Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ten students majoring in earth and environmental sciences (E&ES) have completed their senior capstone projects. Each year, seniors in the major embark on a capstone experience that starts with a seminar in the fall (E&ES497) in which students design an original research project, go on a field trip to carry out the research and complete their fieldwork, and then analyze their results and present them in written reports and oral presentations. In past years, students have ventured across the globe for their field trips. However, the pandemic caused this year’s projects to look a little different. This time, the field…

Martha Gilmore, George I. Seney Professor of Geology and professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of seven new papers and articles. These include: “Distinct Mineralogy and Age of Individual Lava Flows in Atla Regio, Venus Derived From Magellan Radar Emissivity,” published in the March 2021 issue of JGR: Planets. Gilmore's former postdoc Jeremy Brossier, Katie Toner '20 and Avi Stein '17 co-authored this paper. “The Venus Life Equation,” published online in the January 2021 issue of Astrobiology. “Variations in the radiophysical properties of tesserae and mountain belts on Venus: Classification and mineralogical trends,” published in the February…

Suzanne OConnell, professor of earth and environmental sciences, is featured on Vox Media’s podcast Unexplainable in a March 17 episode titled “Journey Toward the Center of the Earth.” The podcast explores unanswered scientific questions about mysterious aspects of the world and examines what scientists are doing to find answers. The episode with OConnell delves into a 20th-century quest to drill into the Earth’s layers through the ocean, specifically to learn more about a very dense region between the crust and the mantle called the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or the Moho. “Project Moho was a bust, but it lay a foundation for…

Johan "Joop" Varekamp, Harold T. Stearns Professor in Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental studies, is the co-author of an article published in Geology, March 2021. The study, titled "Volcanic Carbon Cycling in East Lake, Newberry Volcano, Oregon," focuses on the bubbling East Lake, the site of the Newberry Volcano, and the geological implications of the carbon reactions happening there. Varekamp co-authored the article with graduate student Christina Cauley and former students: Hilary Brumberg '17, Lena Capece '16, Celeste Smith '19, Paula Tartell '18, and Molly Wagner MA '19. The team researched this geological phenomenon from 2015 to 2019,…

Gabe Snashall '21 and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Helen Poulos are the co-authors of "Oreos Versus Orangutans: The Need for Sustainability Transformations and Nonhierarchical Polycentric Governance in the Global Palm Oil Industry," published in the Feb. 22 issue of Forests. According to the paper's abstract, "While the myriad benefits of palm oil as a food, makeup, and cleaning product additive drive its demand, globally, the palm oil industry remains largely unsustainable and unregulated. The negative externalities of palm oil production are diverse and devastating to tropical ecosystem integrity and human livelihoods in palm oil nations. Given the current…

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the public has relied on dynamic visualizations in the form of maps and apps to keep up-to-date with the spread of the disease on both local and global scales. And with the use of geo-enabled apps, individuals can locate COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, order groceries and other goods online, find uncrowded outdoor spaces, and track and even map the number of available medical resources in area hospitals. "All of these services are available due to geographic information systems (GIS)," said Kim Diver, associate professor of the practice in earth and environmental sciences. "By using spatiotemporal visualizations, we…

Rosemary Ostfeld '10, MA '12, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies and public policy, was named to Connecticut Magazine's 2021 "40 Under 40" list. The 32-year-old from East Lyme, Conn., is the founder of Healthy PlanEat, a new sustainable food-tech startup that helps farmers who use sustainable growing practices sell their farm-fresh goods (whether fruits or veggies, cheese or oysters) directly to local customers. Farmers using Healthy PlanEat—which enthusiastic members of the community helped start via a crowdfunding campaign—can upload inventory, set distribution options, and manage incoming orders. Customers can purchase food to pick up at the farms themselves, at…

Several Wesleyan faculty and alumni have been featured in national media outlets recently. They include: The New York Times—Life on Venus? The Picture Gets Cloudier; quotes Martha Gilmore The New York Times—Robert L. Herbert ['51], 91, Dies; Saw Impressionism With a Fresh Eye Transport Topics News—Democrat Ron Bloom '77, P'24 Named Postal Board Chair Amid Calls to Fire Louis DeJoy Stamford Advocate—Democrats: Impeachment Trial an Obligation ‘Whatever the Verdict’; quotes Justin Peck Hartford Courant—E.J. Dionne: Does Bipartisanship Matter More Than Helping Kids?; features Michael Bennet ’87 (more…)

Olin Library's newest resident is looking for a good book to sink his tusk into. The skull of a one-toothed walrus, which was installed in the Campbell Reading Room on Jan. 20, is the University's latest exhibit on display from the former Museum of Wesleyan University (1871–1957). The piece was donated to Wesleyan 145 years ago by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History but has spent about half of its university life in storage. The 26-pound skull, which is missing its right tusk, belonged to a Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) living along the Ugashik River in Alaska in…

On Nov. 23, the Geological Society of America's (GSA) Geobiology and Geomicrobiology Division awarded earth and environmental sciences graduate student Yu Kai Tan '20 with a student presentation award. Tan presented his poster, "Freshwater Mussels in North America: Museum Collections and Pre-Industrial Biogeography," on Oct. 29 during the GSA's annual (virtual) meeting. Andy (Dick Yee) Tan '21 collaborated with Tan '20 on the poster. Their advisors are Ann Burke, professor of biology, and Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, and University Professor in the…

For her exemplary contributions to research in the geological sciences and for being an instrumental mentor to young people of color, Professor Marty Gilmore received the 2020 Randolph W. “Bill” and Cecile T. Bromery Award from the Geological Society of America. Gilmore, George I. Seney Professor of Geology, professor of earth and environmental sciences, and co-coordinator of Wesleyan's Planetary Sciences program, was nominated for the award by Jim Head, the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University. "Few individuals have done more for expanding diversity in the geosciences than Dr. Gilmore," Head said. She "leads…

Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, and University Professor in the College of Integrative Sciences, is the recipient of the 2020 Joseph A. Cushman Award for Excellence in Foraminiferal Research. At Wesleyan, Thomas investigates oceanic benthic foraminifera (eukaryotic unicellular organisms) as proxies for the impact of changes in environment and climate on living organisms on various time scales. This fall, she's teaching the courses Research Frontiers in the Sciences and Mass Extinctions in the Oceans. Brian Huber, president of the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal…

E&ES Seniors Conduct Capstone Research at Wesleyan’s Long Lane Forest

Gilmore, Alumni Author Papers in 7 Journals

OConnell Talks Ocean Exploration in Vox Podcast

Volcanic Lake Study by Varekamp, Former Students, Published in Geology

Study by Snashall ’21, Poulos Published in Forests

Students Use GIS-Based Maps, Apps to Study the Effects of the Pandemic

Ostfeld ’10, MA ’12 Named a “40 Under 40”

Wesleyan in the News

Single-Tusked Walrus Skull Settles into Olin Library

Tan ’20 Honored by Geological Society of America for Poster Presentation

Gilmore Receives Bromery Award from the Geological Society of America

Thomas Honored for Excellence in Foraminiferal Research