Since the plan was adopted we have hired six new tenure track faculty, one new lecturer, and one new research scientist, giving us new expertise in trace metal geochemistry, petrology, basin analysis, paleoclimate, clumped isotope geochemistry, seismology, and climate modeling. Our newest additions, Julia Kelson and David Lilien, are introduced in this issue of the Newsletter. Having dropped from 22 to 14 tenure-track faculty over the four years before the strategic plan was adopted, we have regrown to 19 with one more tenure-track hire expected in the next year in the area of water. We are once again easily able to offer classes in all areas of geosciences, our graduate program is expanding again, and the number of grants and publications we produce is tracking our growth.
We welcome Assistant Professor Julia Kelson who joined the DEAS faculty in January 2024.
Julia’s research uses Earth’s past to reveal dynamics of the climate system and includes the study of chemical and hydrological processes in the modern critical zone. Her primary work on soils and paleosols, which are the skin of the Earth and record interactions between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere, makes use of stable isotope geochemistry.
Dr. Julia Kelson
Assistant Professor David Lilien started in DEAS at the beginning of 2024, together with his wife, Assistant Professor Julia Kelson.
As a glaciologist, David is primarily interested in the flow of Earth’s ice sheets. The flow patterns largely determine the ice sheets’ response to changes in climate since faster flow causes changes to spread more rapidly.
David works with numerical models, remote sensing, and field data to understand how ice sheets respond to changes at the ice-ocean or ice-atmosphere interface. His recent work focused on translating the small-scale physics of ice deformation to the ice-sheet scale to understand how processes related to the orientation of individual ice crystals affect the flow of the ice sheets.
Dr. David Lilien
Paul Goddard joined the faculty as Assistant Research Scientist.
He uses regional and global climate simulations to examine how climate engineering solutions like marine sky brightening and stratospheric aerosol injection affect regional and global weather and climate patterns. Additionally, he utilizes similar climate models to evaluate future changes in the occurrence, frequency, and duration of extreme heat and precipitation events.
Dr. Paul Goddard
Our freshly-minted PhD Zalmai Yawar joined the staff as Flume Lab Manager on August 1.
Dr. Zalmai Yawar
Ruigang Pan in Chen Zhu’s group joined our department in May 2023. His research mainly focuses on the thermodynamics and kinetics of fluid-rock interactions. He is developing an internally consistent thermodynamic database for modeling rare earth element minerals and aqueous species. He is also working on the experimental study of the reactivity of the mineral zircon, using isotope doping and SIMS technologies.
Ruigang Pan
Zebaze Sinclaire is working in Travis O’Brien’s group on the diurnal to inter-annual variability of coastal fog in an effort to understand the relationship between the frequency of synoptic disturbances and the occurrence of coastal fog in a warming climate.
Zebaze Sinclaire
Sasha Marfin in Shelby Rader’s group studies continental flood magmatism and associated Cu-Ni-PGE sulfide deposits by traditional and non-traditional stable isotope systems.
Sasha Marfin
Hue Nguyen in Chanh Kieu’s group focuses on modeling hurricane development and rapid intensification.
Hue Nguyen
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