MIT EAPS: News

EAPS department members are world-renowned experts in their fields. Not only do our professors and researchers comment on the news, they make the news. Read about their latest findings and make plans to attend one of our informative EAPS events.

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New on 2

The second floor of the Green Building is to become the new home for part of ERL.

First light from a super-Earth spotted

Sara Seager and postdoc Brice Olivier Demory publish their new findings, expanding the profile of exoplanet 55 Cancri e.

Bill Brace

Professor Emeritus William Brace '46 XIII, '49 I, PhD '53 XII died on 2 May 2012 of complications after heart surgery.

EAPS in the News

Two EAPS activities on monitoring the Earth system feature in the national press this week

Feeding the Planet Sustainably

This year's Kendall Lecture "How Can We Feed a Growing World and Sustain the Planet” was given by Jonathen Foley (IonE, Univ. Minnesota).

Noah in the News Again

Recently defended geology grad student Noah Mclean, receives an Outstanding Student Paper Award at the 2011 Fall AGU Meeting.

Richardson receives AGU award

Alan Richardson recieves an Outstanding Student Paper Award for his presentation at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting.

Tikoo wins Dwornik Award

Sonia Tikoo receives honorable mention in the graduate student oral category at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Texas in March.

Introducing Atmospheric Chemist Colette Heald

Professor Colette Heald joined MIT this spring as an Assistant (from July, Associate) Professor with a joint appointment in EAPS and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grad Student Award

Dan Chavas has won this year's Max Eaton Prize for the best student paper at the American Meteorological Society's 30th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology held last week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Bosak wins MIT Edgerton Award

Professor Tanja Bosak wins MIT's Harold E. Edgerton Award "in recognition both for the groundbreaking work that she has accomplished and the potential she has demonstrated to continue to transform the field of geobiology".

Seager shares Sackler Prize

Professor Sara Seager has been selected as co-winner of the 2012 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences. She shares the award for "observational or theoretical achievements in the study of extrasolar planets" with Prof. D. Charbonneau (Harvard).

Exploring Planets for Signs of Life

"Life metabolizes, life puts out gases, some of those gases are bio-signatures". A recent radio interview with Sara Seager on the search for extrasolar life.

Teaching Award

Senior Lecturer Lodovica Illari will receive the 2012 Dean's Education and Advising Award for "outstanding dedication to PAOC's educational program and her role as student advisor and mentor"

EAPS Voice in the Choice

EAPS graduate student (and president of MIT's Graduate Student Council) Alex Evans, one of six on the Presidential Search, Student Advisory Committee

EAPS Author Night: Susan Solomon

The inaugural EAPS Author Night featured author and professor, Susan Solomon, who presented her book The Coldest March. Susan detailed the tragic story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his British team who in November 1911 began a trek across the snows of Antarctica, striving to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Oceans Apart

Matthew Rioux, Sam Bowring and Noah McLean and co-authors have found that ocean crust formation may be a much slower and more dynamic process than previously thought.

Adjusting the Rock Clock

Postdoc Noah McLean and scientists at the British Geological Survey have redefined a fundamental parameter used to calibrate Earth's history. In their recent Science paper, they report variations in the uranium isotopic composition of minerals used to date major geological events.

Perpetual Ocean Goes Viral

MITgcm, MIT's in-house ocean/atmospere/climate model, can be found at the heart of compelling new ocean visualizations from NASA's scientific vizualisation studio...

Rocks, Bands, Logic

Rocks, Bands, Logic is a short documentary film from Lan Li promoted today on the new MIT video service MITvideo which aggregates video from across campus. This video, profiling 3 MIT graduate students, features EAPS Ben Mandler talking about his work.

Water World

Illari and Marshall's 'Weather in a tank' demonstrations help students grasp fluid dynamics. The setup — a clear circular basin of water on a rotating platform that simulates Earth's spin — illustrates weather phenomena such as atmospheric cyclones, fronts, jets, and ocean currents and eddies.

A close-up view of Mercury

In a pair of papers co-authored by Maria Zuber, researchers working with Messenger probe observations find Mercury has had a rather dynamic history.

Program Chair News

Ben Weiss to take over as the Chair in Geology, Geochemistry and Geobiology; Dale Morgan as the Chair in Geophysics.

A climate window in the Southern Ocean

In a new paper in Nature Geoscience, John Marshall explains how an updated circulation model reveals the Southern Ocean as a powerful influence on climate change.

Fu receives LPI Award

Graduate student Roger Fu wins an LPI Career Development Award for his presentation "Magnetic Fields on 4 Vesta as Recorded in Two Eucrites" to be presented at the upcoming Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Back to the Forest

In this video graduate student Laura Meredith shares her thesis work to build and deploy an instrument to the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research site in central Massachusetts. Laura is in the Climate Physics and Chemistry Program. Her advisor is Ron Prinn.

