Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Undergraduate Research

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Undergraduate Research

Whether you enjoy making measurements in the lab, analyzing data and modeling processes through computing, or collecting samples in the field, there are research opportunities in DEEPS that will let you develop your interests.

The DEEPS faculty conduct internationally recognized research at the forefront of their fields. Undergraduate students participate actively in this research, experiencing the excitement of discovery with faculty and the grad students and postdocs in their research groups.  Undergraduates can get involved in research during the summer or the academic year, through paid positions (either UTRAs or direct support from faculty research grants) or Independent Research Project courses.

Through research, students get meaningful hands-on experience as well as a chance to assess various career options. It is common for undergraduates to present their research at national science meetings such as the American Geophysical Union meeting and the Lunar and Planetary Science Meeting, and for undergraduate research to be published.

The Sarah LaMendola Award

The Sarah LaMendola Undergraduate Research Award provides support for undergraduate research in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University. It was established in honor of the memory of Sarah LaMendola ’04 through the generosity of her family and friends.
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Highlights

Anjali smiling beside a microscope.
1 of 10

Anjali Shah: "I am using microscopic marine organisms to analyze oxygen isotopes in the equatorial Pacific in order to understand changing ice cover over the past 5-6 million years." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisor Tim Herbert.

Isaiah sitting on a stone beside the ocean.
2 of 10

Isaiah Olds-Campanile: "I am exploring the geology of Rhode Island and the surrounding area to create a class focusing on New England Field Geology." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisor Blake Hodgin.

Marlena sitting in the lab, smiling for the photo.
3 of 10

Marlena Brown: "I am analyzing oxygen isotopes in a fossil coral from 1810 to understand how temperature and salinity changed in the central tropical Pacific during the onset of climate change." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisor Kim Cobb.

Dan Wexler & Lorenzo Davidson
4 of 10

Dan Wexler & Lorenzo Davidson: "We are using satellite data to analyze how temperature, chlorophyll and salinity in Narragansett Bay have changed over the past 38 years." | Summer UTRA 2022, Advisor: Baylor Fox-Kemper.

Josiah pointing the x-ray at a sample.
5 of 10

Josiah Guynes: "I am on a team developing novel microsurgical methods to implant metal markers in bone, with the purpose of recording and modeling the biomechanics of mouse mastication using the Keck Facility x-ray video capture system." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisors Beth Brainerd & Kelsey Stilson (Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology)

Jonah holding a bag of samples in the lab.
6 of 10

Jonah Bernstein-Schalet: "I am using soils and stream samples from post-fire landscapes in Oregon to investigate the potential effects of fire on weathering and carbon storage/transport." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisor Dan Ibarra.

Maxwell looking through the microscope.
7 of 10

Maxwell Ferguson: "I am analyzing oxygen isotope ratios of microscopic marine fossils (foraminifera) to study changes in sea surface temperature and thermocline depth in the tropical Pacific Ocean during the Pliocene (3 million years ago)." | Summer UTRA 2023, Advisor Tim Herbert

Luke Randall and Yan Liang
8 of 10

Luke Randall: "I am analyzing Ti/Al ratios in pyroxenes from Martian meteorites and experimental samples to understand magma crystallization on Mars." | Summer UTRA 2022, Advisor: Yan Liang.

Natalie Chang
9 of 10

Natalie Chang: "I am analyzing stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon from ~25,000 yr old lake sediments in the SW U.S. in order to better understand future climate change." | Summer UTRA 2022, Advisor: Dan Ibarra.

Luke Fromm
10 of 10

Luke Fromm: "I am testing the efficacy of commercial satellites in detecting invasive Phragmites australis in RI freshwater marshes." | Summer UTRA 2022, Advisor: Larry Smith.