This summer we’re introducing interns from URISE, RESESS, Student Career, and Geo-Launchpad programs to highlight their research projects and how EarthScope programs further their career goals.

Kaetu Wleh is from Boston, Massachusetts and is a senior at Amherst College majoring in geology. At Amherst, Kaetu is doing a thesis on the metamorphic history of the Gravelly Mountain Range in Montana. Kaetu has always wanted to become a scientist and has chosen to participate in the URISE internship program to develop and improve his scientific skill set. 

This summer, Kaetu’s project focuses on using passive source seismic data from earthquakes to investigate the crust-mantle boundary. He is doing this by using a new data filtering method that makes it easier to interpret the seismic data by filtering out the data that is considered “noise” in order to produce a more clear dataset. After this internship and after Kaetu graduates from Amherst College in the fall, he plans on working as a hydrogeology technician in spring 2024 and starting graduate school in the fall. Updates on Kaetu’s project will be posted on his blog here throughout the summer.

If you would like to read more about Kaetu’s summer research check out his blog!

Q&A

• What is your favorite part about the internship so far?

My favorite part of the project is problem solving. If I have a problem or there’s an error I enjoy that I can do something to try and solve it and I have the information and background to do it. So far I’ve learned that it’s not actually as complicated as I thought it would be

• Can you tell me about your hobbies and what you enjoy doing in your free time?

I like video games, playing squash, and running.