News Archives

2009

Ben Weiss awarded 2009 Macelwane Medal
Professor Ben Weiss was awarded the Macelwane Medal by the American Geophysical Union to recognize his significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding young scientist. Peter Huyber, an EAPS alumnus, also was recognized as a Medalist. more info

John Southard awarded 2009 Distinguished Service Award
Emeritus Professor John Southard was honored by the Society for Sedimentary Geology with his selection to receive the Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to science and the Society during his career.

Amy Draut awarded 2009 James Lee Wilson Award
EAPS would also like to congratulate Dr. Amy Draut, an EAPS MIT/WHOI Joint Program alumna, who was recognzed for "Excellence in Sedimentary Geology by a Young Scientist" by the Society for Sedimentary Geology.

Clark Burchfiel has been awarded GSA's Penrose Medal, the highest honor of that society.

Tim Grove, et al. solved longstanding volcanic mystery. see details

Revised MIT climate model sounds alarm see news article

EAPS Student Recognition Dinner see award recipients

EAPS at the Cambridge Science Festival

EAPS members were contributors to a number of acitivites at the 2009 Cambridge Science Festival. see details

Sarah Johnson, Ph.D. 2008, named White House Fellow
EAPS sends it congratulations to Sarah Johnson who was just named to the 2009-2010 class of White House Fellows. press release

EAPS Research on Way to Moon
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will perform high-resolution topographic mapping. more info

Display of Increasing CO2 Concentration
Global data collected and analysed by the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change has high-profile display in New York City. more info

Congratulations to our Graduates!
2009 Commencement and Hooding see details
Student Awards see listing and photos

New greenhouse gas identified by Ron Prinn, et al. Details

Michael Person is one of this year's recipients of the MIT Excellence Award. Read Story

Signs point to sponges as earliest animal life
'Chemical fossils' provide evidence for first multicelled creatures. Research was conducted by Professors Roger Summons and Samuel Bowring, et al. Read Story

Astronomers crack longstanding lunar mystery
Ancient rock's magnetic field shows that moon once had a dynamo in its core. The longstanding puzzle has now been solved by Ben Weiss, et al. Read Story

Loss of retired professor Erik Mollo-Christensen on February 20, 2009. Details

A team in EAPS was selected by NASA to be part of Lunar Science Institute
The team includes EAPS Department Head Maria Zuber, as well as EAPS faculty members Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Tim Grove, Ben Weiss and Jack Wisdom, and PhD candidate Ian Garrick-Bethell. Read Story

Maria Zuber urges Congress to fund science research and education
National leaders in science and business testified Jan. 7 at a forum sponsored by the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Maria Zuber, Dept. Head, testified that investment in research and science education should be an important part of the economic recovery plan. Read Story

2008

Science key to helping the economy National leaders in politics, business, science and technology, including EAPS Department Head Maria Zuber, met at Princeton University on Dec. 15 for a roundtable discussion that called for renewing America's commitment to science and technology as the best way to address the nation's economic problems. Read Story

Sara Seager was named to Discover's 'Top 20 Under 40' list. Details

PAOC master student, Garrett Marino, wins DOE grand prize. Details

Benjamin Weiss found the oldest known records of planetary magnetic fields. He and his co-authors published their results of the study in Science on Oct. 31. Details

EAPS research team leading by Ronald Prinn found that levels of the greenhouse gas methane begin to increase again. Details

Loss of Professor Emeritus William H. Pinson, Jr. on October 30, 2008. Instruction in planetary science and astronomy began in Course XII in 1956 with the appointment of William Pinson. Details

Lindy Elkins-Tanton found that young planets stay hotter longer. She presented her new findings on October 14 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. Details

A Symposium to Honor Edward N. Lorenz
was held on September 13, 2008 at the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. Click here to view the video.

Christina Thomas, EAPS graduate student, profiled in latest edition of Spectrum. Details

The House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing to review the accomplishments and examine the future opportunities and challenges of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) in celebration of its 50th anniversary. The distinguished panel of witnesses, included Prof. Maria Zuber, Dept. Head and Griswold Professor of Geophysics, along with the Hon. John Glenn and Mr. Norman Augustine.

Team of EAPS geophysicists analyze the cause of the earthquake on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province, China.

A new analysis of the setting for May's devastating earthquake in China shows that the quake resulted from faults with little seismic activity--and that similar events in that area occur, on average, only once every 2,000 to 10,000 years. However, geologists caution that because earthquakes can sometimes occur in clusters, people should still be wary of another possible large-scale earthquake.
Clark Burchfiel and Leigh Royden, geologists at MIT, have done extensive research in China for more than two decades but had found no hints that suggested such a large earthquake might strike the area. They and colleagues, including MIT's Robert van der Hilst and Bradford Hager, have published a paper analyzing the causes of the quake in the July issue of the journal GSA Today.
Read full article on NSF website

Dan Shim and Stephane Rondenay have been promoted from assistant professor to associate professor without tenure.

