Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
For the past two years, paleoclimatologist Natasha Sekhon has enriched IBES & DEEPS with her collaborative work. In a recent IBES article, Natasha discussed the connections she's made by teaching at Brown & conducting cave research in the Philippines.
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Anant Hariharan was selected for his impacts to the fields of seismology, tectonics, and geodynamics through his dissertation, Understanding Overtone Interference in Surface Wave Measurements: Application to Anisotropic Imaging of the Uppermost Mantle Beneath North America.
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News from DEEPS

2023 Commencement Ceremony

The Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences joins Brown University in celebrating the achievements of the graduating class of 2023. Here we will be sharing an expanded version of our Commencement Program, listing the many accomplishments of our new graduates.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently released its latest findings on the human and economic impact of weather-related disasters during the quadrennial World Meteorological Congress in Geneva. The congress is centered around the implementation of the UN's Early Warnings for All initiative. Professor Amanda Lynch, as the Chair of the WMO Research Board, plays a vital role in guiding the objectives and execution of this significant initiative.
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Brown Graduate School

Kristin Kimble Selected for Teaching Excellence Award

Kristin Kimble is honored with an Excellence in Teaching Award for her outstanding dedication, enthusiasm, and reliability in her work with curriculum design and teaching.
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Assistant Professor Gerrit Budde received a Salomon award for his work establishing new procedures for complete sample digestion of meteorite samples utilizing laser-assisted melting and for combined isotope analyses of oxygen and ‘heavy’ elements. Professor Timothy Herbert received a Salomon award for his project developing proof of concept data directly relevant to the long-term stability of the Antarctic ice cap to be submitted to the NSF Marine Geology and Geophysics program.
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News from DEEPS

Congratulations to the 2023 PhD Graduates

The Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences is proud to announce the graduation of four outstanding PhD candidates.
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News from DEEPS

Karen Fischer receives 2023 ERM Award

DEEPS is proud to announce that Professor Karen Fischer is this year's recipient of the Meenakshi Narain Excellence in Research Mentoring (ERM) Award.
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Research at Brown

Baylor Fox-Kemper receives 2023 Seed Award

Baylor Fox-Kemper, alongside Katelyn Moretti, Charles Lawrence, and John Nicklas, has received a 2023 Seed Award for his project, "Bayesian Modeling of Climate-Dependent Mortality Risk among US Residents from 1989 to 2020." This project builds toward a complete, transparent estimation of mortality from the latest generation of climate model projections to 2100.
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News from DEEPS

Earth Day 2023

Earth Day is next Saturday, April 22nd, so DEEPS is highlighting opportunities for you to celebrate all week!
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News from DEEPS

Lincoln Field Exhibit: Call for Art

DEEPS is inviting artists to submit artwork for a small juried exhibition in the department’s newly-renovated Lincoln Field Building.
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Yale Environment 360

For Uganda’s Vanishing Glaciers, Time Is Running Out

A trek through tropical forest, mud fields, and scree reveals the last remnants of the once-sprawling ice fields in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains. “The loss of these glaciers is the loss of a critical component of a system, and it isn’t going to come back any time in the foreseeable future,” said James Russell, who has led expeditions to the Rwenzoris almost every year since 2006.
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News from DEEPS

Celebrating Women's History Month

Women have always played an essential role in the advancement of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences.
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A new study shows evidence that, as recently as 1991, a volcano erupted on Venus. “This study is really important,” said DEEPS Professor Emeritus James W. Head, who was not involved in the research. “Could this be the way Earth was in its earliest history? Or the way Earth is headed in its future?”

