Introducing the Toksöz and Whiteman Fellows 2014/15.

Chen Gu has been named as the second M. Nafi Toksöz Fellow in Geophysics, which is particularly fitting as her primary academic advisor is Professor Nafi Toksöz himself. Interested in the Earth and planets since she was a child, Gu, originally from Sezhou, China, came to the Earth Resources Lab in EAPS in 2010 as it offered, “one of the greatest geophysics programs in the world.”

“It’s a special honor to be named as the Toksöz fellow,” says Gu, “Professor Toksöz cares for his students as if they were his own kids and works very hard to support our ideas, help us solve problems and to prepare us professionally.”

Gu’s research involves studies of hydrofracturing-related acoustic events and induced seismicity in oil/gas fields. In her spare time, she is active in leading both Chinese and geophysics student activities and enjoys tennis and Chinese arts such as calligraphy and gu-qin music.

EAPS Visiting Committee member George J. Elbaum ’59, SM ’63, PhD ’67 and his wife Mimi Jensen have committed to funding the Whiteman fellowships again this academic year. This will not only help 2nd year EAPS graduate student Mingwei Li for the year, but also fellow students Sandra Shedd and Jared Atkinson for the Spring term.

Li’s research is about predicting future Chinese anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants and their impacts on the air quality over the U.S.

Shedd has two research projects which look at the response of precipitation to climate change from different angles; and Atkinson’s research has led him to explore the nascent science of space resource extraction—with a view to potential asteroid mining.

We look forward to introducing all of our graduate fellows to their generous sponsors at the EAPS Patrons’ Circle kick-off on April 9th!