Miranda C. Baker | Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz

About Me

I am a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in Ocean Sciences at UCSC advised by Dr. Pratigya Polissar and Dr. Heather Savage. I’m using novel non-targeted geolipidomics and machine learning approaches to generate a complete view of the chemical changes associated with seismic slip that will allow us to consider the size and timing of earthquakes.

Research Interests

Non-targeted Analysis: geolipidomics, gas chromatography mass-spectrometry,
Machine Learning: feature annotation, molecular networking, In silico spectra libraries
Fault heating: frictional heating, thermal maturity indices kinetics

News

[Apr. 2026] Presented at Northern California SETAC!
[Apr. 2026] Invited to talk at Best Practices for Non-targeted (BP4NTA) monthly webniar!
[Oct. 2026] Presented at at International Conference on Non-targeted Screening.
[Oct. 2026] Shared frictional biomarker heating results from the Japan Trench at 405 IODP Post-cruise meeting in Sendai, Japan.
[Sept. 2026] Gave an oral presentation at International Meeting of Organic Geochemists in Porto, Portugal.
[Aug. 2024] Invited to give an oral presentation at Organic Geochemistry Gordon Research Conference.
[May 2024] NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention (2024)

Publications

Geolipidomics: Non-targeted analysis of rapidly heated geologic samples with gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Miranda C. Baker, Heather M. Savage, Pratigya J. Polissar

Journal of Geophysical Research: Machine Learning and Computation (e2025JH000890), 2026.

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Water-column environmental variables and accompanying discrete CTD measurements collected offshore the U.S. Mid- and South Atlantic (ver. 2.0, July 2022)

Miranda C. Baker, Nancy G. Prouty

U.S. Geological Survey data release, 2022.

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CTD (Conductivity Temperature Depth) data collected October-November 2019 offshore of California and Oregon

Nancy G. Prouty, Miranda C. Baker

U.S. Geological Survey data release, 2022.

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CTD profiles and discrete water-column measurements collected off California and Oregon during NOAA cruise RL-19-05 (USGS field activity 2019-672-FA) from October to November 2019,

Nancy G. Prouty, Miranda C. Baker

U.S. Geological Survey data release, 2022.

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Degradation of Oil by Fungi Isolated from Gulf of Mexico Beaches

Rachel L. Simister, Carolyn M. Poutasse, Alana M. Thurston, Jennifer L. Reeve, Miranda C. Baker, Helen K. White

Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2015.

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Service

CORE (Communicating Ocean Sciences Effectively) organizer
Mentored senior thesis students and recent graduates from Earth and Planetary Sciences Department (Monet Pedrazzini, Emma Lindemuth and Kaela Rose)
Participant in NSF professional development program Supporting All Students in the Geosciences
As a USGS Unlearning Racism in Geosciences pod member contributed to deliverables collated in Morriss, M.C. et al. 2024, Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE)—Summary of U.S. Geological Survey URGE pod deliverables