Greg Colucci and fellow geology students from SUNY Plattsburgh accidentally discovered fossilized bones of an ancient harbor seal during a recent field outing on Lake Champlain.  The bones were verified by the New York State Museum.  More details in the October 17 Ithaca Journal.  Greg is the son of EAS Prof. Steve Colucci.

After taking part in the October 13 & 14 Program Advisory Committee for the Ocean Observing Initiative at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington D.C., EAS Professor Chuck Greene can report that NSF will be providing the three quarters of a billion dollars ($787 million) to construct the infrastructure for the Ocean Observing Initiative and support its early operations and maintenance.  Greene serves on the OOI's Program Advisory Committee which provides the oceanographic community's input on oversight of the project.

November 10 - 14, Greene will present a seminar in Seattle at the Northwest Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Science Center.  The seminar will be "Remote Climate Forcing of NW Atlantic Ecosystems".  He'll also travel to the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) to work with the Director in planning an international symposium on Global Ocean Ecosystems and Climate to be held at FHL during August 2010.

Research will continue to be supported for the next five years at The Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO), the world' largest radar.  EAS Professor David Hysell, an expert in ionospheric research has learned that there will be a continuation of the Cooperative Agreement between NSF and Cornell University to support his and other scientists' upper atmospheric research at JRO.  Upgrades to the main radar and some of its peripheral systems, and modernization to facilitate ongoing ionospheric research are planned during this project period.

EAS Professor Steve Colucci is the Principal Investigator of a three-year grant awarded to Cornell by the National Science Foundation for the project entitled "Hydrometeorology of Flash Flooding Processes and Frequencies in the Northeastern United States".  Prof. Todd Walter from Cornell's Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering is the project's Co-Investigator.  The purpose of the project is to examine the atmospheric, surface, and hydrological conditions associated with rainfall events that resulted in the rapid flooding of rural streams over New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New England.  The grant in part would support the Ph.D. thesis research of EAS graduate student Steve Jessup.

Gang Chen joins EAS as a new Assistant Professor.  Chen who earned his PhD from Princeton, specializes in atmospheric/climate dynamics.  He recently completed a postdoc at MIT.  Welcome Gang!

EAS Professor Emeritus, John (Jack) Bird recently received congratulations on becoming a 50-year Fellow of The Geological Society of America. 

Leon Nguyen (Atmos. Sci '09) has been awarded the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Macelwane Award for an outstanding undergraduate research paper.  This is the second time in three years that a Cornell student has won the award.  Owen Shieh '07 won it in 2007.  Owen's paper was just accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the AMS.  

 A total of 25 "Cornellians" (present or former EAS faculty, visiting scientists, research staff, or students) were among the over 3,000 Geochemists who took part in this summer's 19th annual V. M. Goldschmidt Conference. Held this year in the rarified air of Davos, Switzerland, a storied Alpine retreat, and the setting for Thomas Mann's novel, The Magic Mountain, aspects of the theme "Challenges to our Volatile Planet" were debated throughout the week from 20 thematic viewpoints, encompassing over 100 sessions.

Kudos! to the most recent recipients of Sponsored Research Awards:  Rowena Lohman has received funding from the Southern California Earthquake Center and from the Petroleum Research Fund, David Hysell from Air Force of Scientific Research, Nelson Hogg from the National Science Foundation, Matt Pritchard from the National Science Foundation.

2007 Atmospheric Sciences graduate, Owen Shieh, currently a PhD student at Oklahoma, has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.  Shieh is one of 8 awardees in the Atmospheric Science category out of over 1,200 applicants; one of 4 in the category: Mesoscale Dynamic Meteorology.

Lou Derry is featured in the April 2009 issue of Geochemical News.  The article, Five Questions with Louis Derry, summarizes Derry's thoughts on the state of his field, research and the future.

