Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

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.”

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).

Celia Kong-Johnson ’25 is a rising senior studying Geochemistry and Applied Mathematics who works as a research assistant in Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra’s lab, studying past hydroclimate variability in the Philippines. In our fourth Student Research Story, Celia spoke of the friendliness of DEEPS faculty and the department’s welcoming, tight-knit community.

In our first Research Assistant Spotlight, Jonah Bernstein-Schalet ’24, graduating this Spring with an ScB in Geology-Biology, stresses the importance of fieldwork in kindling his passion for wildfire research. As an assistant in Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra’s lab, Jonah investigates chemical weathering and soil formation in the Oregon Cascades with the goal of understanding more about wildfires in the area.

Each year, IBES core faculty, fellows, and affiliates jumpstart their research with the help of IBES Catalyst Research Awards. Assistant Professor Dan Ibarra's Catalyst Award supported his team’s research on weathering fluxes throughout the world.