Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Hosted by Brown Technology Innovations, the annual Innovation@Brown Showcase is a celebration of the spirit of discovery in and around Brown University. This year, Assistant Professor Chris Horvat's project EMPIRIC received the award for Innovation of the Year. EMPIRIC is a new AI-based method for rapid climate and extreme weather prediction for island and coastal territories.

Following the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, scientists warn that the Atlantic hurricane season is far from over. Assistant Professor Chris Horvat commented, “The Gulf (of Mexico) remains fairly anomalously warm even at this point in the year, so we shouldn’t relax."

Climate Change AI has announced the grantees for the 2023 Innovation Grants program, including "EMPIRIC_AI: AI-enabled ensemble projections of cyclone risk for health infrastructure in Pacific Island Countries and Territories" lead by Visiting Assistant Professor (Research) Chris Horvat. The EMPIRIC_AI project aims to develop higher resolution climate models and targeted cyclone risk projections to support health resilience for frontline communities.

Assistant Professor (Research) Christopher Horvat and colleagues, using underwater instruments and a NASA satellite, have found evidence of potentially significant blooms beneath the sea ice encircling Antarctica.

A new paper published by Frontiers, led by Assistant Professor (Research) Christopher Horvat, challenges our current understanding of the Antarctic ecology and the lifecycles of growth that happen under the ice.