On April 7, 2009, the Museum of the Earth recognized George Hade, Muawia Barazangi, and PRI volunteer, Curt Banta for their long and generous service to the Seismology Outreach Program at the Museum of the Earth.  George Hade and Muawia Barazangi over several years of time developed, implemented, and maintained the seismology program at the Museum of the Earth.  Curt Banta, a longtime PRI volunteer, has had a role in the care of the analog seismograph equipment.  PRI staff presented framed photographs to the honored guests in front attendees.  See group photo here.

Student News...

Sophomore SES major, Molly Moynihan (currently studying in China), has just been awarded a Hollings Scholarship from NOAA.  This scholarship provides two years of partial tuition support during the junior and senior years and a paid summer internship in a NOAA laboratory.  Cornell has had more students awarded this scholarship since it's inception than any other university in the country!

EAS Graduate Student, Will Guerra, was recently awarded a LacCore visiting graduate student award for his selected proposal.   Willie submitted a proposal to the National Lacustrine Core Repository (LacCore), at the University of Minnesota, and was given the award based on the intellectual merit of his project and the extent to which the proposed project would make effective use of LacCore facilities and provide the student with new training and skills.  Guerra will receive funds for travel and lodging to and from Minnesota.

Eowyn Connolly-Brown, '10, Atmospheric Sciences, just became the winner of a 2009 Goldwater Fellowship.  The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship is a national award that supports college sophomores and juniors who intend careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering.  Recipients are selected on the basis of academic merit and research experience.  The sponsoring foundation is a federally endowed agency established in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater.  This year 278 awards were made.

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Michelle Goman, Sr. Research Associate in EAS has just been re-elected for a second term as Chair of the Paleoenvironmental Change Specialty Group of the Association of  American Geographers at the annual meeting in Las Vegas.  Congratulations Michelle!

Prof. Lou Derry gave a seminar at the Institute of Marine Sciences at Rutgers University on February 9th.  The title of his talk was "Carbon and heat fluxes near the Himalayan Main Central Thrust: Coupling collisional tectonics and CO2".

Mike Willis has joined the Department as a postdoc this semester.  Mike comes to Cornell from The Ohio State University where he just completed a short postdoc at the Byrd Polar Research Center.  His thesis work focused on measuring crustal movements with GPS in Antarctica.  Willis will continue here with the study of glacier change in Alaska and Patagonia using remote sensing.

NSF Geosciences and SeaWeb recently highlighted the work of Chuck Greene and colleagues.  They reconstructed the patterns of climate change in the Arctic from the Paleocene epoch to the present.

Muawia Barazangi receives Emeritus status effective January 1, 2009.  Prof. Emeritus Barazangi who recently retired from EAS remains active in the Department, continuing his work with INSTOC as its Associate Director.  Congratulations, Muawia, on this milestone in your career!

Natalie Mahowald has been elected to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Engineering.  Congratulations Natalie! 

The 12th Annual Graduate Research Symposium was held on January 16th.  Students presented their work on topics such as tectonics, metamorphism and deformation, regional and global climate models, flash floods in the Northeast U.S., and volcanology.

This year's AGU held in San Francisco December 15 - 19, 2008 was well attended by the EAS community.  Students and faculty gave presentations and an academic booth was maintained during the week for inquiries about our programs.  An alumni get-together was also held and well attended!

The EAS Advisory Committee met November 6 - 8 at Cornell.  The group, including some new members, reviewed the progress of our new EAS Strategic Plan and heard EAS faculty presentations on current research and curriculum. EAS presenters included Matt Pritchard, Natalie Mahowald, John Cisne, Mark Wysocki, Terry Jordan, Art DeGaetano, Alex Moore, and Chuck Greene.  Friday afternoon, the Advisory Committee held a panel discussion for students about careers.  The Department looks forward to continued interactions with the Committee.

