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Geology & Geophysics News GEOLOGY & GEOPHYSICS NEWS Yale University I Department of Geology and Geophysics Winter 2008 Chairman’s Letter Interior Renovations to the Kline Geology Lab David Bercovici Greetings, friends of Yale Geology & Geophysics, this is my second year as Chair of our fine department, and it gives me great pleasure to tell you about the many events of the last year. There have been numerous changes, including new faculty, new graduates, expansion in numbers of undergraduate majors, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars; even the building has seen renovations. Early in 2007 we ran two simultaneous junior searches, one in mineral physics and geophysics, the other in isotope geochemistry. The searches led to the appointment of four new faculty, two in each of the disciplines. The new assistant professors The results of renovations—the auditorium looking toward the podium, and the departmental lounge. are geochemists Hagit Affek and Zhengrong Wang, both of whom started in July 2007, and geophysicists Kanani Lee (who starts in July 2008) and Maureen Long (who starts in January 2009). Each brings unique talents to the Department, and they will oversee major expansions in isotope geochemistry, mineral physics and seismological research. You can find profiles and a photo of each of them later in this newsletter. As we add new young faculty, our formerly young faculty are getting older and this year saw the promotions of geophysicist Jun Korenaga to Associate Professor, and atmospheric physicist Steven Sherwood to Professor. You might recall that Jun Korenaga was the recipient of the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union in 2006, and Steve Sherwood received the Clarence Leroy Meisinger award from the American Meteorological Society in 2005. Inside this Issue Bob Gordon retired in July of this year but Meet the New Faculty . 3 continues as a Senior Research Scientist. Bob was Conference Honoring Robert Gordon . 4 an undergraduate ’52 and PhD ’55 in engineering; New Director of the Peabody . 5 he returned to Yale after a stint at Columbia and Recent PhD Theses . 6 has been a professor since 1957. In early November, Climate Puzzles . 7 the Department held a two-day symposium in Ice and Fluid Dynamic Research at Yale . 8 Bob’s honor to highlight the singular contributions The Yale Center for Earth Observation . 11 he has made in the fields of rock mechanics Alumni News . 12 (including some of the early work that paved the Departmental Field Trip . 16 continued on page 2 GeoloGy & Geophysics News winter 2008 Letter continued from page 1 programs are growing success stories. Our cadre of way for the plate tectonic revolution), and his seminal postdoc scholars—currently 23 in number—continues work in archeometallurgy. Other honorable transitions to bring great scientific vitality and diversity to our (albeit temporary, we hope) are that Derek Briggs, department. The group is strongly international with the Beinecke Professor of Geology and Geophysics, people from France, Russia, Japan, Korea, India, will become the new director of the Peabody Museum Norway, the UK, Australia, Israel, as well as the US in July 2008, and Jeffrey Park will succeed Derek as and Canada. We now hold a regular “Lunch with the Director of the Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies. Postdocs” seminar series, one of our best attended Derek will be on leave for the first 6 months of his regular events. With the addition of new faculty will Directorship, so our own Jay Ague will be acting come even more postdocs and our greatest concern Director of the Museum during that time. is in fact where to house all of them! This year members of our G&G community The ranks of undergraduate majors had, for garnered two major honors. First, the Graduate several years, dipped in number, but with the School’s highest honor, the Wilbur Lucius Cross revamping of the undergrad program to include Medal, was awarded to John Suppe (G ‘69) for his multiple tracks (Amosphere and Oceans; Solid Earth; groundbreaking work in structural geology and Environmental Geoscience; and Paleontology and tectonics; a department reception and the university Geobiology) the number of majors has doubled to ceremonies took place in October. Second, Alexey well over 20 and is climbing. Our undergraduates Fedorov, Assistant Professor, was Yale’s recipient of have even formed a new Geology and Geophysics the David and Lucille Packard Fellowship, which is Club to organize activities, seminars and field trips; a great honor for a young faculty member, and will we look forward to their expanding role in the life of allow him to expand on his extremely timely research our department. into the effects of climate change on El Niño patterns For those of you who spent countless hours and Gulf Stream circulation. of your youth in the Kline Geology Lab, you will PhD candidates who enrolled in 2001 and 2002— be happy to know that it has had a major interior two of our largest classes in recent years (with 20 face-lift (perhaps Botox