PAOC gets a new head

Raf Ferrari named new Chair of EAPS' Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate as Kerry Emanuel steps down to focus on the Lorenz Center.

China’s pollution puts a dent in its economy

New study co-authored by Noelle Selin says despite improvements in air quality, the economic impact of air pollution has increased dramatically.

‘Storm of the Century?’ Try ‘Storm of the Decade’

New study co-authored by Ning Lin and Kerry Emanuel says knowing the frequency of storm surges may help urban and coastal planners design seawalls and other protective structures.

Faculty Promotions

Tanja Bosak and Paul O'Gorman to be promoted to Associate Professor.

Landscape on the Move

The Apalachicola Bluffs have been described as a living landscape, their sands constantly evolving and branching through a combination of shifting soil and flowing streams. Now Geomorphologist Taylor Perron and former EAPS major Jennifer Hamon '10 have developed a model that gauges how fast the area’s hills and valleys are spreading.

Fresh from the Moon

A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. EAPS' Maria Zuber is Principal Investigator on the mission to map the Moon's gravity

On the Trail of Mercury in the Ocean

MIT-WHOI Joint Program grad student Kathleen Munson looks at where and how elemental mercury released from burning coal gets transformed into the toxic monomethylmercury that accumulates in fish?

Sepulveda wins Infinite K Award

Congratulations to postdoc Julio Sepulveda, winner of a 2012 School of Science Infinite Kilometer Award recognizing "exceptional contributions to the community".

What Drove the Lunar Dynamo?

A new Science paper co-authored by Erin Shea, Ben Weiss, Sonia Tikoo, Tim Grove and others suggests the moon had a much longer lived molten core than had been previously thought.

Mercury and the Environment

Noelle Selin joined EPA Regional Administrator Curt Spalding and other public health experts at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center last week to talk about new EPA mercury standards.

The Cost of Tropical Cyclones

A new paper, co-authored by Kerry Emanuel, finds climate change could expose North America, East Asia and the Caribbean to costly climate damage.

Dusty Climate Clues

Following an extended visit to MIT last term, David McGee joins the EAPS faculty as an Assistant Professor of Paleoclimate.

An Eruption-Fueled Extinction?

Grad student Ben Black talks to MIT News about work with Linda Elkins-Tanton suggesting enormous volcanic eruptions may have triggered the worst extinction in Earth history.

ERL gets an online facelift

Explore the Earth Resources Lab's new look. Find out about upcoming lab events. Catch up on lab news.

From Earth to the Moon

GRAIL enters lunar orbit - Project lead Maria Zuber speaks to MIT News.

At the Core of a Continent

A new paper co-authored by Terry Blackburn, Sam Bowring, Taylor Perron, Frank Dudas and others finds regions of North America have remained extremely stable for more than one billion years.

Introducing Atmospheric Chemist Prof. Susan Solomon

EAPS welcomes new faculty member, atmospheric chemist, Professor Susan Solomon. Solomon is well known for having pioneered the theory explaining why the ozone hole occurs in Antarctica.

Microbe Metabolism

Chris Kempes, Stephanie Dutkiewicz and Mick Follows have developed a mathematical model relating metabolic partitioning to marine microbial growth form.

Twin GRAIL Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

As of Dec. 28 GRAIL-A was 65 860 miles from the moon closing at a speed of 745 mph. GRAIL-B was 79 540 miles from the moon closing at a speed of 763mph. "This Mission will rewrite the textbooks on the evolution of the moon," said GRAIL PI Maria Zuber.

Proposal for MIT Global Environment Initiative seeks public comment

Oceans and Climate will be two among six foci for MIT's new Global Environmental Initiative.

EAPS goes to AGU - Fall 2011

Over 70 members of EAPS presented their work at the annual AGU meeting last week.

Two new Earth-sized exoplanets discovered

Some 950 light-years away, a team, including EAPS Sara Seager, finds smallest exoplanets yet detected.

Season's Greetings from MIT

Happy Holidays!

The Scientist Who Loved the Cold

In this video MIT-WHOI Joint Program grad. student Alison Criscitiello shares her thoughts about the work/life intersections that come from her love of all things cold.

Sara Seager named AAAS fellow

Seager's award comes in recognition of her pioneering work on theoretical models of the atmospheric composition and internal structure of extrasolar planets, from super-Earths to gas-giant planets.

Robert van der Hilst named head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Robert van der Hilst, the Schlumberger Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), has been named the new head of EAPS, effective Jan. 1, 2012.