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In honor and celebration of World History Month, NASA's Center for Climate Simulation spotlights the career of DEEPS alumn Dr. Chelsea Parker. In her own words, Dr. Parker shares the story of her unique career journey and current role at NCCS.
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The Brown Daily Herald has featured a story about John Matthew Nicklas, a second-year medical student currently on leave from the Alpert Medical School, and DEEPS PhD student focused on planetary health. Planetary health is an interdisciplinary field that studies the links between human health and the health of the planet’s natural systems and resources.
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The ADVANCEGeo Leadership Team, including DEEPS Professor Meredith Hastings, recently published their findings from a workplace climate survey from the geosciences. Their research provides some of the first quantitative evidence of the frequency and pervasiveness of a range of discriminatory behaviors in the earth sciences.
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News from DEEPS

Celebrating Black History Month

This month and every month, DEEPS is celebrating our Black community members and honoring the Black scientists who have made invaluable contributions to our society.
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A new study shows vascular plants may have contributed to shaping Earth’s atmosphere long before trees evolved. DEEPS Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra, who was not involved in the study, is quoted saying “It would be interesting to see this method applied to the whole time series from the Devonian to our time.”
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News from DEEPS

James Russell named Sr. Associate Dean of Faculty

The Brown University Dean of the Faculty has announced that James Russell, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, has been appointed Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty, effective July 1, 2023.
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A new U.S. Geological Survey reports that the world has enough rare earth minerals and other critical raw materials to switch from fossil fuels. “There are enough materials in reserves. The analysis is robust and this study debunks those (running out of minerals) concerns,” said DEEPS Assistant Professor Daniel Ibarra, who wasn’t part of the study but looks at lithium shortages.
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News from DEEPS

Welcome Back: Excitement for Spring '23

Brown University is getting ready to kick off the spring semester this Wednesday, January 25th, and everyone in DEEPS is excited for the new semester. We asked a number of the DEEPS community what they were looking forward to in the upcoming semester, and this is what they had to say:
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In a WFLA interview, IBES Director & DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb discusses marine limestone as a climate proxy. “The corals that I work with in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are as good, if not better than the temperature records from satellites.”
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In his interview with Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong, Professor Laurence Smith argues that implementing new approaches to managing rivers is essential for healthier waterways and sustaining the communities that depend on them. Moreover, strategic management today is the way to a better, climate-adapted future.
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Sustainability at Brown

Fall 2022 Seed Grant Recipients

The Office of Sustainability and The Climate Solutions Initiative have announced the recipients for the Fall 2022 Seed Grants for Sustainability. Recipients include the research project, "Quantifying Carbon Dioxide and Methane Concentrations in Providence, RI," led by Professor Meredith Hastings, and "Detection and Measurement of Methane Gas Leaks on Brown’s College Hill Campus" led by Caitlyn Carpenter ‘25 and advised by Hastings.
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News from DEEPS

Undergrad students presenting at AGU22

Seven Brown University undergrads and five of the undergrads from the 2022 DEEPS-Leadership Alliance REU are presenting research posters at this year's AGU Fall Meeting. We'd like to congratulate all of these students on their research, and if you are attending the AGU conference we encourage you to see their poster in person. 
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPCC Climate Change in Data with Baylor Fox-Kemper

Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper explains the effects of different emissions scenarios on our ocean & frozen parts of our planet. Fox-Kemper was one of the Coordinating Lead Authors for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Chapter 9: "Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change."
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A vital part of future planetary science missions will be the development of more inclusive teams. As NASA’s InSight mission comes to its end on Mars, Professor Ingrid J. Daubar and the team share strategies that have helped them to work toward this goal in a new Nature Astronomy article.
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NASA has built a new rocket and spacecraft to get astronauts to Earth's nearest neighbor, and it's developing a new toolkit for them to use on the lunar surface as well. Professor James Head reflects on Apollo tool handling with Space.com
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Two Brown researchers are part of an international science expedition currently off the coast of Portugal. DEEPS graduate student Bryce Mitsunaga and professor Tim Herbert are at sea onboard the JOIDES Resolution, part of a team that wants to learn more about the past and help us plan for, and possibly avert, the worst impacts of climate change.
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