Local residents and researchers are working together in a community-led effort called "WaterSpeak" to test the air, water and soil in the Port of Providence. DEEPS Assistant Professor Mara Freilich has partnered with the People’s Port Authority, a grassroots environmental organization, to help community scientist investigate questions to understand how pollution is affecting the community. The team also plans collaborate with Breathe Providence, a research team at Brown University that tracks neighborhood air quality across the city, including along Allens Avenue.

The new Campus Geology Field Guide invites users to explore Brown University's campus through a geological lens by learning basic rock types, uncovering campus history, or diving deeper into mineral identification. This free resource was organized by DEEPS graduate students Hannah Shabtian and Emily Fischer, and researched by their Brown Pre-College course as a hands-on exploration of geology and science communication.

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 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.

DEEPS PhD student Alejandra Lopez describes her research on the Salton Sea alongside community volunteers. Through rigorous science and community engagement, Alejandra's work on the Salton Sea Project is demonstrating what environmental research can accomplish when it centers the needs and knowledge of those most impacted.

Turn To 10's Mario Hilario speaks with Logan Tullai, Artist-in-Residence at the Knight Memorial Library in partnership with LunaSCOPE and the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant, about the art project he's spearheading that gets the community involved by using the sun to print pictures of the moon.

DEEPS is proud to present our newest Lincoln Field Art Show. "Blue Moon: Lunar Orbiter Silk Cyanotype" is a student exhibition featuring a 60-foot vertical silk cyanotype, along with smaller cyanotypes, community event photos, and a video on the 1960s Lunar Orbiter Missions.

A recent study, supported by Alianza Coachella Valley, reveals the alarming environmental and public health risks posed by the Salton Sea’s ongoing environmental crisis, and highlights the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to mitigate the risks faced by nearby communities. “The community based approach is essential to the success of the research. Our research aims to inform action and that action will only be impactful and equitable if impacted communities are front and center in all decision-making,” said Mara Freilich, DEEPS Assistant Professor, corresponding author on the study, and PI of the NASA grant, ‘Earth Observations for Resilient Salton Sea Communities.’

Brown’s Equitable Climate Futures initiative is looking to bridge the gap between research and community action by bringing together interdisciplinary teams of researchers and community members. Professor Baylor Fox-Kemper, a faculty director of ECF said the initiative is “science meets social sciences meets outlooks for climate change.”

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.

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.”

For their AP environmental science and biology field trip, Barrington High School students visited the Blackstone River to learn about Rhode Island's history of pollution. The trip was supported by the RI NASA Space Grant. “We want to get students outside the classroom beyond the textbooks and internet articles they read about,” said Ralph Milliken, Program Director and DEEPS Associate Professor. “So they can understand the interplay on human society and the natural environment.”

In a new publication in AGU Advances, Postdoctoral Fellow Lily Dove and her colleagues present a framework for graduate programs to evaluate and modify their qualifying examinations. "Most importantly", explained Dove, "the proposed process is iterative and data-driven, meaning that programs can continually refine and make changes to qualifying examinations based on student outcomes and experiences."

For Roger Williams University’s Women in STEM Week, female scientists, mathematicians, and innovators, including DEEPS Ph.D. students Riley Havel and Hannah Shabtian, gathered for a series of events to break down barriers and stereotypes and promote gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, all while encouraging more female students to pursue careers in STEM.

Brown's Multimedia Lab encourages students to create projects using film negatives from NASA Lunar Orbiter 4 Mission. The scans were originally part of the Brown/NASA Northeast Planetary Data Center and were donated to the Creative Reuse Center in June 2023 after a DEEPS consolidation effort. “We were surprised and delighted to see some of the scans turn up back at Brown,” Jackson wrote to the Brown Daily Herald.

The Community Noise Lab and Swearer Center at Brown University organized a forum titled, "Firing Back" held on November 13 at the School of Public Health. At the event, Juliet Fang, a second-year undergraduate student at Brown studying Public Health and Geology-Biology, shared data indicating that the noise levels from the firing range were higher than what the city of Cranston legally allows. Her study underscored the link between noise pollution and various health issues, including disrupted sleep, heightened stress, and cognitive impairments, as well as chronic conditions like hypertension and heart disease.

Professor Meredith Hastings discussed Providence air quality and the Breathe Providence project with the Providence Journal. Breathe Providence has set out to address what its researchers see as a gap in air quality data by investing in a network of measuring instruments that they hope will yield more detailed information that reflects a person’s actual exposure to ozone and other pollutants.

This past spring, Voss Postdocs Jayson Maurice Porter and Lina C. Pérez-Angel worked together to develop a four-class learning module for the fifth graders of SouthSide Elementary Charter School.

In late June, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson traveled to the Ocean State for a firsthand look at the research and technology that Rhode Island colleges, universities and businesses are producing to support the space agency’s mission.

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.

DEEPS is proud to present the Lincoln Field Art Exhibition, a Spring 2023 collaboration between the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences and the PHUM 2020 Methods in Public Humanities class.

On March 29th, DEEPS hosted a thrilling volcano demonstration for fourth and fifth graders from the Vartan Gregorian School.

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.

To better understand the local distribution of air quality, University researchers (including professor Meredith Hastings) are setting up air pollution monitors across Providence in a study called Breathe Providence. Funded by the Clean Air Fund, the study aims to provide communities — especially those of lower socioeconomic status — with data to inform pollution reduction initiatives.

A special review of the DEEPS Mass Spectrometer Naming Contest taking place on Instagram and Twitter.

Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra was featured on the popular educational YouTube channel, "Every Rock Has a Story".