Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability

SEAS Dean Jonathan Overpeck elected to National Academy of Sciences

DEEPS alumn Jonathan (Peck) Overpeck was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Overpeck was one of Tom Webb's former PhD students and currently serves as the Dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.
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National Academy of Sciences

Greg Hirth elected to the National Academy of Sciences

DEEPS Chair and Professor Greg Hirth was recently elected to The National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
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News from DEEPS

Spring Break Field Trip 2024

This year DEEPS undergraduate students visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona for their annual Spring Break Field Trip (SBFT). Twenty-six students, Assistant Professor Emily Cooperdock, and Lab Manager Travis Parsons explored the spectacular geological features and processes, and bonded over snowy mishaps and sandwiches. Here is what they had to say about their adventures:
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American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Greg Hirth elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

DEEPS Chair and Professor Greg Hirth has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy is an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members, as well as an independent research center convening leaders from across disciplines, professions, and perspectives to address significant challenges.
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AGU23 Outstanding Student Presentation Awards

Two DEEPS Graduate Students Receive AGU's 2023 Outstanding Student Presentation Awards

Anahi Carrera won within the Education section for her AGU presentation titled, "Underrepresentation of first-generation college students in the geosciences - A diverse group to support in the post-Affirmative Action era." Alexia Rojas won within Tectonophysics for her AGU presentation titled, "Long Term San Andreas Fault Offset Re-Examined Through a Multichronometer Study of a Key Piercing Point." We are very proud of Anahi and Alexia for their achievements and recognition from the community!
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The University’s Task Force on the Status of Women Faculty’s April 2023 report found that women faculty feel their service to the Brown community is “undocumented and, as a consequence, underappreciated.” Professor Jan Tullis commented on the role of women mentors, especially for those in STEM, saying that “there’s been a tendency over time … for women students to feel more comfortable coming to me as an advisor … especially about personal things, but also (about) academic things.”
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The Publics Radio

East Coast earthquake felt in Rhode Island

Rhode Island was among several East Coast states that felt a small earthquake on Friday morning, April 5th. Brown University Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer says even though the quake was small, it was felt in multiple states because of the geologic makeup of the East Coast.
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NASA Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Early Career Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Angel Mojarro

Angel Mojarro, who graduated from Brown in 2011 with B.Sc. Geological Sciences, discusses his research on lipids at NASA Goddard and the chance to work on the samples from OSIRIS-REx in a recent NASA Early Career Scientist Spotlight.
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Dr. Sierra (Wiegman) Brown holds a B.S. (2016) in Geophysics and Geochemistry from SUNY Fredonia, and M.S. (2018) and Ph.D. (2022) degrees in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences from Brown University. Brown is also an enrolled member of the Shinnecock Nation, and draws on the practice of “Two-Eyed Seeing” to provide unique insights that integrate indigenous and western approaches to knowledge.
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DEEPS Professor John Mustard recently shared his opinion with Nature about NASA's new considerations for the Perseverance rover's mission, saying the rocks currently on board are “great, but they’re not sufficient to be the transformative samples that we want them to be.”
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AGU Student Programs

AGU 2023 Outstanding Student Presentation Award

The AGU's 2023 Outstanding Student Presentation Award winners were recently announced, including two DEEPS graduate students. Anahi Carrera won within the Education section for her AGU presentation titled, "Underrepresentation of first-generation college students in the geosciences - A diverse group to support in the post-Affirmative Action era." Alexia Rojas Alexia won within Tectonophysics for her AGU presentation titled, "Long Term San Andreas Fault Offset Re-Examined Through a Multichronometer Study of a Key Piercing Point." View the 2023 Winner Gallery to see their posters.
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Recent Postdoctoral Research Fellow Kai-Xun Chen has published a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters, titled “Seismic evidence for a mid-lithospheric discontinuity in 155 million-year-old Pacific lithosphere. Consistent with now-frozen melt that was trapped in the young lithosphere close to the ridge.” The publication lays out evidence for a low velocity layer inside old oceanic lithosphere. Dr. Chen completed this research while he was a postdoctoral researcher in DEEPS, working with Prof. Don Forsyth and Prof. Karen Fischer.
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DEEPS PhD candidate César Bucheli recently published a new paper in Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, titled “What can we learn from geothermobarometry at the dacitic Doña Juana Volcanic Complex (Colombia)? Implications for understanding Pleistocene crystal mushes and pre-eruptive storage conditions in the Northern Andes.” Bucheli and co-authors reconstructed the geochemical behavior of Pleistocene melts feeding eruptions of the Doña Juana Volcanic Complex (SW Colombia, Northern Andes) and found evidence to suggest the existence of one of the first examples of long-lived trans-crustal magma systems in the country.
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