May 09, 2023
Professor Keith researches stratospheric aerosol injection—a type of solar-radiation management, or S.R.M., that would raise the planet’s albedo by spraying reflective aerosols into the stratosphere, much as volcanoes do.
The New Yorker reports Keith as saying that, in his view, research into the safety and efficacy of glass microspheres is underwhelming, and that stratospheric aerosols are a more mature and impactful technology. But supporters of using glass microspheres as a reflective coating for ice sheets argue that their approaches would be preferable because they are localized, and might be more easily reversed.
Read the article "A Heat Shield for the Most Important Ice on Earth" for more info regarding saving Arctic ice.
May 03, 2023
PhD alumna Susana Aurora Magallón Puebla (PhD 1999) has been elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences. Susana is a world leader in determining the age and diversification of flowering plants, and hence the origin of modern plant diversity and ecosystems. Her dissertation topic was "A neontological and paleontological approach to the evolution of floral form among basal eudicots (angiosperms)." She is currently the Director of the Institute of Biology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Election to the National Academy is done on the basis of distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, and is one of the highest honors in science. Congratulations, Susana!
April 24, 2023
Roger Bryant, former postdoctoral scholar in Professor Blattler's group, is joining Purdue University's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Congratulations, Roger!