houck2040/artisci huggingface dataset:
texas a&m oceanography honors dr david brooks upon his retirement after more than 41 years in the department of oceanography dr david brooks announced his retirementmay 9 2019dr david brooks (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)dr shari yvon-lewis head of the department of oceanography showing the retirement gift to dr brooks (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)dr david brooks holding his retirement gift (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)on may 1 the department of oceanography held a retirement reception honoring dr david brooks professor at texas a&m oceanography brook served for over 41 years in the college of geosciences my nearly 41 years in the oceanography department at texas a&m has been like a long cruise with inspirational faculty researchers staff and students along the way i have come to understand what former dean earl cook meant by a talk he once gave entitled ‘marooned in aggieland its like hotel california: you can check out but you can never leave said brooks brooks earned a bs in electrical engineering from the university of maine in orono after working three years for general electric he returned to graduate school at the university of miami where he earned a ms in ocean engineering (acoustics) and in 1975 completed a phd in physical oceanography before joining the texas a&m faculty as an assistant professor in 1978 he held a research and graduate faculty position at north carolina state university where he and colleagues developed a field program in the gulf stream while at texas a&m dr brooks served as department head of oceanography for three years and associate dean for research in the college of geosciences for four years he was editor of the oceanography report for the american geophysical union and later was the founding editor and publisher of oceanography magazine for the oceanography society in 2011 he was awarded the college-level distinguished teaching award by the association of former students his research interests and field activities have focused on observations and modeling of ocean currents and tides with recent emphasis on shelf and coastal ecosystems at the reception the department gave brooks a framed nautical chart titled gulf of maine 1883 currents boston cape cod issued by us coast survey 1883 washington dc as a retirement gift so will i miss it yes i will especially the interaction with students said brooks but i am really pleased to see our growing crop of dynamic sea-going young faculty and their enthusiastic graduate students the future of the department of oceanography has never seemed brighter thanks for this great aggie experience i wish you all fair winds and following seas he said by bumsoo kim
dr david brooks (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)dr shari yvon-lewis head of the department of oceanography showing the retirement gift to dr brooks (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)dr david brooks holding his retirement gift (photo courtesy of kelsey dillard)
on may 1 the department of oceanography held a retirement reception honoring dr david brooks professor at texas a&m oceanography brook served for over 41 years in the college of geosciences my nearly 41 years in the oceanography department at texas a&m has been like a long cruise with inspirational faculty researchers staff and students along the way i have come to understand what former dean earl cook meant by a talk he once gave entitled ‘marooned in aggieland its like hotel california: you can check out but you can never leave said brooks brooks earned a bs in electrical engineering from the university of maine in orono after working three years for general electric he returned to graduate school at the university of miami where he earned a ms in ocean engineering (acoustics) and in 1975 completed a phd in physical oceanography before joining the texas a&m faculty as an assistant professor in 1978 he held a research and graduate faculty position at north carolina state university where he and colleagues developed a field program in the gulf stream while at texas a&m dr brooks served as department head of oceanography for three years and associate dean for research in the college of geosciences for four years he was editor of the oceanography report for the american geophysical union and later was the founding editor and publisher of oceanography magazine for the oceanography society in 2011 he was awarded the college-level distinguished teaching award by the association of former students his research interests and field activities have focused on observations and modeling of ocean currents and tides with recent emphasis on shelf and coastal ecosystems at the reception the department gave brooks a framed nautical chart titled gulf of maine 1883 currents boston cape cod issued by us coast survey 1883 washington dc as a retirement gift so will i miss it yes i will especially the interaction with students said brooks but i am really pleased to see our growing crop of dynamic sea-going young faculty and their enthusiastic graduate students the future of the department of oceanography has never seemed brighter thanks for this great aggie experience i wish you all fair winds and following seas he said by bumsoo kim
texas a&m and bryant university collaborative project assessing the past co2 variation during the middle miocene dr yige zhang assistant professor in the department of oceanography at texas a&m university and doctoral student daianne höfig are participating in a joint project to examine the co2 variation during the middle miocene around 15 million years ago (15 ma) the project is a collaborative effort from texas a&m university and bryant university funded by the national science foundation in the scope of the paleo perspectives on climate change
dr yige zhang assistant professor in the department of oceanographydaianne höfig graduate student in the department of oceanography (photo courtesy of chris mouchyn)
