After evaluating 183 U.S. institutions with degrees in geological and earth sciences, College Factual ranked UConn’s Department of Earth Sciences 16th overall, with the master’s program ranked 9th, and the bachelor’s and doctoral programs ranked 19th. Additionally, the department was recognized as the leading university for geological and earth sciences degrees in New England. College […]

Tammo Reichgelt, a paleobotanist and assistant professor in residence in the Department of Earth Sciences, discovered that while some fern species prefer rural areas, others can thrive in urban settings. His exploration began when he noticed ferns growing in an urban area of Vernon, CT, leading him to investigate similar observations through citizen science data […]

Earth Sciences major Cassie Aimetti, in collaboration with associate professor Will Ouimet, is working on a project to reconstruct the past environment of Grannis Island. Recently, Aimetti and collaborators carried equipment through the muddy salt marsh to collect sediment cores for reconstructing the historical landscape changes of Grannis Island. Back in the lab, they prepared […]

Incoming Department of Earth Sciences Assistant Professor, Lijing Wang, has been awarded a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) grant. NAIRR is a new, joint NSF / DOE program that provides scientists with resources to conduct computationally demanding artificial intelligence research. Lijing received 10,500 node hours on an Argonne National Laboratory supercomputer to study water […]

Last summer, Earth Sciences Professor and Department Head, Tracy Frank, participated in an International Ocean Discovery Program expedition to the coast of Greenland. Aboard the drilling ship JOIDES Resolution, Tracy helped collect and describe ocean sediment cores from Baffin Bay along the Northwest Greenland Margin. The goal of the project is to better understand the […]

Department of Earth Sciences Professor Robert Thorson, with assistance from Curator Amanda Douberley, created a new exhibit titled “Seeing Climate Change?” at The William Benton Museum. This exhibit is a partnership between science and art, presenting working from the Benton collection that touch on the themes of phenology, climate change, measurement, climate, weather, and seasonality. […]

Department of Earth Sciences Professor Robert Thorson has developed a naming and classification system for stone walls in New England. Published in Historical Archaeology, the new criteria allow for easy and objective identification of the thousands of miles of stone walls across New England. Professor Thorson hopes his stone wall taxonomy and identification protocol will […]

Assistant professor Ran Feng is co-author on a new study investigating precipitation changes in Namibia over the past 5 million years. Published in Geophysical Research Letters, the study uses leaf wax hydrogen isotopes to reconstruct precipitation. The authors link changes in precipitation in Namibia to sea surface temperatures within the Benguela Upwelling System and Indian […]

Department of Earth Sciences Associate Professor Julie Fosdick worked on a new study to better understand the history of the Greenland ice sheet. The study, published in Science, looked at soil found at the bottom of an ice core taken from Northwest Greenland. Evidence suggests this soil was last at the surface during Marine Isotope […]

Queenie Chang, a former PhD student of the Department of Earth Sciences, led a recent study alongside faculty Michael Hren and Tim Byrne on the uplift history of Taiwan. Published in Science Advances, Chang and others measured the hydrogen isotope composition of leaf waxes preserved in sediments to reconstruct changes in elevation of the southern […]