Front Range Isotope Day (FRIDay) 2026

Like isotopes?

Join us for a fun FRIDay on August 21st 2026 at CU Boulder

The INSTAAR Stable Isotope Lab at the University of Colorado is hosting the Front Range Isotope Day (FRIDay) on Friday August 21^th 2026.

FRIDay meetings are an annual, gathering of scientists and technicians from institutions along the Front Range who use stable isotopes in their research. Participants come from a broad range of scientific backgrounds, but we use common research tools and instrumentation. Students are especially encouraged to participate.

In this one-day meeting we’ll learn how researchers are using familiar measurements in different research fields, and how technicians are tackling age-old problems in our analyzers - both isotope ratio mass spectrometers and cutting edge optical methods. This is a great venue for talking shop, showing off proud solutions to technological challenges, and sharing the favorite pieces of our isotope toolkits. We’ll also report the cool science that we’ve learned from various isotopic tracers, and gather useful feedback on our work. Most of all, we’ll build community - so that we have friends “in the business” from up and down the Front Range that we can reach out to for troubleshooting and collaboration (or maybe even just a borrowed filament in a pinch).

This is the best kind of meeting because it is casual, friendly, and fun. We are looking forward to seeing you. Please spread the FRIDay word, along the Front Range and beyond!

Contact: If you have any questions, please email Sylvia Michel (INSTAAR Stable Isotope Lab).

Group photo of the roughly 60 participants of Front Range Isotope Day 2022 at the Colorado School of Mines

Participants of the 2022 Front Range Isotope Day (FRIDay), held at the Colorado School of Mines on August 19, 2022. Image courtesy Susann Stolze.

Agenda

Time		Speaker	Title
8:00		Check-in and Breakfast
8:30		Nikki Lovenduski	Welcome
8:40	Keynote	Bradley Markle	Temperature-dependent feedbacks drive the pattern of Antarctic temperature change
9:20	Science talks	Rachel Greene	Stable isotope tracers reveal gas-surface interactions in a real office space
9:40		Shaily Rahman	Isotopic tools in probing fluxes and mass balances in the reactive Si cycle
10:00		Christina Sluka	A tale as old as time: Influence of preservation techniques on the stable isotope composition of mammalian hair
10:20		Coffee and FRIDay Bingo
10:40	Tech talks	Brett Davidheiser	Laser ablation elemental analysis gas source IRMS. Quick, easy, and accurate results
10:51		Sam Rossman	Fully integrated TOC and TNb analysis of estuarine and sea water samples with the Elementar iso TOC cube^®
11:02		Yang Han	From natural gas to produced water: Expanding DIG's stable isotope and geochemical capabilities
11:13		Mike Colluci	New developments in Laser Ablation IRMS and carbonate preparation systems from Nu Instruments Ltd
11:24		Khaoula Fdil	High precision laser-based N₂O isotopologue analyser for environmental applications
11:35		David Thomson	LabVIEW development for scientific instrumentation
11:46		John Ortega	Method development, data intercomparison and system improvements in the measurements of the deuterium isotope from atmospheric methane
11:57		Poster elevator pitches
12:15		Lunch
1:00		Poster Session
2:00	Science talks	David Clemens-Sewall	Snow loss into leads in Arctic sea ice: Minimal in typical wintertime conditions, but high during a warm and windy snowfall event
2:20		Emmanuel Komolafe	Seasonal partitioning of snowmelt and summer rainfall across soil water pools and tree water use in a sub-alpine forest of the Rocky Mountains
2:40		Gabriela Sanchez Ortiz	Understanding the history of Altai uplift using stable and clumped isotope analysis in western Mongolia
3:00		Poster Winners and Coffee
3:10		Lab Tours
4:25		Ice Cream & Lawn Games

Posters

	Presenter	Title
1	Joyeeta Bhattacharya	Evaluation of dilution methods using Sage Gas Autosampler for precise δ¹³C-CO₂ measurements in discrete vial samples
2	Michelle Haddix	Studying Arabidopsis decomposition in situ utilizing isotopes in a greenhouse setting to understand soil carbon stabilization, decomposition, and potential accrual
3	Jason Hupp	An alternative approach to separate source and background stable carbon isotope composition using TDLAS analyzers
4	Qian Tian	Elemental controls on reverse weathering: Evidence from diatoms and clays and prospects for isotopic tracing

Student Posters

	Presenter	Title
5	Hayley Bennett	Constraining the magnitude of abrupt changes in atmospheric circulation during the Last Glacial Period
6	Taylor Bennett	Tracing aridity across equatorial Pangea using paleosol carbonate δ¹³C
7	Rachel Bernstein	Neogene U.S. Southwest temperatures paced by global climate
8	Ethan Martinez	Trends in precipitation and groundwater d-excess across the Colorado Front Range: Variability and comparisons to δ¹⁸O
9	Valentina Osorio	Examining the impacts of warming on alpine watersheds using multiple stable isotopes of Sulfate
10	Claire Puranananda	Investigating the utility of δ¹⁵N of nitrate for characterizing nitrogen sources in the Mississippi Delta
11	Logan Seymour	Refining estimates of groundwater evapotranspiration in a montane riparian zone using water stable isotopes
12	Bryce Shoup	Rock glacier controls on nitrogen cycling and streamflow generation in a snow-dominated mountain catchment

Location

The meeting will be held at the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) building on CU Boulder's East Campus.

Parking Info

Parking will be provided courtesy of our generous Sponsors. If you requested parking during the registration, you should receive an email by the time of the meeting with instructions on how to add you license plates to the permit for the event.

Directions

Parking will be available on LOT 556 at SEEC building:

4001 Discovery Dr

Boulder, Co 80303

After turning into Discovery Drive coming from Colorado Ave, take the first right.

Continue past the visitor parking (Lot 550) and the section of lot 556 along the right side of the road until you get to the larger parking lot on the back side of the building. There will be signage guiding you from here to the meeting rooms:

Mailing list

Registrants for the 2026 meeting will automatically be added to our mailing list and receive updates about this years' meeting (e.g., schedule) and future events. If you're not ready to register but still want to be on the list, just sign up below:

Get added to the FRIDay mailing list