Education

​University of Arizona | Tucson, Arizona
2016 Ph.D. Geosciences
2010 M.S. Geosciences

Carleton College | Northfield, Minnesota
2007 B.A. Geology, with distinction, magna cum laude
concentration: Environmental and Technology Studies 

Professional Experience

Associate Professor (2025-present) Idaho State University, Department of Geosciences
Assistant Professor (2019-2025) Idaho State University, Department of Geosciences
Visiting Assistant Professor (2018-2019) Hamilton College, Geosciences Department
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2016-2018) University of Michigan, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Graduate Research/Teaching Associate (2008-2016) University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences
NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2009-2014)
Geoscience Intern (summer 2013) ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, Texas

Publications

IN REVIEW
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Murray, K.E., Ketcham, R.A., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Technical Note: The Utility of the Controlled Random Search (CRS) Algorithm for Thermal History Analysis in HeFTy, for Geochronology, submitted April 2026.
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Joseph Biasi, Sarah Slotznick, Leif Karlstrom, Alec Brenner, Maria Grozeva, Roger Fu, and Kendra Murray, in review, The magmatic longevity of Columbia River Basalt dikes, Continental mafic volcanism from small to large scale: Honoring the career of Vic Camp, Geological Society of America Books, submitted July 2025.

​PUBLISHED

Goughnour, R.L., Murray, K.E., Karlstrom, L., Biasi, J., Cox, S.E., O’Sullivan, P., and Finney, B., 2025, Co-inversion of multiple thermochronometers and a paleomagnetic thermometer at a Columbia River flood basalt feeder dike (Oregon, USA) demonstrates the sensitivity of thermal history results to diverse data constraints, Geosphere, doi:10.1130/ges02836.1.

Murray, K.E., Niemi, N.A., and Clark, M.K., 2025, Evidence for the Neoproterozoic Rifting of Rodinia in the Rocky Mountain Front Range: Tectonics, v. 44, doi:10.1029/2023tc008216.

Abbey, A.L, Wildman, M., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Murray, K.E., 2023, Thermal history modeling techniques and interpretation strategies: Applications using QTQt, Geosphere, v. 19, no. 2, p. 493-530 doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02528.1

Murray, K.E., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Abbey, A.L, Wildman, M., 2022, Thermal history modeling techniques and interpretation strategies: Applications using HeFTy, Geosphere, v. 18, p. 1622–1642, doi:10.1130/ges02500.1.

​Jimenez-Rodriquez, S., Dettinger, M., Quade, J., Murray, K.E., Paleoaltimetry of the western Andes in northern Chile (~18.5-19.5°S), American Journal of Science, vol. 321, no. 5, p. 491-533. doi: 10.2475/05.2021.01.

​Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., Robert, X., and Whipple, K.X., 2019, The thermochronologic record of erosion and magmatism in the Canyonlands region of the Colorado Plateau, American Journal of Science, vol. 319, no. 5, p. 339-380. doi: 10.2475/05.2019.01​

Karlstrom, L. Murray, K.E., and Reiners, P.W., 2019, Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo inversion of low-temperature thermochronology around two 8-10 m wide Columbia River Flood Basalt dikes, Frontiers in Earth Science, vol. 7, no. 90, doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00090.

Murray, K.E., Braun, J, and Reiners, P.W., 2018, Toward robust interpretations of low-temperature thermochronology in magmatic terranes, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. doi: 10.1029/2018GC007595.

​Bloch, E., Ibañez-Mejia, M., Murray, K.E., Vervoort, J., and Müntener, O., 2017, ​Recent crustal foundering in the Northern Volcanic Zone of the Andean arc: Petrological insights from the roots of a modern subduction zone: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 476, p. 47-58.

​Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., 2016, Rapid Pliocene-Pleistocene erosion of the central Colorado Plateau documented by apatite thermochronology from the Henry Mountains: Geology. v. 44, no. 6, p. 483-486, doi:10.1130/G37733.1.

Loope, D., Kettler, R., Murray, K.E., Pederson, J., and Reiners, P., 2016, Sandstones and Utah’s canyon country: Deposition, diagenesis, exhumation, and landscape evolution, in Keller, S.M. and Morgan, M.L., eds., Unfolding the Geology of the West: Geological Society of America Field Guide 44, p. 41-71, doi:10.1130/2016.0044(02).

Murray, K.E., Ducea, M.N., Schoenbohm, L., 2015, Foundering-driven lithospheric melting: the source of central Andean mafic lavas on the Puna plateau (22˚S - 27˚S), in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 139–166, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(08).

Quade, J., Dettinger, M.P., Carrapa, B., DeCelles, P.G., Murray, K.E., Huntington, K.A., Cartwright, A., Canavan, R., Gehrels, G., Clementz, M., 2015, Growth of the central Andes, 22˚S - 26˚S, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 277-308, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(15).

Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., Vernon, A., Willett, S.D., Zattin, M., Einhorn, J., Gehrels, G., Quade, J. Pearson, D., Murray, K.E., Cavazza, W., 2015, Low-temperature thermochronologic trends across the central Andes, 21˚S - 28 °S, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 215-249, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(12).

Murray, K.E., Orme, D.A., Reiners, P.W., 2014, Effects of U-Th-rich grain boundary phases on apatite helium ages: Chemical Geology. v. 390, p. 135-151, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2014.09.02.

Braun, J., Simon-Labric, T., Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., 2014, Topographic relief driven by variations in surface rock density: Nature Geoscience, v. 7, p. 534–540, doi:10.1038/ngeo2171.

Simon-Labric, T., Brocard, G.Y., Reiners, P.W., van der Beek, P.A., Teyssier, C., Shuster, D.L., Murray, K.E., Whitney, D.L., 2014, Low-temperature thermochronologic signature of range-divide migration and breaching in the North Cascades: Lithosphere, doi:10.1130/L382.1

Ducea, M.N., Seclaman, A.C., Murray, K.E., Jianu, D., Schoenbohm, L.M., 2013, Mantle-drip magmatism beneath the Altiplano-Puna plateau, central Andes: Geology, v. 41, no. 8, p. 915-918, doi: 10.1130/G34509.1

​Quade, J., Reiners, P., Placzek, C., Matmon, A., Pepper, M., Ojha, L., and Murray, K.E., 2012, Seismicity and the strange rubbing boulders of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile: Geology, v. 40, no. 9, p. 851–854, doi: 10.1130/G33162.

Lackey, J.S., Erdmann, S., Hark, J.S., Nowak, R.M., Murray, K.E., Clarke, D.B., and Valley, J.W., 2011, Tracing garnet origins in granitoid rocks by oxygen isotope analysis: Examples from the South Mountain batholith, Nova Scotia: The Canadian Mineralogist, v. 49, p. 417-439.

Barbeau, D.L., Davis, J., Murray, K.E., Valencia, V., Gehrels, G.E., Zahid, K.M., Gombosi, D.J., 2009, Detrital-zircon geochronology of the metasedimentary rocks of northwestern Graham Land: Antarctic Science, v. 22, n. 1, p. 65-78.

Barbeau, D.L., Olivero, E.B., Swanson-Hysell, N.L., Zahid, K.M., Murray, K.E., Gehrels, G.E., 2009,  Detrital-zircon geochronology of the eastern Magallanes foreland basin: Implications for Eocene kinematics of the northern Scotia Arc and Drake Passage: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 284, p. 489-503.