NEWS EAS2017 PUSHING BEYOND EARTH'S SURFACE FOR ANSWERS STAYING CONNECTED CHAIR'S MESSAGE in this issue... New EAS Faculty ....................2-3 DEAR ALUMNI Space Weather .......................4-5 Earth's Resources ....................6 AND FRIENDS, Alaska Experiment ...................7 am pleased to be able to report to a number of impending retirements. Our you for the first time in my capacity goal is to stabilize at a headcount of 19 Li Dong, Ph.D. ’06 and Steve Colucci Joseph Lee ’13 and Steve Colucci connect INSTOC Symposium ..................8 pose at the AMS’s June 2017 Conference at the AMS annual meeting in Seattle. as the incoming chair of EAS. I full-time faculty members and then to on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid assumed the role in July and, with grow modestly beyond that. Growth to Dynamics in Portland, Oregon. Faculty Updates .......................9 IRick Allmendinger's help, have been the point where EAS is comparable in rofessor Steve Colucci stays in encouragement or advice or helped Off-Campus Experiences ... 10-13 learning the ropes. As our department size to its aspirational peer institutions touch with our Atmospheric you make important connections to Alumni Thank You .................. 14 resides in two colleges and offers degree is a central theme of the department's P Sciences alumni. He sees them further your career? One of the ways programs in a third, our position here forthcoming strategic plan. at American Meteorological Society you can give back is by supporting Transitions ...............................15 at Cornell is unusually complex. As our Another recent accomplishment is (AMS) conferences, has ongoing our department as it evolves and In Memoriam ..................... 16-17 faculty is also small, we are each asked to the completion of a highly constructive connections through email with changes to meet the needs of shoulder more administrative duties than meeting of the EAS Advisory Council many of his former advisees, and educating the younger generation, many of our peers. I am most thankful for (AC) which took place in October. Design and Production Dave Hysell, Matt the support of the faculty for assuming This year, the AC included strong enjoys visits from those who return to who will be given the heavy task Judy Starr, Rob Kurcoba Pritchard, John Thompson, campus. of caring for our Earth and finding Irene del Real, Ming Khan, the committee posts and that duties that representation from geological, ocean EAS faculty are committed to ways to mitigate some of the natural Editors Hannah Lang, Casey Root, come with them, which are necessary for and atmospheric sciences. The AC was giving students the tools they need to hazards and disasters it will face in Syl Kacypyr, Rob Kurcoba, Chris Siron the department to function. pleased with the state of the department build their future and value ongoing the future. Dawn McWilliams So far, we appear to be off to a good and broadly endorsed the direction in Cover Image: Portion connections with alumni. We encourage you to remain Story Contributors of map provided by Geoff start. We are very pleased to welcome our which we are moving. The following are Has a former Cornell faculty connected as we continue to promote Geoff Abers, John Cisne, Abers (see story on page 7) newest faculty member, Esteban Gazel, some of their specific recommendations. DAVID HYSELL advisor given you needed science that matters. Chris Dawson, who comes to us from Virginia Tech as an First, the AC encouraged EAS associate professor. Esteban and his group to increase undergraduate and expedient way to pursue that theme. In study processes in the Earth's interior graduate enrollment overall and in the future, we plan to welcome industry that produce magmas and volcanoes atmospheric sciences especially. This representatives to events showcasing and drive planetary evolution. Esteban's can be accomplished in part through undergraduate and graduate research THE EAS 2020 VISION ENDOWMENT work is conducted both in the field and improved advertising and marketing, in an effort to build new connections Achievable with your help! in the laboratory. Hiring him has had and we are beginning to work with the between industry, our students and our the side benefit of compelling us, finally, administration to see how that might faculty. to renovate the lab space on the ground be done. We were also encouraged to There have been many other positive floor of Snee. You can practically eat off increase our visibility in the College of developments in EAS which you can read THE GOAL: the floors now! We are looking forward Arts and Sciences, the home college of about in the pages of this newsletter. I To raise an endowment of at least one million dollars. to seeing Esteban populate his laboratory many of our alumni. We are presently hope you will continue to keep track of with modern instrumentation. seeking real estate on its website. developments within our department and EAS