n-break my own samples, systematically controlling each impurity or defect.