treatment is more apt) over total)—are graduating and moving on to prestigious the last year. In addition to repainting the hallways, postdoctoral positions such as Cambridge University, we have completely renovated every teaching California Institute of Technology, and Woods Hole room and lab to include new lighting, computer Oceanographic Institution. projectors, and (finally) comfortable new furniture. The expanded Bateman Postdoctoral Fellowship The Departmental Lounge, used for receptions, and Interdepartmental Postdoctoral Fellowship continued on page 3 As part of the Global Tectonics class (G&G212b) taught by Mark Brandon and David Evans, undergraduates visited the active Sicilian foldbelt during Spring Recess. Here, some of the Yale group is shown examining Miocene turbidites near Cefalu. 2 GeoloGy & Geophysics News winter 2008 faculty News Meet the New Faculty problems and is using isotopic position in New Mexico, she was chemistry to investigate biosphere- the OK Earl Postdoctoral Fellow at Hagit Affek (hagit. atmosphere interactions. She is Caltech. Kanani’s PhD was awarded [email protected]) is particularly interested in studying by the University of California, an environmental the role of emissions from the land- Berkeley, where her thesis advisor geochemist who based biosphere in determining was Raymond Jeanloz. Her thesis comes to Yale the chemical composition of the title was “Exploring planetary following a postdoc atmosphere. Hagit has been in the interiors: Experiments at extreme appointment at Department since July 2007. conditions.” Kanani will join the Caltech working with John Eiler. Yale faculty in July 2008. She plans Her PhD thesis was awarded by Kanani Lee to continue her research into the the Weizmann Institute of Science, (kanani@physics. physical properties of Earth’s core, Rehovot, Israel, and her mentor nmsu.edu) comes to in particular electrical and thermal there was Dan Yakir; her topic was us from New Mexico conductivities, heat generation, “Isoprene emission from leaves: State University, and composition. She will also Physiological role and isotopic where she is an continue research into pressure composition.” Hagit is continuing Assistant Professor and temperature dependencies of her research into environment of Physics. Before starting her continued on page 4 Letter continued from page 2 hope to be able to give you positive progress reports afternoon teas, and seminars, has been redesigned on these in the next newsletter. and refurnished. The Dana Club room was likewise We plan to expand field experiences for our gutted and fitted with new modern cafe-style undergraduates. We have already made some positive furniture. And our flagship auditorium, which over moves; last year the Structure and Tectonics class the years had acquired the appearance of a ships went to Sicily and the class leaders plan a repeat trip hull, was completely gutted and renovated with this year. The Natural Disasters class is planning a trip an elegant new seating, state-of-the-art projection to explore the volcanoes, the sites of earthquakes, system, and a center piece demonstration table of tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, and shore waves 2-billion-year-old metaconglomerate from Brazil. in Hawaii, in March 2008. And the Department is Along with these changes will come many additional planning a graduate field trip to New Zealand, in renovations of research labs for newly hired faculty. December 2008. While the department office has as a whole been Finally, we are planning a Yale Geology & working tirelessly toward these changes, the super- Geophysics Reunion in the Fall of 2008 so that all our human efforts of our Assistant Business Manager former graduate, undergraduate, and postdoc alumni Pam Buonocore in coordinating the renovations are can join us in order to visit old advisors and teachers particularly noteworthy and she earns our profound and meet the newest faculty, students, and scholars. thanks. Keep an eye out for the dates, details, and invitations! What does the immediate future hold in store Well, it’s been an active year—hence my long for our Department? Well, we have been working on letter. Anytime you wish to find out more about the several initiatives including a Geobiology Initiative department or even visit, feel free to send an email that involves the Departments of G&G, Ecology and ([email protected]) and we will be more than Evolutionary Biology, Chemistry, and Astronomy; it’s happy to take care of you. a major initiative and we hope it will grow into several faculty hires and new facilities designed to study Late Breaking News the interaction of microbes and the environment, Academic Analytics has released rankings for 2007. the coevolution of life and Earth, and extremophiles + Geology at Yale came in a solid 5th among and astrobiology. We have also been firing up a new departments. Climate Institute Initiative that we hope will pull + Geophysics sits at the top of the list in its together and expand all the science and engineering discipline.
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