is furthermore in the process The AC also supported plans in EAS to provide feedback to help us progress. TOPPING THE WISH LIST: of conducting two searches—one in to develop new professional master's atmospheric/climate dynamics, and degree programs including a Master • Postdoctoral fellowship program the other in faults, fluids and fluid-rock of Engineering (M.Eng.) program Best wishes, • Research lab equipment, renovations, maintenance interactions. The latter position is part in remote sensing in the College of of a cluster hire in sustainable subsurface Engineering and a five-year master's • Undergraduate field training support energy performed jointly with Chemical program in atmospheric science in CALS. • Computer lab support and Biological Engineering and Civil and Improving ties between industry and Environmental Engineering. Looking academia was a central theme of the beyond these two searches, we see AC meeting, building the professional Dave Hysell Learn more: http://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas/alumni that a vigorous hiring cadence will be master's programs around projects and Professor and EAS Chair necessary for the next few years to offset funding from industry would be an 1 | EAS NEWS NEW FACULTY GEOCHEMIST ESTEBAN GAZEL JOINS EAS FACULTY ugust 2017, enter Esteban Gazel. Cornell University and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences has gained a visionary scientist who has immediate plans to renovate a Alarge lab space in Snee Hall to accommodate his ongoing geochemical research. Gazel has always loved science and wants to do what he can to help people understand the secrets of our planet. Growing up in the suburbs of San Jose, surrounded by volcanoes, gave him an early curiosity about how the Earth works. During his youth, Gazel experienced frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes where he lived. He started conducting research at 15 years old in Costa Rica during high school and as an undergraduate at the University of Costa Rica, he continued doing a lot of research to learn more about how the Earth works. During his undergraduate years, Gazel had the opportunity to meet Professor Michael Carr from Rutgers, an expert on the volcanoes he was most interested in, so he applied to Rutgers for graduate school and was accepted into Dr. Carr's lab as a Ph.D. student. From there Gazel became a postdoctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Gazel began his professorial career at Virginia Tech in the geosciences department. While at Virginia Tech, he published more than 25 academic papers and won Esteban Gazel the prestigious Hisashi Kuno Award from the American Geophysical Union's Volcanology Geochemistry Petrology atmosphere as a connected system. There are many people "I WORK ON FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES AND IN THAT WAY I CAN section. here that will make excellent collaborators for me and my At Cornell, Gazel and his group will continue students." HELP FILL IN THE BIG PICTURE OF HOW THE EARTH WORKS. JUST to research the processes that produce magmas and Gazel and his team of researchers are looking at what volcanoes and contribute to the evolution of the planet. is responsible for the formation of intraplate volcanoes like AS IMPORTANTLY, I AM HELPING TO PUT SKILLED STUDENTS WITH They are looking at lava production by mantle melting, Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands, how the different types CRITICAL MINDS OUT IN THE WORLD. I REALLY WANT TO INSPIRE the origin of continents, and the deep carbon and water of magma reservoirs formed and how magmas record the cycles. Gazel is certain that his research will branch out compositions of these sources, characterization of volcanic THE NEXT GENERATION OF GEOSCIENTISTS." now that he and a couple of his former Virginia Tech ash at the nanoscale to learn about its composition students are at Cornell. "There is a longstanding tradition and also its connection to respiratory disease, and data of excellence in Earth Sciences at Cornell," says Gazel. collected on Mars to learn more about its early geology — PROFESSOR ESTEBAN GAZEL "It is a progressive institution that sees the Earth and and planetary evolution. 2 | EASEAS NEWSNEWS 3 | EAS NEWS Investigating ESF and F Region Ionospheric Disturbances WINDYMISSION: NASA ROCKETS LAUNCH FROM KWAJALEIN ATOLL ASA sounding rockets have navigation, and imaging systems and several tracer techniques have been wind speeds and direction over the the ability to launch on pose a hazard to technology and all tried and perfected to accomplish the height ranges where the releases occur. demand. They fly higher than who depend on it. measurements. Lithium vapor and Both clouds will remain in the night many low-Earth orbiting In spite of inclement weather and trimethyl aluminum (TMA) gas have sky for approximately 30 minutes after N satellites. In many cases, they delays, WINDY mission rockets were been proven particularly effective launch.