Professor Jan Tullis, a beloved member of the Brown University community, passed away on September 15, 2024.

Professor Greg Hirth has been awarded the 2024 Harry Hess Medal from the American Geophysical Union. The Harry H. Hess Medal is given annually to a senior scientist in recognition of outstanding achievements in research on the constitution and evolution of the Earth and other planets.

Each year, AGU celebrates individuals who have made significant contributions to the Earth and space sciences. This year, DEEPS graduate student Manar Al Asad was honored with the 2024 Study of the Earth's Deep Interior Section Award for Graduate Research.

A new paper published earlier this year by alumn Benjamin Boatwright PhD’22 and Professor James Head PhD’69 proposes new refinement to current imagining technologies using a method they call “shape-from-shading.”

Logan Tullai ’25 oversaw the creation of large-scale cyanotype prints using two rolls of NASA Lunar Orbiter film, decommissioned from the repository of NASA data and images once housed within DEEPS. “I thought it would be cool to use the sun’s UV to make pictures of the moon,” Tullai said.

Brown offers transformational opportunities for students to conduct summer research with faculty colleagues and present results at the Summer Research Symposium. Impact: Research at Brown shared highlights from the event, including a quote from WaTae Mickey Jr. ’26, whose ultimate goal is to plan missions to space.

Many researchers describe public outreach as a labour of love, often carried out in their spare time. But some funders reward these activities. In an interview with Nature, Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate Lina Pérez-Angel described her insight and experience with science communication, noting “Science communication is as real and as hard as doing research.”

Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate Lina Pérez-Angel discussed the rapid acceleration of climate change in an interview with The Guardian, saying “there’s nothing in Earth’s history that shows a change happening this quickly.”

From missions to the Moon & Mars, to lake sediments, to climate modeling, many undergraduate students worked on groundbreaking research in DEEPS this summer break. This year, we are excited to showcase these diverse research projects through a special combination of art, writing, and photography developed by Claire Xu ‘27.

In a recent study published in the PLanetary Science Journal, researchers describe an odd surface feature that supports the presence of underground caves termed subsurface voids. DEEPS professor and study co-author James Head indicated that the relatively low lunar gravity likely allowed big bubbles of gas to form in magma, leaving behind subsurface voids.

In a recent study published in Science Advances, DEEPS PhD candidate Manar Al Asad and Assistant Professor Harriet Lau demonstrate that Earth's early tectonic activity was likely very different from what we see today. They propose a 'sluggish-lid' mode, where the Earth's outer layer moved slowly and was partially disconnected from the mantle. The new model addresses previous challenges in understanding Earth's thermal history and tectonic evolution, offering new insights into how Earth's magnetic field is maintained throughout most of Earth's history.

Since last July, Earth’s average temperature has been at least 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. IBES Director and DEEPS Professor Kim Cobb spoke with the Washington Post about this trend, saying “We’re dancing about a climate average that is very dangerous for communities and ecosystems around the world.” Read more.

Postdoc Lily Dove explains how seals have become valuable allies with scientists who are studying how the oceans are changing in the remote reaches of the Southern Ocean. Tags on the seals' heads collects data while the seal dives and transmits its location and the scientific data back to researchers via satellite when the seal surfaces for air.

The Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences is proud to welcome Professor Meredith Hastings, the George Ide Chase Professor of Physical Sciences, as the new Department Chair. Hastings has been a member of the Brown faculty since 2008 and steps into this new role as the first woman to chair the department.

Rhode Island Superior Court Associate Justice Brian Stern has issued a temporary restraining order after a fire at Rhode Island Recycled Metals LLC. The fire released smoke and potentially harmful chemicals detected throughout the city and into Pawtucket by Breathe Providence sensors, according to expert testimony from Meredith Hastings, DEEPS Chair and project lead for Breathe Providence.

New research shows that, rather than an opening of the passage, the safe shipping season declined along several “choke points” through the Canadian Arctic, especially on the northern route. The finding matches expectations that ice will survive longest in the Canadian Arctic, noted DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch, who was not involved with the study.

Brown's Initiative for Sustainable Energy recently announced Seed Research Awards for 2024-2025, including Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra for his project, “Investigating Mineralogical, Geochemical, & Thermodynamic Mechanisms Governing Lithium Enrichment in Lake Clay Deposits.”

Gabriel Traietti ‘25, concentrating in Geochemistry, investigates the terrestrial paleoclimate of the Congo River Basin in Senior Associate Dean James Russell’s lab. He emphasizes how DEEPS gave him the tools to explore his passion for reconstructing ancient climate to help anticipate the effects of climate change on a local level.

Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra and his team have published a special outreach article in in PAGES Horizons highlighting their cave monitoring efforts in the Philippines. Ibarra said, "it is exciting to share our efforts to develop this work in multiple cave systems in the Philippines over the last several years." The work is led by former Voss Postdoc Natasha Sekhon, co-authored by Celia Kong-Johnson, Justin Custado, Carlos CP David, Mónica Geraldes Vega, and many others, and made possible with support from the National Cave and Karst Research Institute and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES).

LUMIO is a newly approved CubeSat mission to observe meteoroid impacts on the lunar farside. This week, the ESA approved the next stage of the Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) CubeSat mission, meaning it could be ready for launch as early as 2027. In 2023, Postdoctoral Research Associate Aleksandra Sokołowska was selected to be a member of the LUMIO Science Team. She shared her excitement for the project, saying "Being a part of this mission in its early stages has been incredibly fun and rewarding because members of our Science Team come from many different countries, work collaboratively, and the areas of expertise are very diverse. This final mission approval means that the journey continues."

A recent NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts award will provide $2 million over two years to continue technology development of the Mycotecture Off Planet project in preparation for a potential future demonstration mission. With support from the 2018 Stanford-Brown-RISD iGEM team, the project is developing technologies that could “grow” habitats on the Moon and beyond using fungi.