AAPG Invited Speaker, Robert Ostrander (B.S. Cornell '52) visited EAS on November 3. Ostrander spent 38 years in the petroleum business in 48 countries. His final position was Interregional Advisor for the United Nations Department of Technical Co-Operation for Development. He currently lives in Romulus, NY. Robert led a lunchtime discussion for graduate students to discuss opportunities in industry, as well as an afternoon talk covering a broad range of topics including: The "Old" Cornell Department, synergism, global warming, sequestration of CO2, Marcellus Shale, and connection between sources of alternative energy and economics.

Chaired Professorships for EAS faculty will officially go into effect November 1, 2008.  Congratulations to these well deserving faculty on their elections :

• Larry D. Brown will be the first Sidney Kaufman Professor in Geophysics.      
• Teresa E. Jordan has been elected as the J. Preston Levis Professor.
• Suzanne Mahlburg Kay has been elected the William and Katherine Snee Professor in Geological Sciences.

EAS retired professor, Sidney Kaufman, age 100, passed away at his home in Houston on October 23, 2008. Kaufman returned to Cornell after his retirement from Shell Oil in 1973 where he continued his seismic research and taught graduate classes in EAS.  Sid will be remembered for his brilliant mind and generosity to the Department which continues to benefit our students.  His final sign of dedication to EAS came in the form of an endowment which is now the Sidney Kaufman Chair in Geophysics.

Tom Fournier joins EAS as a postdoc working with Matt Pritchard and Rowena Lohman.
Tom just defended his thesis at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks where he worked with Jeff Freymueller and others to use GPS data to understand the active deformation processes at Alaskan volcanoes and from the subduction zone. Tom also spent time working closely with the Alaska Volcano Observatory and helped to respond to volcanic crises like the 2006 Mount Augustine eruption. Here at Cornell he will continue to study deformation caused by volcanoes and subduction throughout the Americas.

Kathy Vreeland, state coordinator of CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and snow network and a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center, has been busy promoting the volunteer weather observing program this past summer and training new observers this fall. She has organized and led training session for volunteers in Oneida, Madison, Onondaga, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties. Kathy will also participate in the 4-H Choose Health and More Volunteer Forum in Auburn, NY in November.  See: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/Needed.rainwatchers.html

Graduate Students hosted SGO's annual invited speaker, Paddy O'Brien from the University of Potsdam, Germany the first week of October.  O'Brien gave talks on lithosphere dynamics in the era of ultra high pressure metamorphism Wednesday and Thursday, and met with graduate students and faculty during his visit to Snee Hall.  At week's end, a group of students, faculty, and Paddy traveled to Newcomb, NY in the Adirondack's.  They stopped at roadcuts to look at the hygrade metamorphic rocks (granulites) and all enjoyed their visit (with the exception of the pizza).

"An East Coast Winter Storm Precipitation Climatology" (N. J. Frankoski and A. T. DeGaetano)
"Examining the Influence of Antecedent Soil Moisture in Numerical Simulations of the 27-28 June 2006 Rainfall Event in Pennsylvania and New York" (S. M. Jessup and S. J. Colucci)
"Stratospheric Forcing of Mid-Tropospheric Blocking Anticyclogenesis" (S. J. Colucci)

Grad Student, Katie Tamulonis recently completed a summer internship with Schlumberger in the Carbon Services Division.

September 17thINSTOC Workshop a great success...

Sr. Research Associate Michelle Goman was elected Chair of the Paleoenvironmental Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers at their annual meeting in Boston in April.  Goman's term is effective for 1 year.

Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarships  were recently awarded to two EAS students (6 total from Cornell).  John Cintineo '09 and Ethan Peck '09, both advisees of Art DeGaetano, received this prestigious award, reports Prof. Chuck Greene, Director of the Ocean Resources and Ecosystems Program .  One of the purposes of this scholarship program is to recruit and prepare students for careers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies, and prepare them for careers as teachers and educators in oceanic and atmospheric science, while improving and increasing awareness of scientific and evironmental education in the United States. 

