The off-planet idea called bioARK is designed to create a self-sustaining lunar settlement using algae. The proposal received honorable mention from the Aurelia Institute Prize in Design for Space Urbanism. “Moving beyond the cradle will require an all-of-life effort: humans cannot leave Earth without life-sustaining microbial biomes,” according to the submission by Lynn Rothschild, a NASA Ames Research Center scientist, James Head III, a Brown University research professor, and Christopher Maurer, an architect at redhouse studio architecture.

Student researcher Emma Blankstein recently joined the Possibility Team to talk about "Breathe Providence", a research team at Brown that tracks air quality in Providence neighborhoods by asking neighbors to track what they smell in an effort to better understand air pollution in Rhode Island.

A recent study lead by former DEEPS Postdoc Eva Golos found small amounts of partially melted rock at the lower boundary of the lithosphere in the Southwestern United States. “Understanding these processes will help scientists figure out where geologic hazards are high, and where to focus on hazard mitigation,” Golos told The Brown Daily Herald.

This year, DEEPS undergraduates traveled to Texas and Southern New Mexico for the annual 2026 Spring Break Field Trip. Guided by Assistant Professor Sam Birch, their geologic journey included exploring Big Ben National Part, traversing the White Sands gypsum dunes of New Mexico, and much more. Enjoy these photos from their exciting and educational adventure!

As NASA’s Artemis II was in the middle of its epic sling around the moon, DEEPS Professor James Head and John “Jack’’ Mustard spoke with the Boston Globe about the revolutionary science of the mission. From live meteoroid impact flashes to ancient far-side lava flows, scientists anticipate groundbreaking discoveries from Artemis’s unprecedented lunar observations.

As we prepare for the Fall 2026 semester, DEEPS is excited to share our upcoming course options.

In a student opinion piece, Clara Murray '29 shares her experience with Brown courses, advocating for the value of learning experiences beyond the classroom. "Courses in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences provide a great model for this kind of education," she writes. "Before the [EEPS 0220 field trip], I struggled to understand sediment deposition and quartz formation within a textbook or lecture, but these concepts made much more sense when I could see quartz layered within the rocky outcroppings..."

In a recent Nature publication, DEEPS alum Lorenzo A. Davidson '24, undergraduate Constance M. Erdozain, Professor Emanuele Di Lorenzo and team explore key factors impacting the migration of juvenile North Pacific albacore tuna. Using electronic tagging data and an individual-based model (IBM), the researchers demonstrate that mixed layer depth has a pivotal role in influencing albacore migration timing and depth preferences. "These findings highlight the relevance of subsurface ocean conditions to the movement of highly migratory species and demonstrate the utility of IBMs in the study of complex migratory behaviors."

DEEPS is proud to announce that Department Chair and George Ide Chase Professor of Physical Sciences Meredith Hastings is this year's recipient of the Meenakshi Narain Excellence in Research Mentoring (ERM) Award.

In this new study, DEEPS graduate student Manuel Justin Custado examines the authorship of climate science research in South East Asia, offering a valuable lens into who is funding, writing, and accessing climate science for this highly impacted region. "Quantifying these patterns can provide insights into key challenges and opportunities regarding the participation of local researchers in SEA climate science."

DEEPS Professor Victor Tsai spoke with NPR's Short Wave podcast about "lake stars," the dark spidery, star-shaped patterns that can form in ice, and how he became the first person to scientifically prove how they form. Plus, he explains how knowing more about lake stars can potentially give us clues about the presence of water on Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons.

Three DEEPS graduate students have created a Field Preparedness Guide, a fillable brochure and informative guide to help support safe, productive, and fun field experiences for undergraduate and graduate students.

In this video, DEEPS Chair Meredith Hastings (George Ide Chase Professor of Physical Sciences and Professor of Environment and Society), and Jesus Holguin, Executive Director and Programming Steward of the Racial & Environmental Justice Committee in Providence, speak powerfully to their experience building a research collaboration grounded in shared power and ownership, trusting relationships, and knowledge held by communities as well as academics.

A blend of chemistry and molecular-biology techniques are enabling archaeologists to mine ancient sediments for clues about the people who once lived there. DEEPS Professor James Russell commented on how ancient vegetation can provide reveal hints about ancient climate: the heavier it rains in the region, “there’s less and less of the heavy isotope left and more and more of the light isotope.”

A recent study utilizes ancient plant waxes preserved in sediments from two Utah lakes to investigate ancient climate history. Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra noted that a key reason for analyzing the hydrogen isotopes is to compare the climate patterns revealed by the plant wax to the patterns predicted by current climate models.

Professor Jim Head is heading the 500-Day Design Reference Mission, which researches practices that would be necessary for 500 days on the moon. The project also helps to train the next generation of planetary scientists. WaTae Mickey ’26, a research assistant in Head’s lab, is researching the site where Apollo 15 landed. Logan Ramanathan ’28, another research assistant in the lab, is researching lunar surface power and surface interactions with rocket exhaust.