Ed Boyle and Jack Wisdom have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Members of the Academy are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Tim Grove has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

Ed Lorenz, father of the theory of chaos, dies at 90. His inital insights on predictability in certain deterministic systems led to the first descriptions of chaotic behaviour. Details

Ms. Stephanie Brown has won a Stephen E. Dwornik Student Research Paper award
Ms. Stephanie Brown has won a Stephen E. Dwornik Student Research Paper award honorable mention at the 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference this year, for her poster presentation. There is one award given each for a poster and an oral presentation, along with two honorable mentions for posters, and one for an oral presentation, for five total recognitions. Each student is judged by six judges during her/his presentation. Ms. Brown is a sophomore EAPS major. These very competitive awards are usually won by more senior graduate students.

2007

Professor Rafael Bras receives AGU's Horton Medal
Professor Rafael Bras has been named this year's winner of the Robert E. Horton Medal, the highest award given to hydrologists by the American Geophysical Union.

Kevin Burke receives 2007 Penrose Medal
Dr. Kevin Burke, Visiting Scientist in EAPS, was awarded the Penrose Medal at the Annual Meeting of the Geologlical Society of America. The Medal is given in recognition of eminent research in pure geology, for outstanding original contributions or achievements that mark a major advance in the science of geology.

As detailed in the citation, Dr. Burke's "contributions to geology since the late sixties are great in range, including: models of the birth of rift valleys; ocean basins; vast areas of collision-related basement reactivation; influence of oceanic plateaus on the evolution of oceans and continental margins; the nature of the Archean and Proterozoic tectonics and related environments; the tectonic controls of basaltic volcanicity; the nature of mantle plumes and their relations to hot spots; how tectonic processes interact and control the hydrosphere and the atmosphere and how they act on other rocky planets such as Mars and Venus; and, how extraterrestrial intervention in terrestrial affairs influence geological and biological processes. "

Tanja Bosak is awarded the 2007 Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award
Prof. Tanja Bosak received the 2007 Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science Award at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. The Award is presented to a woman that has impacted the field of the geosciences in a major way based on their Ph.D. research. Prof. Bosak's thesis reseach was conducted at CalTech, under the guidance of Prof. Dianne Newman.

Maria Zuber to receive G. K. Gilbert Award
Prof. Maria Zuber will receive the 2007 G. K. Gilbert Award at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Oct. 28-31. The Award is presented annually by the Planetaray Division to a career research scientist who has significantly contriubuted to the solution of fundamental problems in the field of planetary geology, in the broadest sense.

Sarah Stewart Johnson awarded Best Oral Presentation
Ms. Sarah Johnson, graduate student in EAPS, received the Stephen Dwornick Best Student Presentation Award for the Outstanding Oral Presentation at the 38th Lunar Planetary Science Conference. Her talk was titled "Sulfur Volatiles in the Early Martian Atmosphere."

Ms. Ariane Verdy receives the Wagner Memorial Award.
Ariane Verdy, graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program and a member of EAPS, has been selected to received the 2007 Wagner Memorial Award. The Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award is presented by the Desert Research Institute to a woman in the atmospheric sciences based on a competition among papers submitted or published during the year. Papers are evaluated based on the following content areas:

Originality of ideas expressed and presentation of concept;
How well the subject matter relates to real-world atmospheric or climatic problems or their resolution; and
How well the research is defined by the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions of the manuscript.

Ms. Verdy's paper is "Carbon dioxide and oxygen fluxes in the Southern Ocean: Mechanisms of interannual variability" and is published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 21, GB2020, doi:10.1029/2006GB002916 (May 2007) with co-authors Stephanie Dutkiewicz, Mick Follows, John Marshall, and Arnaud Czaja.

Mr. Burke Minsley receives Outstanding Paper Award.
Burke Minsley, graduate student in EAPS, received the Oustanding Paper Award in the Near-Surface Focus Group, at the December, 2006 AGU fall Meeting. Mr. Minsley's paper was titled: "Quantifying the effects of unknown resistivity structure on self-potinetial data analysis."

Dr. Paul O'Gorman to join EAPS faculty.
Department Head Maria Zuber is pleased to announce that Paul O'Gorman, currently at Environmental Science and Engineering, CalTech, will join EAPS in September, 2008 as Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science. Dr. O'Gorman's research interests include studying "large-scale circulation of the atmosphere; interactions of moisture and baroclinic eddies; effect of climate change on the hydrological cycle; and turbulence closure theories".

