Category: News

CATEGORIES: News

GEAT drops GRE requirement from graduate admissions process

The Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences (GEAT) is changing the application process for students seeking graduate degrees in geology and meteorology. These changes include discontinuing the GRE requirement and implementing a two-stage application process in hopes of reducing barriers faced by underrepresented student groups. Our overall goal is to increase the diversity of graduate … Continue reading GEAT drops GRE requirement from graduate admissions process

CATEGORIES: News

GEAT welcomes Assistant Professors Christina Patricola and Ian Williams!

Dr. Christina Patricola studies the physical relationships between extreme weather events, natural climate variability, and climate change within the coupled Earth system. She uses high-resolution numerical climate models and observations to investigate connections between the large-scale climate and extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones, floods, storms, and drought. Dr. Ian Williams studies atmospheric and terrestrial … Continue reading GEAT welcomes Assistant Professors Christina Patricola and Ian Williams!

CATEGORIES: Awards, News

Dr. Betsy Swanner receives NSF CAREER award

Congratulations to Dr. Betsy Swanner, associate professor in geology, who has been awarded a National Science Foundation 2020 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, one of the NSF’s most distinguished awards! The award will support Betsy’s project entitled, “Quantifying the Extent and Biogeochemical Impact of Modern Ferruginous Lakes”. You can find her Twitter summary of … Continue reading Dr. Betsy Swanner receives NSF CAREER award

CATEGORIES: Awards, News

Christina Patricola, new GEAT assistant professor, wins DOE early career award for cyclone studies

Dr. Christina Patricola, a new GEAT assistant professor starting in Fall 2020, recently won a Department of Energy Early Career Award for her research on tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones are low-pressure systems that form over tropical waters with thunderstorms near the center of closed, cyclonic winds. When those rotating winds reach 39 mph, the system … Continue reading Christina Patricola, new GEAT assistant professor, wins DOE early career award for cyclone studies

CATEGORIES: News

Gabbie Ledesma and Jazlyn Beeck win Undergraduate Presentation Awards, 2020 North-Central Section GSA Meeting

In May 2020, geology undergraduates Gabbie Ledesma (Spring 2020 graduate) and Jazlyn Beeck presented their undergraduate research at the virtual North Central meeting of the Geological Society of America. Gabbie’s oral presentation, entitled “Can Terrestrial Manganese-rich Samples Help Distinguish Manganese-enrichments in Gale Crater Mars?”, is the culmination of research conducted with her advisor, Dr. Betsy … Continue reading Gabbie Ledesma and Jazlyn Beeck win Undergraduate Presentation Awards, 2020 North-Central Section GSA Meeting

CATEGORIES: News

Kaela Gollob presents her undergraduate research at the Iowa Groundwater Association’s “virtual” meeting

Kaela Gollob received the 2019 Iowa Groundwater Association’s (IGWA) Student Research Grant and presented results from her research project, entitled “Hydrogeology and Geochemistry of an Alluvial Aquifer in Ames, Iowa: Evidence for NO3-N Transport and Denitrification” at Iowa Groundwater Association’s “virtual” meeting on May 1st. She has worked with Dr. Bill Simpkins on the project … Continue reading Kaela Gollob presents her undergraduate research at the Iowa Groundwater Association’s “virtual” meeting

CATEGORIES: News

Glaciologists’ experiments lead to slip law for better forecasts of glacier speed, sea-level rise

A paper published online today by the journal Science describes the new slip law and the experiments and data that motivate it. Authors are Lucas Zoet, a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State from 2012 to 2015 and now an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Iverson. Why do glaciologists need … Continue reading Glaciologists’ experiments lead to slip law for better forecasts of glacier speed, sea-level rise

CATEGORIES: News

Earth may have been a “water world” with submerged continents 3.2 billion years ago

Dr. Ben Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, and coauthor Dr. Boswell Wing, University of Colorado Boulder, studied 3.2-billion-year-old ocean crust exposed in Australia and used that data to build a quantitative, inverse model of ancient seawater. The model indicates the early Earth could have been a “water world” with … Continue reading Earth may have been a “water world” with submerged continents 3.2 billion years ago

CATEGORIES: News

Heat trapped in urban areas tricks trees into thinking spring has arrived earlier

Lin Meng, GEAT PhD candidate, and Dr. Yuyu Zhou, Associate Professor, recently published a study on the urban heat-island effect and phenology in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their study, satellite images of 85 large U.S. cities were examined to detect changes in greenness of plants and the timing of spring … Continue reading Heat trapped in urban areas tricks trees into thinking spring has arrived earlier