Carolyn Clark becomes the new Graduate/Undergraduate Program Coordinator for EAS in Snee Hall beginning August 28, 2008.  Clark comes to Cornell from Penn State where she has been a programs and staff assistant in the Department of Geosciences for the past four years.  Carolyn is a graduate of SUNY Binghamton and holds a degree in Environmental Studies and Ecosystems. 

A total of 26 "Cornellians" (present or former EAS faculty, visiting faculty, or students) were among the over 2,000 Geochemists who took part in this summer's 18th annual V. M. Goldschmidt Conference at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Attending were Sue Kay, Bob Kay, Bill White, Lou Derry, Gene Yogodzinski, Sue DiBari, Anat Shahar, Sarah Aciego, Julie Pett-Ridge, Kenji Mibe, Louise Kellogg, and Rich Katz.  Appearing on abstracts were Chris Andronicos, Jason Phipps-Morgan, Bill Bassett, Betty Coira, Larry Cathles, Natalie Mahowald, Jim Kirkpatrick, Don Turcotte, Peggy O'Day, Pouyan Shen, Meghan Miller, Hannes Brueckner, Debajyoti Pauland, and Jeff Vervoort.

Prof. Dan Wilks has become the new director of the graduate program for Atmospheric Science.  Wilks replaces Kerry Cook who begins a new stage of her career in August. 

Prof. Kerry Cook has accepted a tenured faculty position at the University of Texas, Austin.  Kerry will begin her new post there in August, but will remain affiliated with Cornell.  She was instrumental in the reconstruction of our undergraduate major, Science of Earth Systems.  Kerry has been a key member of our faculty for the past eighteen years.  The quality of her work in the field of Atmospheric Science has been an invaluable part of her students' education and of our department.  Earth and Atmospheric Sciences looks forward to continued collaboration with Dr. Cook.

 Alexandra Moore has been selected to receive the Fiona Ip Li '78 and Donald Li '75 Excellence in Teaching Award.  This is the highest award for teaching in the College of Engineering.  Alex was nominated by her colleagues and selected by a committee comprised of former teaching award winners from within the college.  A recognition luncheon will take place this November.  Congratulations, Alex!

Larry Brown has been appointed as department chair of EAS, effective July 1, 2008.  Larry replaces Terry Jordan, who has been chair of the department since June of 2003.  

Warren Allmon has recently been appointed Cornell's first Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology by the Cornell Board of Trustees.  Allmon has gained a reputation for being enthusiastically committed to sharing his knowledge and expertise in paleontology as a means to educate a broad audience about our Earth and the relationship between its history and today's environmental changes.  Allmon also continues to serve as director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca.  To read more about Allmon's appointment, go to: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May08/Allmon.Rawlingsprof.html. 

Bruce Monger, along with Nick Record, a graduate student studying under Andy Pershing of U. Maine, have made news after developing a satellite detection method that combines satellite information measuring sea temperature, and images of chlorophyll to determine the location of right whales.  The whale project has provided insight into where whales are likely to be by collecting these measurements which indicate the concentrations of phytoplankton in different parts of the ocean.  This enables humans to locate copepods, a type of zooplankton that right whales feed on, which in turn points to where right whales are likely to be.  See http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=4408966&page=1.  

Prof. Chris Andronicos will be presented with the 2008 Zellman Warhaft Commitment to Diversity Award at the Diversity Programs in Engineering Annual Awards Banquet in May.  His work as a mentor, teacher, and researcher, as well as his continued involvement in diversity activities has set Chris apart and has led to this honor. 

On April 29-30, the College of Engineering will host the Third International Joint Workshop with Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China.  These workshops were established to promote collaboration between Cornell and Tsinghua, a leading engineering institution in China.  The focus of this workshop will be "Sustainable Development: Water Resources, Energy, and the Environment".  For more information, please visit the website: http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/workshop. 