Dr. Oliver Jagoutz to join EAPS faculty.
Department Head Maria Zuber is pleased to announce that Oliver Jagoutz, currently at the Institute for Geological Sciences will join EAPS in January, 2008 as Assistant Professor of Geology. Dr. Jagoutz's research interests include studying the crust-forming processes in oceanic environments using a combined field, isotope geochemical and experimental approach. The focus is on the rift-to-drift transition in `non-volcanic margin`.

MIT observations give precise estimate of Mars surface ice.
An MIT-led team of planetary scientists has found that the southern pole of Mars contains the largest deposit of frozen water in the inner solar system, outside of Earth. Details

Dr. Taylor Perron to join EAPS faculty.
Department Head Maria Zuber is pleased to announce that Taylor Perron, currently the Reginald A. Daly Post-Doctoral Fellow, EPS, Harvard University will join EAPS in January, 2009 as Assistant Professor of Geology. "Dr. Perron studies the evolution of landscapes through a combination of field observations, numerical modeling, and cosmogenic nuclide measurements of long-term erosion rates. In addition to landscapes on Earth, he uses field analogs and spacecraft data to study the surfaces of other solar system bodies. Recent projects have focused on the history of water on Mars and the origin of landforms on Titan (Saturn's largest moon)."

2007 School of Science Dean's Recogition Award
At EAPS Commencement Reception, Ms. Jacqui Taylor, Administrative Assistant in EAPS Headquarters, received the Dean's Recogintion Award, which recognizes the most extraordinary MIT employees. She was selected based on her record of hard work, innovation, creative problem solving, and ability to deal with challenging individuals and situations.

EAPS Faculty honored by appointments to named Chairs. Department Head Maria Zuber announced that three EAPS faculty have been appointed to named chairs.

Sam Bowring; Robert R. Shrock Chair
Raffaele Ferrari; Cecil and Ida Green Chair
Tanja Bosak; Green Faculty Development Chair

Roger Summons Receives Humboldt Award
Professor Roger E. Summons, will receive the prestigious Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. The award recognizies Prof. Summons as one of the leading experts in the field of Organic Geochemistry and is presented based on his lifetime achievement. He will be spending his sabbatical at the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg. details

M. Nafi Toksoz awarded Reid Medal
The Seismological Society of America has honored Prof. Nafi Toksoz by awarding him the Harry Fielding Reid Medal on April 12 at its annual international convention. Prof. Toksoz was recognized for "his exceptional contributions to the field, including his investment of time in those around him. His work has defined seismology and its practice over the last 40 years."

Tom Herring receives Vening Meinesz Medal
The European Geosciences Union has awarded Prof. Tom Herring the 2007 Vening Meinesz Medal at its annual meeting. Prof. Herring was recognized for a career that "has been marked by leadership in the use of space-geodetic measurements to study the properties of the Earth." "By combining a critical understanding of the inherent deficiencies in space-geodetic measurements with a vison of their potential accuracy ... he has consistently pushed the analyses of space geodetic observations to higher levels."

Kerry A. Emanuel, Breene M. Kerr Professor, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences on May 1, 2007, at the 144th annual meeting of the Academy.

The 2007 Global Habitat Longevity Award was presented to Dan Rothman on April 25, at the Kendall Lecture. Prof. Rothman was recognized for his use of novel statistical approaches for analysing the time series of climate proxies in his study of the Proterozic carbon cycle.

MIT's annual Rossby Award for 2006 was presented to Arnico Panday. Each year, the Rossby Award is announced by the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate for the most outstanding PhD thesis.

Ms. Francesca DeMeo awarded Fulbright Fellowship
EAPS congratulates Francesca DeMeo on her selection as a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship! Francesca has been a member of EAPS during her career at MIT, receiving her S.B. Degree from MIT in 2006 and finishing her work on asteroid classification for her Master's Degree this term. Francesca will pursue her doctoral work in association with the University of Paris and the Paris Observatory.

Dr. Lindy T. Elkins-Tanton to join the EAPS faculty.
Maria Zuber, EAPS Department Head, is pleased to announce that Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton will join the EAPS Faculty as Assistant Professor of Geology on July 1, 2007. Dr. Elkins-Tanton is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University.
Her research follows two related paths: first, early differentiation of the terrestrial planets with implications for the formation of mantle reservoirs and the enhancement or suppression of convection; and second, large-scale dynamic processes in the upper mantle and lithosphere that lead to magmatism.