The Brown Daily Herald spoke to weather experts, including Professor Amanda Lynch and graduate student Maria Luìsa Rocha, to understand the distinction between the two winter weather events. “In short, all blizzards are snowstorms, but not all snowstorms meet the criteria to be classified as blizzards,” Maria noted.

A new study led by DEEPS Assistant Professor Emily H. G. Cooperdock and DEEPS 2024 REU alumn Ailani Bonilla investigates how nitrogen is stored in ultramafic (mantle) rocks from subduction zones. Their study tested whether serpentine, talc, or chlorite store most of the nitrogen in fluid-altered mantle rocks rocks, as has been proposed by previous researchers based on their sheet-like crystal structures. They found that while these minerals contain some nitrogen, they do not host the majority of it, indicating that a substantial portion resides in other minerals or sites within the rocks. This finding has important implications for models of nitrogen mobility and storage during subduction, metamorphism, and fluid-rock interactions.

A historic 37.9 inches of snow fell in Providence this week, breaking the record as the snowstorm is the largest recorded in state history. DEEPS Associate Professor Jung-Eun Lee shared insight into what causes blizzards, and what factors contributed to this historic weather event.

In an interview with The Boston Globe, Professor James Head discusses his experiences working with NASA to help land Apollo astronauts on the moon, compared with helping today's 18 astronauts selected for the Artemis mission. "The big thrill for me now is not so much doing it again, it’s that we get to share it with people who didn’t get the individual experience before," Head noted. "I think there’s hope that it’s going to be as inspirational as Apollo 8 was. ... I want my students who are now working at NASA headquarters to have the thrill of all this."

Olivia Anderson shares her scientific journey in the geosciences in this spotlight interview by DEEPS Communications Assistant, Hania Khan.

DEEPS Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra and Postdoc Gavin Piccione are co-leaders on a collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation to examine how climate behaved in past climates when large lakes existed in the Mojave Desert.

Postdoctoral Research Associate Andrea Rajšić and Research Scientist Matt Jones have each been awarded funding through NASA's Lunar Data Analysis Program (LDAP) for their projects: "Moon Underground" and "Re-investigating the Moon’s Crustal thickness."

In honor of International Day of Women and Girls in Science and Black History Month, Data Scientist Matt Jones highlighted some pioneering scientists whose legacies are especially important to the researchers and students here in DEEPS.

When DEEPS postdoctoral geochemist Gavin Piccione received a notification of possible lead pollution in his area, it inspired the development of the Urban Water Pollution Project (UWPP), a collaborative research initiative to understand heavy metal pollution in the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket watersheds in Providence. “The goal and the strategy is the more you know, the more power and more connection to this place you have,” Piccione said.

In a recent perspective paper, Assistant Professor Mara Freilich, former posdoc Lilly Dove, and graduate student Katarina Merk present observational and model-based evidence for ocean eddy processes that lead to small-scale heterogeneity in the upper mesopelagic ocean.

Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper recently offered commentary on the clean-energy economy and climate change. “The transition toward a clean energy economy is well underway, and that’s happening all around the world,” Fox-Kemper said.

DEEPS PhD student Peter Van Kawtyk, with co-authors Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper, Assistant Professor Karianne Bergen, and Dr. Helene Hewitt (UK Met Office), have published a new perspective paper that discusses emerging research on machine learning-based "emulators" in climate science. They argue that "the next phase of climate modeling hinges on closer collaboration between simulator and emulator communities."

Dr. Rocío Paola Caballero-Gill, a 2015 PhD graduate, was recently presented with the 2025 Randolph W. “Bill” and Cecile T. Bromery Award. She is a pioneering advocate for the Latinx community, disabled scientists, and all minoritized groups in STEM. Her work has made innovative and impactful contributions both to paleoclimate research and to the creation of community-engaged initiatives that broaden participation in the geosciences.

NASA’s Artemis II mission will be taking astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen to the vicinity of the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. DEEPS Professor commented on the mission's parallels with the Apollo 8 mission, noting, "Here are these four brave astronauts making observations of the moon and looking back at the Earth after over 50 years. It’s going to be new. With all the confusion that’s going on on Earth today, it could even be a force for bringing people together..."

A new series of workshops hosted by Climate Ready Together shares general information about how Providence is impacted by climate change and how residents can get involved in addressing it on a macro level. The most effective method for combating climate change relies on coordinated state-level strategy, notes DEEPS Professor and IBES Director Kim Cobb, citing the importance of “real awareness and education across many different channels and many different avenues,” including in classrooms and town councils. The story is published as part of a collaboration between ecoRI News and students in Brown University’s Science Journalism class.