Prof. Art DeGaetano has been recognized by Merrill Presidential Scholar, Allison Wing (AS '08), as being a faculty member who most significantly contributed to her college experience! 

Senior Research Associate, Bruce Monger was honored at the Class of 2008 Presidential Reception held by Alpha Delta Phi on April 3, 2008 in recognition of the important role he has played in influencing the education of many Cornell students. It should also be noted that Bruce's leadership of the Cornell Undergraduate Research Board (CURB) during the past several years is widely appreciated. 

EAS is now producing its own model forecasts for use in research and education.  We are using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model as a tool to generate forecasts over the Northeast U.S. each morning.  Please visit http://wrf.eas.cornell.edu/forecasts.  Brian Belcher, Program Analyst in Bradfield Hall will continue to work to improve this work in progress.  It is hoped that higher resolution will be added as time and equipment permits. 

Atmospheric Sciences welcomes two new Post Docs to Bradfield Hall.  Paula Brown conducts research in the Northeast Regional Climate Center, utilizing the long-term hourly data set to perform long-term temperature analysis for the U.S.  Paula attended the University of Otago in New Zealand where she earned her graduate degrees in Geography and Statistics.  Lee Tryhorn completed her graduate degrees, including a B.A. in Japanese, B.Sc. in Mathematics and Atmospheric Science, as well as a Ph.D. in Atmopsheric Science at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.  Her research interests include climate change impacts and adaptations.  

Prof. Tammo Steenhuis, BEE, has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in recognition of his contributions in earth and space sciences.  Steenhuis advises students in our EAS graduate program.

Graduate student  Peter Nester  successfully defended his thesis on February 29, 2008.  Congratulations Peter! 

Dr. Silvia Kloster will join Sebastian Engelstaedter in Prof. Natalie Mahowald's Snee Hall lab on February 1 as a new postdoc.  Kloster comes to EAS from Italy with research interest in aerosol chemistry and climate.

Prof. Chuck Greene has been officially elected to the position of Fellow of The Oceanography Society.  As stated on the TOS website, "The main criteria for being elected a TOS Fellow are outstanding and sustained contributions, and devotion to the broad field of oceanography, commensurate with the founding principles of the Society."  To read more, see:   http://www.tos.org/awards_honors/fellows_program.html  . Congratulations, Chuck! 

EAS welcomes Dr. Yao Agbossomounde as a Visiting Scientist.  Yao will work with Dr. Kodjopa Attoh during his stay at Cornell.

January 18th Graduate Student Symposium includes sessions highlighting current research being done by EAS graduate students.   

Prof. Bryan L. Isacks has recently been appointed as the William and Katherine Snee Professor of Geological Sciences Emeritus.   

The Cornell Weather/Climate Fall 2007 Colloquium was held on December 4th.  Researchers presented with a brief synopsis of their work and invited questions and comments from attendees.  Natalie Mahowald hosted the event.  Participants included Kerry Cook, Steve Colucci, Michelle Goman, and several graduate students.

Prof. Suzanne Mahlburg Kay has been named a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. SEG is an international organization of individual members whose goals are to advance the science of geology, to disseminate basic and applied scientific information, and to advance the status of the profession of economic geology.

Prof. Kerry Cook has been elected to the Board of Trustees for UCAR, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.  Prof. Cook was elected at the 2007 Annual UCAR meeting held this October in Boulder, Colorado. UCAR is a nonprofit consortium of North American member universities, each of which grants doctoral degrees in the atmospheric and related sciences, plus international affiliates offering comparable degrees, and North American academic affiliates offering pre-doctoral degrees.

Charles L. Pack Professor, Susan Riha, has been appointed the director of the New York State Water Resources Institute (WRI).  After more than twenty years as WRI's director, Keith Porter, has retired to devote his time to teaching in the Law School. 

