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Earth & Environmental Science Department Newsletter

Welcome to the official newsletter of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Wesleyan University!  

Spotlight on…

Professor Dana Royer was featured in a Wesleyan Connection article regarding the Cenozoic Carbon Dioxide Proxy Integration Project (CenCO2PIP). If you’d like to read more about this important research click on the link below!

E&ES graduate student, Allison Dowling, was awarded the NASA CTSGC Graduate Research Fellowship Grant for 2024 for Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotopes in Asteroid Ryugu. Congratulations Ally!

AGU 23 Conference

Wesleyan professors and students attending the AGU annual meeting in San Francisco included Suzanne OConnell, Dana Royer, Helen Poulos, Gebremedhin Haile, Xiaoqing Zhang, Kelly Fenton-Samuels, Shelagh Coombs and Helen Deretchin. Martha Gilmore did not attend however co-authored an abstract that was presented.

Professor Suzanne OConnell, graduate student Kelly Fenton-Samuels and student Shelagh Coombs ‘24

Postdoc Xiaoqing Zhang and Professor Dana Royer meet with the other PIs and international cooperators of the CO2PIP project. 

Senior Seminar-Trip to the Azores

Twelve members of the E&ES class of 2024 visited the Azores Islands, Portugal in January for the 20th annual senior seminar field trip along with Professors OConnell and Resor. This year’s class designed four original research projects that they are busy completing this spring: 1) Determining the sources of carbon in the Furnas volcanic lake, 2) Measuring the microbial diversity of hot springs, 3) Studying the impact of trails and agriculture on soils and worms, and 4) Gauging the impact of invasive Kahili ginger on native vegetation of the Azores. This trip and the research projects were only possible thanks to the support of Larry Davis (’76).

Participants in the 2024 senior seminar exploring the Gruta das Torres cave on the Island of Pico in the Azores archipelago. The cave is the longest lava tube in the country of Portugal.

Alumni update

Suzanne OConnell traveled to NYC in late November to catch up with Intan Suci Nurhati ‘2005. Intan was in NYC to participate in the World Ocean Assessment (WOA) at the United Nations. WOA is similar to the IPCC, only with a focus on the ocean. Intan Suci Nurhati is a paleoclimate/oceanographer. She is currently the head of the research center for Deep Sea, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in Indonesia. Her research unlocks changes in the tropical climate and oceans over the past centuries such as ocean warming and acidification by studying the geochemical composition of reef-building corals and observational data.

Classroom Happenings

Remote Sensing-field spectroscopy lab

Remote Sensing -Thermal IR lab group photo

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