Event
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiatives
Belonging in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
EAS has a number of initiatives dedicated to inclusiveness in the department. This page is still under construction and will be edited over the next few months.
IDEEAS ("ideas")
The IDEEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) working group was formed organically as a grassroots group with a desire to foster inclusion, belonging, community, and equitable access in EAS. Self-selected from the full cross-section of the department, any member of EAS is welcome to join, and they actively promote diversity among students, administrative staff, research staff, and faculty. IDEEAS is not a committee; they are a collective.
IDEEAS won the Social Justice Award from OISE and the Graduate ad Professional Student Diversity Council which was featured in a recent Cornell Chronicle article.
For more information about how to get involved, please visit the IDEEAS website.
Diversity Equity Inclusion and Anti-Racism (DEIAR)
DEIAR is a department-appointed committee dedicated to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Open letter to the community from DEIAR
EAS PostDoc/Research Associate Peer Mentoring Group
Starting a PostDoc in an unfamiliar place and can be challenging, but the Cornell EAS PostDoc/Research Associate peer mentoring group is here to create connections and facilitate mutual support during this unique career period. The group meets regularly throughout the semester to support each other through knowledge sharing and to help develop a wide range of beneficial skills. We rotate through topics such as the transition to living in another country and culture, the academic and industrial job application process, and how to improve on our communication skill set. As a diverse cohort, this group provides the space to share life experiences and support each other — whatever stage you are at.
We also use this space to get to know each other and plan social events to help build a community. Some examples of social events include hiking, going to some of the many events which occur on the commons in Ithaca, and other activities within the wider area. The group is open to all EAS PostDocs and Research Associates, and we would love to get to know you more! Contact: eas-research-l@list.cornell.edu
Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE)
In the spring of 2021, a group of EAS department members formed a 'pod' to participate in the NSF-funded Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) curriculum. URGE organized a series of biweekly readings and expert interviews aimed at deepening our knowledge of the effects of racism on the participation and retention of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Geoscience. Pods from over 300 institutions around the world participated. The pod produced a set of 'deliverables' in which we considered ways to make department policies more anti-racist; these can be found online. The pod continues to work on how these ideas can be integrated into the policies and practices of the department, and welcomes all interested participants.
AGU Bridge Partnership
Cornell’s Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) has been selected to be an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Bridge Partner, a program across academic institutions in the United States that is dedicated to recruiting and retaining underrepresented students in geosciences grad programs.
NSF Geopaths
The National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Initiative is a Foundation-wide effort to accelerate improvements in the quality and effectiveness of undergraduate education in all STEM fields including the learning, social, behavioral, and economic sciences.
EAS Workshops: How to Succeed!
This is also a part of the EAS 6920: How to succeed in graduate school and beyond class for first year graduate students.
Thursdays, 1-2 pm, Snee 2146
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Student Association (EASSA)
EASSA is the undergraduate club open to EAS majors, minors, and other students interested in earth and atmospheric sciences. Their goal is to provide academic resources for undergrads and help students build connections with each other and faculty across the department. During the semester, they organize information sessions to help students develop skills to further their careers, as well as social events to build a sense of community. In previous years, EASSA has brought students on geology-related field trips as well. This semester, EASSA hopes to provide undergrads with a strong sense of belonging as they enter and explore the major, with virtual info sessions on graduate school preparation and undergraduate course selection, as well as social events like Netflix watch parties and more!
If you are interested in learning more about EASSA and getting involved in EAS, contact the club directly at eas.studentassoc@gmail.com.
Snee Graduate Organization (SGO)
Snee Graduate Organization seeks to provide a medium for professional and social interaction both within and outside of EAS. They typically meet once a month to discuss various issues pertinent to the grad student experience and plan events as a group. In the past this has all occurred in person, with meetings typically taking place in the Snee Hall reading room (with food). For the foreseeable future all meetings and events will take place virtually. They have had success in previous months with virtual happy hours, trivia nights, and movie viewings but are open to any suggestions you may have.
Dr. Adriana Ocampo Uría
Planetary Geologist - Science Program Manager at NASA, Headquarters Science Mission Directorate
Dr. Ocampo Uría was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, raised in Argentina, and moved to the USA as a teenager. She first volunteered at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a junior in High School and then continued to work there throughout her undergraduate in Geology at CSU Los Angeles and her Master’s at CSU Northridge. She earned her PhD from Vrije Universiteit in The Netherlands.
Her research using satellite data directly led to the discovery of the famous Chicxulub impact crater, the imprint of a catastrophic meteor strike 65 million years ago that likely caused the extinction of more than 50% of species on Earth, including the dinosaurs. She has since then led six research expeditions in that region. She is now the program manager for New Frontiers which encompasses the Juno mission to Jupiter, New Horizons to Pluto and the asteroid sample return mission OSIRIS-REx.
She was named one of the 50 Most Important Women in Science by the science magazine Discover in 2002 and Pluto asteroid 177120 Ocampo Uría was named after her!
Read more about Dr. Adriana Ocampo Uría and her advice to young scientists.
Dr. Mario J. Molina
Atmospheric Chemist – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Molina was born in Mexico City. He obtained his bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a postgraduate degree from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, West Germany. He earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley.
His research as a postdoc at UC Irvine tracked the environmental fate of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) at the time when they were thought to have no adverse effects on the environment. He recognized, alongside two other environmental scientists, the relation between CFCs and the Earth’s deteriorating Ozone layer. Their findings, published in Nature in 1974, showed that CFCs would drift to sufficiently high altitudes in the atmosphere to be destroyed by solar radiation and the chlorine atoms thus produced would catalytically destroy ozone. At a press conference of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Mario J. Molina, Dr. Paul Crutzen, and Dr. Sherwood Rowland called for a controversial ban of further emissions of CFCs. In 1985, the British Antarctic Survey discovered a large hole in the ozone layer, confirming Dr. Molina’s work and causing 20 nations to sign the Montreal Protocol treaty to minimize CFCs.
Dr. Molina is the first Mexican-born recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1995). He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
To read more about Dr. Mario J. Molina.
Dr. Nicole M. Fernandez
Low temperature Geochemist – Cornell University
Dr. Fernandez is Puerto Rican, and her interest in geochemistry from time spent in the pristine mountains of New Hampshire during her adolescent years motivated her to pursue a BA in Earth Sciences at Boston University, followed by a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Dr. Fernandez’s research focuses on global water and elemental cycles: she studies them in order to better understand their response to changes in land use and in global climate. As her research is inherently interdisciplinary, she employs a variety of methods, ranging from experiments and numerical models to field analyses. Terrestrial environments provide an interesting area of study for her, where she can investigate fluid-rock interactions across different spatiotemporal scales, from the mineral-water interface to regional scale river basins.
Demonstrative of her excellence in and commitment to research, she has been the recipient of the Provost’s Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University, under which she is currently performing research at the Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux, in France.
Read more about Dr. Fernandez.
Dr. Eugenia Enriqueta Kalnay de Rivas
Meteorologist– University of Maryland, USA
Dr. Kalnay is an Argentine meteorologist a Distinguished University Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at University of Maryland, College Park in the USA.
She was director of the National Center for Environmental Prediction in the 1990s and is considered in that role to have brought the standard of forecasting and assimilation within the US up to the best in the world.
She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Science.
She has been given some of the most prestigious awards from her societies: the Jule G. Charney Award from the American Meteorological Society and the Revelle Award from the American Geophysical Society. She received the 54th IMO Prize in 2009 from the World Meteorological Organization for her work on numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, and ensemble forecasting.
Read more about Dr. Eugenia Kalnay.