David P. Bacon ('77) establishes fund to support UROP research in atmospheric dynamics.
Dr. David P. Bacon ('77) has made a donation to MIT in honor of the career achievement of Prof. Kerry Emanuel. He has established the David P. Bacon (1977) Fund to encourage exceptional undergraduate research, specificallly in tropical storm dynamics. This generous gift will increase the opportunities for undergraduates and allow more students to discover the challenges and rewards of research in atmospheric dynamics.
read further

High resolution images of the Earth's interior,
characterized by unprecidented resolution and lateral scale, reveal greater detail of the Earth's interior structure. more information

A new ocean model allows its populations of phytoplankton to realistically evolve,
reflecting the diversity in populations in the natural world. This should lead to a better understanding of the coupling between ocean and atmospheric chemistry. more information

Dr. Shuhei Ono to join the EAPS faculty.
Maria Zuber, EAPS Department Head, is pleased to announce that Dr. Shuhei Ono will join the EAPS Faculty as Assistant Professor of Geochemistry on September 1, 2007. Dr. Ono is currently the Agouron Geobiology Fellow at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Dr. Ono's research interests include the use of isotope fractionations of sulfur and oxygen as a tool for constraining biogeochemical interactions among the atmosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere and multi-isotope ratio measurement using laser abrasion fluorination mass spectrometry. He applies these results to the mathematical modeling of the biogeochemical cycles of the upper ocean and to questions concerning the study of the early evolution of microbial metabolisms and their impacts on the Earth's climate and atmospheric chemistry.

Kerry Emanuel honored at the 2007 AMS meeting with the award of:
The Carl Gustaf Rossby Medal
"For fundamental contributions to the science of moist convection that have led to a new and deeper understanding of tropical cyclones, midlatitude weather systems and climate dynamics."

This award is presented to individuals on the basis of outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure or behavior of the atmosphere. It represents the highest honor that the Society can bestow upon an atmospheric scientist.

The Louis J. Battan Author's Award
"For his book, Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes, an exceptional treatise that provides a balanced view of the scientific, historical, and social aspects of hurricanes."

The Battan Author's Award is presented to the author(s) of an outstanding, newly published book on the atmospheric and related sciences of a technical or nontechnical nature, with consideration to those books that foster public understanding of meteorology.

Prof. Emanuel was also selected as the 2007 Bernard Haurwitz Lecturer in recognition of significant contributions to the understanding of atmospheric and oceanic fluid dynamics, the circulation of the middle atmosphere, or the dynamics of climate.

Raffaele Ferrari awarded the 2007 Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award of the American Meteorological Society "for profound insights and important discoveries on eddy and mixing processes in the ocean."

The Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award is to be given to an individual in recognition of research achievement in the field of physical oceanography. All aspects of physical oceanography are eligible, including instrument development as well as observational, theoretical, and modeling studies. The award is to be given to young, promising physical oceanographers who have recently shown outstanding ability.

Sara Seager, Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor, has been selected to receive the 2007 Helen B. Warner Prize, awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society for significant contribution to observational or theoretical astronomy. EAPS sends its congratulations to its newest faculty member!

2006

Peter Stone awarded the 2006 Bernard Haurwitz Award of the American Meteorological Society
when he delivered the Bernard Haurwitz Memorial Lecture "Testing Global Warming Models in the Face of Uncertainty" at the American Meteorological Society in January 2006.
Award citation: For pioneering contributions to the understanding of planetary general circulations and ocean-atmosphere feedbacks that operate on climate time scales.

AGU Fellows
At AGU in December 2006 , both Roger Summons and Paola Rizzoli were made AGU Fellows.

PAOC weather forecasting team wins WxChallenge
PAOC's weather forecasting team has won first prize in the newly established national collegiate weather forecasting contest, WxChallenge, run by the University of Oklahoma." more information

Carl Wunsch awarded the 2006 William Bowie Medal
On December, 13, 2006, AGU awarded the Bowie Medal to Carl Wunsch "For his wide-ranging research in the study of the ocean and its roles in shaping Earth's climate and its changes, and for unselfish cooperation in the field of physical oceanography." Read Citation

The Bowie Medal is AGU's highest honor. It "was established in 1939 in honor of William Bowie for his 'spirit of helpfulness and friendliness in unselfish cooperative research.' Bowie was the first president of AGU (1920-1922) and the first recipient of the medal. The Bowie medal, awarded annually, acknowledges an individual for outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research, one of the guiding principles of AGU.

New EAPS Faculty
Maria Zuber, EAPS Department Head, is pleased to announce that Dr. Alison Malcolm will join the EAPS Faculty as Assistant Professor of Geophysics on January 1, 2008. Dr. Malcolm is currently at the Earth Sciences Department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. EAPS looks forward to welcoming her to the Faculty along with Dr. Sara Seager and Dr. Tanja Bosak in 2007.

Mass Extinction on "science NOW" by Sam Bowring
If you think the catastrophe that decimated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was the biggest extinction event in Earth's history, think again. Prof. Sam Bowring explained why we should know about another, even greater biotic wipeout.

Astonomers revise definition of a planet. Elizabeth Thomson, MIT News Office
Members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted on August 24 to define a planet as an object that is in orbit around the sun, is large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit -- in other words, it has no other large bodies crossing its path.

2005

Earth to MCAS by Barstow and Zuber
An argument for the inclusion of earth science in the content of the MCAS exams