Near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 flyby

Watch a time-lapse video of asteroid 2005 YU55 as it passed by last month as seen from MIT's Wallace Observatory in Westford, MA. 2005 YU55 has a diameter of about 400 m and on this occasion passed within ~325, 000 km of the Earth.

Meet Yodit Tewelde - EAPS Graduate Student

Yodit Tewelde is a graduate student in the Planetary Science Program in EAPS.

Debating at the Federal Reserve Bank

Kudos to grad students Alex Evans, Yodit Tewelde, and Mike Sori who took time out to help high school students in the Boston Debate League last week.

Tracking an Elusive Chemical - Estrogens

PAOC graduate student Dave Griffith studies the impacts these hormones might have in the coastal ocean.

A Man for all Seasons/ Beyond the Dark Side of the Moon

EAPS in the Fall 2011 School of Science newsletter - Fidelity fund manager and Lorenz Center benefactor, John H. Carlson (X!X), talks to SoS about life as a student in Meteorology and GRAIL: Maria Zuber leading the way back to the Moon.

Terrascope freshmen present plan to reduce global diversity loss

Freshmen in the Terrascope subject Mission 2015 (also known as "Solving Complex Problems") have spent the fall semester studying the problem of what to do about disappearing global biodiversity.

The Ocean's Tiny Chemists

Kim Popendorf is a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program with an interest in marine biogeochemical cycles. Her advisor is Ben Van Mooy.

Blogging Darjeeling

Follow grad. student Anita Ganesan's blog. Anita, a grad. student in the Prinn Group, is currently in Darjeeling, India installing the instrument she has built to measure long-lived greenhouse gases.

Timeline of a Mass Extinction

Sam Bowring and Dan Rothman have identified a new timescale that may help scientists home in on the end-Permian extinction’s likely causes.

The First Hairy Microbes

Geologist Tanja Bosak and co-workers at MIT and Harvard have unearthed remains that are more than 100 million years older than any previously identified ciliate fossils, suggesting early life on Earth may have been more complex than previously thought.

Postcard from Darjeeling

Grad. students Laura Meredith and Anita Ganesan are currently in Darjeeling, India, deploying Anita's gas chromatograph.

The Mercury Game

Find out how a game, co-developed by Noelle Selin, can teach people about the role of science in international environmental policy making.

Between the beach and the deep blue sea

Physical oceanography grad. student Rachel Horwitz describes her work exploring the dynamic gateway of the shallow inner shelf. Rachel is a member of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program.

Spring greening

Raf Ferrari and former postdoc. John Taylor report identifying a physical explanation for why phytoplankton blooms explode along ocean fronts.

Battered asteroid may have warm core

According to associate professor Ben Weiss, co-author of two recent Science papers about asteroid 21 Lutetia, "The asteroid belt may be more interesting than it seems on the surface".

Inaugural Carlson Lecture

If you missed October's Lorenz Center sponsored inaugural Carlson lecture, here is a recording of Paul Hoffman's talk "Earth's Surprising Climate History".

Royden awarded 2011 GSA Woollard Award

Prof. Leigh (Wiki) H. Royden has been selected as the 2011 George P. Woollard Awardee by the Geophysics Division for her "major contributions to the study of geologic processes through quantitative geophysical modeling".

TESS project awarded $1 million NASA grant

Sara Seager of MIT's TESS team named by NASA as one of 11 proposals recently accepted for evaluation as potential future science missions.

Spitzer finds steaming super-Earth

Research by postdoc Brice-Olivier Demory (Seager Group) provides surprising new details about a supersized and superheated version of Earth called 55 Cancri e.

Lorenz Center gets an online home

The Lorenz Center at MIT, founded by PAOC's Dan Rothman and Kerry Emanuel, is devoted to learning how climate works. Named after the late MIT meteorologist Edward N. Lorenz, a pioneer of chaos theory, the Center fosters creative approaches to increasing fundamental understanding. At the new website you can read about the new Center's goals and aspirations, its origins, as well as the people involved.

Zuber testifies

Prof. Maria Zuber, EAPS Department Head, testified before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on September 22 on the goals and priorities for the future of human spaceflight.

David McGee to join the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate faculty

McGee is a paleoclimatologist who has focused on reconstructing past changes in extratropical atmospheric circulation and hydrology. He has explored this area through studies of dust blown out of the world's drylands and deposited in the ocean; changes in dryland water balance as reflected in closed-basin lakes; and studies of precipitation source and amount recorded in stalagmites. These studies involve a variety of types of data, but at the center of all of them are uranium-series isotopes, which are used for dating in terrestrial deposits and determination of accumulation rates in marine sediments. He is currently visiting MIT before formally joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Paleoclimate at the beginning of next year.

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