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.
A reconstruction of temperature in Colombia during the Pliocene, when CO2 levels were similar to today, suggests that parts of the tropics might soon experience more dramatic warming than previously expected.
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.