Congratulations to Prof. Suzanne Mahlburg Kay who has been selected for the Outstanding Educator Award by the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists "in recognition of her steadfast support and effective advocacy of the important role of sound, comprehensive, inspiring field training in geological education and her enlightened leadership of Cornell University's exemplary model of a cooperative Geological Field Camp in Argentina."

Two EAS research groups were awarded energy research seed grants by the College of Engineering:

• Prof. Chuck Greene will collaborate with Prof. Max Zhang of MAE and Prof. Robert Thomas of ECE in a study of a sustainable transportation system for Hawaii.
• Professors Lou Derry, Jason Phipps-Morgan, Larry Brown, and Terry Jordan are investigating the suitability of central New York's deep Paleozoic strata for geological sequestration of carbon dioxide.  Collaborations with AES Corporation, Ansbro Energy, and the NYS Museum are important to this new project.   

We have recently welcomed two new staff members to Snee Hall:

• Brenda Leonard is the new Undergraduate/Graduate Programs Coordinator
• Judy Starr is the new Office Coordinator/Assistant to the Chair 

We have been joined by two new faculty members this Fall:

• Natalie Mahawold is a climate scientist specializing in dust in the atmosphere
• Rowena Lohman is a geophysicist with expertise in seismotectonics, radar interferometry, and inverse methods

Chris Andronicos and Matt Pritchard have both won recognition with Excellence in Teaching awards from the College of Engineering. They will be honored at a luncheon in early November.

Rick Allmendinger has been named Associate Dean of the College of Engineering.

Art DeGaetano has replaced Steve Colucci as Associate Chair of the EAS Department.

The Institute for the Study of the Continents (INSTOC) and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences hosted a workshop titled "The Unknown Andes" on Friday September 7, 2007. Please see the INSTOC web site for more details: http://www.geo.cornell.edu/instoc/activities.htm

Congratulations to Dave Hysell on his recent promotion to Full Professor.

Recruiting of new graduate students for the Field of Geological Sciences, Field of Atmospheric Sciences, the Biogeochemistry program, the Upper Atmosphere program (Field of Electrical and Computer Engineering), and the Space Sciences program are in full swing.

Professor Susan Riha will become the next Director of the New York State Water Resources Institute, upon the retirement after many years of skilled leadership of Keith Porter. Professor Riha is currently on sabbatical, based in Australia.

We await with enthusiasm the arrival of two new EAS faculty members. Dr. Rowena Lohman will join the faculty June 1, 2007, and Dr. Natalie Mahowald will join the faculty on July 1, 2007. Rowena Lohman's expertise contributes to the seismology and earth deformation research program, whereas Natalie Mahowald's expertise contributes to the global climate modeling and biogeochemistry research areas.

Professor Larry Cathles continues a year-long sabbatical leave, stationed in Norway.

Professor Larry Brown is on sabbatical leave for the Spring 2007 semester. Professor Brown will be working on several major research projects that have been funded for implementation in 2007.

Exciting faculty news! Dave Hysell has been chosen for the Engineering College teaching award. Susan Riha has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy.

Name-changes and improved introductions to EAS's majors are afoot. EAS has revised the Science of Earth Systems Curriculum. The newly revised SES major is available to undergraduates in three Cornell Colleges (Engineering, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Arts and Sciences). Four standard concentrations include Geology, Biogeochemistry, Atmospheric Sciences (a separate major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), and Ocean Sciences

EAS is pleased to welcome Professor Karl Flessa of the University of Arizona, who will be joining EAS in Snee Hall for the Fall 2006 semester. He is taking advantage of a sabbatical to serve as a College of Engineering Mary Upson Fellow, the first such fellowship awarded to an EAS-sponsored visitor. Professor Flessa is a paleontologist by training, and his visit is one of our ongoing collaborations with the Paleontological Research Institution. Professor Flessa will present his recent research on the Colorado River in a variety of seminars and he will participate in the weekly paleontology seminar, as well as several classes.