News

September 27 2023
Improving US air quality, equitably
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Mark Dwortzan | MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Study finds climate policy alone cannot meaningfully reduce racial/economic disparities in air pollution exposure.
August 27 2023
Explained: The 1.5 C climate benchmark
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News After a summer of weather extremes, where does the world stand in its goal to stem rising temps?
July 12 2023
Study: The ocean’s color is changing as a consequence of climate change
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office To track the changes in ocean color, scientists analyzed measurements of ocean color taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite, which has been monitoring ocean color for 21 years.
April 21 2023
Exploring new sides of climate and sustainability research
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Molly Chase | Climate and Sustainability Consortium With the support of each other and MIT faculty, students in the MCSC’s Climate and Sustainability Scholars Program are making their impact on real-world climate challenges.
March 10 2023
Study: Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office MIT chemists show the Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 percent in 2020.
February 23 2023
Improving health outcomes by targeting climate and air pollution simultaneously
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Mark Dwortzan | MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change New modeling tool enables rapid design of effective and equitable policy combinations.
February 15 2023
Combining forces to advance ocean science
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“As a species and as a society we really want to understand the planet that we live on and our place in it,” says Professor Michael Follows. Since 1968, the MIT-WHOI Joint Program has provided research and educational opportunities for PhD students seeking to explore the marine world.
January 11 2023
Looking to the past to prepare for an uncertain future
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Phie Jacobs | School of Science Using sand and rock, MIT senior Aviva Intveld tells stories of ancient climates.
December 5 2022
School of Science appoints 10 faculty to named professorships School of Science Those selected for these positions receive additional support to pursue their research and develop their careers.
December 2 2022
A healthy wind
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News Health benefits of using wind energy instead of fossil fuels could quadruple if the most polluting power plants are selected for dialing down, new study finds.
November 16 2022
Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office Scientists have confirmed that a “stabilizing feedback” on 100,000-year timescales keeps global temperatures in check.
November 13 2022
Wildfire smoke may warm the Earth for longer than we thought Nealan Gerrebos - Allan Bertram, Salon Brown carbon - carbon released from burning biomass - is trapping smoke in the atmosphere
November 3 2022
Ocean microbes get their diet through a surprising mix of sources, study finds Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office Up to one-third of the carbon consumed by Prochlorococcus may come from sources other than photosynthesis.
October 26 2022
Coordinating climate and air-quality polices to improve public health
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Mark Dwortzan | MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change New MIT tool pinpoints policy combinations that maximize health benefits.
October 3 2022
Small eddies play a big role in feeding ocean microbes
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Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office Swirling waters replenish nutrients in open ocean, a new study finds, and could mitigate some climate change effects.
September 6 2022
Ferrari named 2022 AGU Ocean Sciences Harald Sverdrup Lecture recipient
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Paige Colley | EAPS News Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography Raffaele Ferrari has been named the 2022 Harald Sverdrup Lecture Recipient by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
September 6 2022
Ferrari named 2022 AGU Open Sciences Harald Sverdrup Lecture recipient EAPS News, Paige Colley The award is named after geophysicist Harald Sverdrup and “recognizes contributions to, as well as unselfish promotion of cooperation in, atmospheric and oceanographic research”.
September 2 2022
3 Questions: O'Gorman awarded the 2023 Haurwitz Lectureship by the American Meteorological Society
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Paige Colley | EAPS News The lectureship recognizes outstanding mid-career scientists who have made “significant contributions to the understanding of atmospheric and ocean fluid dynamics, the circulation of the middle atmosphere, or the dynamics of climate”.
August 24 2022
Frozen Alice Dragoon, MIT Technology Review Grad student Joanna Millstein is tackling big questions about glacier dynamics that will help us understand how changing—and in some cases disappearing—ice sheets will affect the planet.
July 21 2022
Colette Heald receives 2022 Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising Stephanie Martinovich, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering The award honors faculty members who have demonstrated a lasting commitment to the personal and professional development of others.
July 11 2022
Kerry Emanuel: A climate scientist and meteorologist in the eye of the storm
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EAPS With over 200 published papers, multiple books, and countless media appearances, Emanuel’s 41 years at MIT have been marked by influential research into hurricane formation and climate change outreach.
July 5 2022
June 27 2022
MIT-WHOI Joint Program announces new leadership
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Paige Colley Ed Boyle to step down as director; Mick Follows will take over the directorship in July.
June 2 2022
A passion for science and music Paige Colley | EAPS News Fieldwork campfire jam sessions and geology lessons helped inspire senior Zoe Levitt to pursue songwriting full time.
May 27 2022
Commencement 2022 - Meet the EAPS Senior Class
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Paige Colley | EAPS News Each year, graduating seniors majoring in EAPS present a thesis in completion of their Bachelor of Science Degree. This year we had a class of seven students specializing in areas across the Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences. We asked them about their research, experience in EAPS, and advice for incoming students interested in the geosciences.
May 27 2022
Commencement 2022 - Congratulations to All EAPS Graduates
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EAPS News For a showcase of the breadth and depth of areas we study, read on to learn about our students who earned degrees during the 2021-2022 academic year, and their thesis topics.
