EESA Faculty Scientist Jonathan Ajo-Franklin has been named the Harold Mooney Award Winner for 2019 by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Ajo-Franklin began working at Berkeley Lab as a research scientist in 2007. He later became staff scientist and department head of the Geophysics Department in 2017. The Harold Mooney Award is given annually to…
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Floriana Petrone, previously a postdoctoral fellow and then research scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division at Berkeley Lab, joined the University of Nevada-Reno faculty this fall. Petrone was named assistant professor of civil engineering by the university’s College of Engineering. She will continue her work on behalf of Berkeley Lab analyzing the interaction between soils…
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In recent years, wildfires in the western United States have occurred with increasing frequency and scale. Climate change scenarios in California predict prolonged periods of drought with potential for conditions even more amenable to wildfires. The Sierra Nevada Mountains provide up to 70% of the state’s water resources, yet there is little known on how wildfires…
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Berkeley Lab scientist Michelle Newcomer (Credit: Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab) Think summertime and the mind usually wanders to warm thoughts of sand, sunscreen, and fireworks. But increasingly summertime fun is being interrupted by algal blooms. From the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Great Lakes to the Pacific coast, harmful algal blooms are…
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The Summer EESA photo contest received many incredible shots of EESA researchers at work. The panel of eight judges reviewed 50 total submissions. The winners are: 1ST Place Photographer: Sigrid Dengel 2ND Place (TIE) Photographer: Robin Lopez 2ND Place (TIE) Photographer: Craig Ulrich 3RD Place Photographer: Robin Lopez
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Growing up in Los Angeles, Viviana Vela grew accustomed to feeling–and thinking about–earthquakes. She even brought that awareness to choosing her field of study: structural engineering, which she pursued first as an undergraduate student at UC San Diego and later at UC Berkeley’s College of Civil and Environmental Engineering where she received her Master’s Degree…
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This summer, Alaska has experienced record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. If such events become more frequent, how might that impact our northernmost forests? A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) projected that the combination of climate change and increased wildfires will cause the iconic evergreen conifer…
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Aerial view of white roofed homes and streets forming circular patterns; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA (Credit: Shutterstock) This summer alone, intense heat waves have been to blame for at least 11 deaths in Japan, a record-breaking 45.9-degree Celsius temperature in France, and a heat advisory affecting 147 million people on the U.S. East Coast. Conjectured as the “new normal,” these extreme air…
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Agriculture, forestry, and other types of land use account for 23% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, yet at the same time natural land processes absorb the equivalent of almost a third of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, which issued the first-ever comprehensive report on land and…
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Susan Hubbard, Associate Laboratory Director for Earth and Environmental Sciences at Berkeley Lab, has been awarded the Robert G. Wetzel Award for Water Quality from the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH). AIH, founded in 1981, is a non-profit scientific and educational organization that certifies the competence and ethical conduct of professionals in the field of…
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