Initially scheduled to end on July 1, 2023, Geoffrey Abers, the William and Katherine Snee Professor in Geological Sciences, will extend his term as chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for one more year. On July 1, 2024, the Natalie Mahowald, Irving Porter Church Professor in Engineering, will return from an upcoming sabbatical year and begin a three-year term as chair.
“Geoff has seen department through a number of significant changes and milestones,” said Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, “including the successful colocation of the department’s Engineering and CALS faculty in Snee Hall and the drilling of the Cornell University Borehole Observatory.”
Abers was first appointed chair in 2020. In his research, he uses the tools of earthquake seismology to understand the forces, material cycles, and deep structure of the Earth. He joined Cornell in 2014 after previously holding research or faculty positions at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, the University of Kansas, and Boston University. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his Ph.D. from MIT.
“Natalie is both a high-profile and highly influential researcher,” Archer said. “She brings tremendous expertise and experience to this position.”
Among numerous other accomplishments, Mahowald is frequently listed among the world’s most highly cited researchers, and she served as a lead author on the 2018 “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5-Degrees C” from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Mahowald’s research focuses on understanding feedbacks in the earth system that impact climate change.She has undergraduate degrees in German and physics from Washington University, a master’s degree in natural resource policy from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in meteorology from MIT. She conducted her postdoctoral research at Stockholm University prior to holding a faculty position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for four years. She then spent five years as a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining Cornell in 2007.
“I look forward to collaborating with Natalie in her new leadership role when she returns, and I am grateful to Geoff for his continued service, which will ensure a smooth transition with no loss of momentum for the department,” Archer said.
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