May 23 2022
MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium announces recipients of inaugural MCSC Seed Awards
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Molly Chase | Climate and Sustainability Consortium Twenty winning projects, including one led by Earth, Atmopsheric and Planetary Science (EAPS) Prinicpal Research Engineer Chris Hill, will link industry member priorities with research groups across campus to develop scalable climate solutions.
May 13 2022
Babbin and Fournier Promoted Paige Colley | EAPS News The Executive Committee of the Corporation has approved the promotion of Andrew Babbin to Associate Professor and granted tenure to Greg Fournier, effective 1 July 2022.
May 3 2022
MIT team wins 2022 weather forecasting competition
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Paige Colley | EAPS News The victory marks the first win for MIT in over a decade.
April 15 2022
Looking forward to forecast the risks of a changing climate
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Paige Colley | School of Science To better inform local policy in the face of changing weather extremes, MIT researchers seek to advance the modeling of long-term weather risks.
April 14 2022
Scientists investigate the impacts of low oxygen events on tropical reefs Elise Hugus Scientists investigate the impacts of low oxygen events on tropical reefs
April 13 2022
Computing our climate future
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Paige Colley | School of Science To put global climate modeling at the fingertips of local decision-makers, some scientists think it’s time to rethink the system from scratch.
April 7 2022
Q&A: Climate Grand Challenges finalists on using data and science to forecast climate-related risk
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MIT News Office Faculty leaders highlight innovations that can close longstanding knowledge gaps and reimagine how the world responds to the climate crisis.
April 5 2022
Ocean vital signs
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EAPS News MIT scientists hope to deploy a fleet of drones to get a better sense of how much carbon the ocean is absorbing, and how much more it can take.
April 4 2022
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and collaborators launch world’s largest kelp map WHOI New web map tool showing steep declines of kelp along U.S. West Coast
January 19 2022
Shaking up earthquake research at MIT Lauren Hinkel | EAPS News Geophysicists Camilla Cattania and William Frank team up to explore the tectonics and fault mechanics behind earthquakes, and their associated hazards.
January 12 2022
Three with MIT ties win 2022 Churchill Scholarships Julia Mongo | Office of Distinguished Fellowships Seniors David Darrow and Tara Venkatadri and HST student James Diao will pursue master’s programs at Cambridge University.
November 22 2021
Nanograins make for a seismic shift EAPS A new study finds curious properties of tiny crystals hold clues to earthquake formation.
November 18 2021
Amy Phung: Automating exploration Elise Hugus/WHOI For Phung, virtual reality and robotics are a natural pairing that will accelerate exploration and facilitate human connection, opening up the door to profound new ways of problem-solving.
October 28 2021
WHOI welcomes Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna as Senior Advisor on Ocean and Climate Policy WHOI News Dr. Kilaparti Ramakrishna (Rama) is WHOI’s new senior advisor to the President and Director on ocean and climate policy.
September 28 2021
Taylor Perron receives 2021 MacArthur Fellowship Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office In his research, the geomorphologist seeks connections among landscape evolution, biodiversity, and human history.
September 21 2021
Predicting building emissions across the US Andrew Logan | MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub Each region of the United States has unique characteristics that will cause building emissions to vary widely across the entire nation. An MIT team sought to understand — and respond to — these regional variations.
September 21 2021
Frederick A. Frey, leader in the field of geochemistry and professor emeritus, dies at 83 Michaela Jarvis | EAPS News Over a career spanning five decades, Frey pioneered the use of new techniques to study the Earth’s mantle
September 19 2021
Taking on the stormy seas Michaela Jarvis | MIT News Office Themistoklis Sapsis tackles engineering problems associated with the unpredictable ocean environment and its effects on ships and other structures.
August 25 2021
Enjoy stargazing in the Berkshires? Then you should be worried about light pollution, astronomers say Felix Carroll | The Berkshire Eagle Tim Brothers of MIT's Wallace Observatory and EAPS speaks with Felix Carroll of The Berkshire Eagle about how "Massachusetts is the only state in the Northeast without regulations restricting outdoor lighting. That could change."
July 30 2021
New WHOI Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer WHOI Dr. Natalie Nevárez named in new position
July 16 2021
Study: Compact neural networks as natural simulators of chaotic dynamics Lauren Hinkel | EAPS News MIT researchers demonstrate that neural networks can efficiently “learn” to become chaotic — to extrapolate beyond training data and mimic non-linear systems, with applications for modeling or correcting for chaotic behaviors in engineered systems.
July 1 2021
The ocean has a serious case of heartburn. Is relief on the way? Evan Lubofsky The Earth’s atmosphere contains more carbon dioxide (CO2) than at any time in the last 20 million years, researchers say.
June 11 2021
Arlene Fiore appointed first Stone Professor in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Lauren Hinkel and Alice McBride | EAPS News Fiore brings a breadth of expertise in climate science, atmospheric chemistry, and air pollution to MIT.
June 4 2021
President L. Rafael Reif’s charge to the Class of 2021 MIT News Office “Through immense effort, self-discipline, creativity and compassion, you found a way to rise to the demands of this historic challenge… together,” Reif told graduates.