the co-project investigators are dr hong yang and dr qin leng from bryant university who are senior scientists with decades of experience of paleontological studies in an ancient lake clarkia deposit located in northwest idaho and lead the fossil morphological and anatomical part of the project; and dr zhang from texas a&m oceanography who spearheads the biomarker and isotopic researches for the clarkia lake deposit the project aims to unravel the elapsed time necessary to return to the background levels of carbon dioxide after massive volcanic episode known as the columbia river volcanism we want to know how long does it take for natural processes to neutralize a co2 spike released into the atmosphere returning back to its background levels zhang said the rock deposit originated from an aquatic system of approximately 15 million years old may hold the key to predict the fate of anthropogenic carbon dioxide release in the future" carbon dioxide (co2) in the atmosphere and climate since the industrial revolution massive amounts of carbon dioxide (co2) have been released into the atmosphere the atmospheric co2 concentration level (in unit of parts per million) drastically increased and reached nearly 412 ppm in 2019 (the pre-industrial co2 level was approximately 280 ppm) such elevated co2 level have significantly affected the human society and global climate environment and the ecosystem by causing global warming sea-level rise and ocean acidification according to researchers carbon dioxide is one of the major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which plays a major role in controlling the global climate scientists are studying how the earths climate system will respond to massive pulse of anthropogenic carbon to understand the interplay of enhanced atmospheric co2 levels and the modern climatic variations paleoclimate researchers look back into the earths long history of co2 variation various climate proxies have suggested that earths past climate was even hotter than today during the eocene epoch (56 to 34 million years ago) for example fossils of crocodilians were found in polar regions how do we know the co2 variation during the past
sedimentary block containing fossil leaves from the clarkia lake (photo courtesy of dr yige zhang)
fossil leaves are important archives of co2 history in paleoclimate studies the critical connection between the fossil leaves and the records of co2 variation is the photosynthetic process plants uptake atmospheric co2 during photosynthesis through the ‘leaf stomata stomata is the epidermis of leaves that facilitate gas exchange the density of leaf stomata is known to correlate with partial pressure of ambient co2 (pco2) based on this empirical correlation past co2 levels can be reconstructed by examining the stomata preserved in fossil leaves and its density in addition leaf preserves different carbon isotopic signals reflecting changes in the paleoenvironmental conditions during the photosynthesis ‘isotope is variant of elements that has same number of protons but different number of neutrons in their nuclei for example carbon has two stable isotopes carbon-12 (12c; 6 protons and 6 neutrons) and carbon-13 (13c; 6 protons and 7 neutrons) previous studies in plant growth chamber experiments have shown that the leaf carbon isotope fractionation in order words preferential uptake of 12c or 13c during photosynthesis strongly responses to plant taxonomy precipitation and co2 level of the atmosphere this suggest that carbon isotope signature of bulk leaf and biomarkers with a plant origin so-called molecular fossils can be used as paleo-co2 proxy and tracking the past environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity where can we find fossil leaves in nature oxygen is a major oxidant for degrading organic matter and microorganisms are often involved in this degradation process however fossil leaves can be well-preserved in some special settings in certain stratified lakes the bottom water does not exchange with surface oxygen-rich water and once the oxygen are completely consumed by decomposing the sinking organic matters in the water column the bottom of the lake becomes an oxygen-depleted so-called ‘anoxic condition this low-oxygen condition prevents organic matter degradation and with the help of euxinia which means the presence of toxic hydrogen sulfide contributing to the exceptional preservation of the leaves and other plant fossils that had deposit into lake sediment
in northwest idaho ‘clarkia lake is an ancient lake formed after massive basalt eruption during the columbia river volcanism that dammed a local drainage the lake is located in a property that belongs to the family of kienbaum who allowed research in their area since the 1970s remarkably well-preserved fossil leaves which still retain the original color of the leaves have been found in the clarkia lake which may hold the key to examine the history of co2 variation during the past for this purpose an interdisciplinary study consisting of biomarker identification and quantification stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis x-ray fluorescence microscopic petrography u-pb zircon dating and paleobotanic approaches including stomatal analysis are being conducted on samples collected from the clarkia lake fieldwork at clarkia lake and paleoclimate studies
graduate student daianne höfig in front of the clarkia lake deposit (photo courtesy of daianne höfig)laminations of the clarkia lake sediments presumably respond to the seasonal changes of precipitation and runoff (photo courtesy of dr yige zhang)
from march 9 to 14 graduate student daianne höfig visited clarkia lake to collect leaf fossils the field trip was a remarkable experience! höfig said it was my very first time in the northwest united states and i was impressed by the vast fields covered in snow despite the cold temperatures one day we collected samples at 25 °f (nearly –3 °c) during the field trip höfigs dug frozen rocks on the outcrop of the lake and collected sedimentary blocks which contained leaf fossils i have never seen such incredible preserved fossils before she said once the broken rock exposes the fossil leaf its colors are very intense: from red typical of fall season to green ones as fresh as todays leaves it is hard to believe that they are 15 million years old! after some minutes in contact with the air these leaves oxidize changing to black color it was a magical feeling to witness such pellicular phenomenon! in the lab the researchers are conducing several experiments to gather data about not only the fossil leaves but the clarkia lake deposit itself their inorganic studies are focusing on determining the sedimentation rates and processes of the deposit while their organic research aims to understand the climate sensitivity of the middle miocene sedimentary sequences were also analyzed using x-ray fluorescence scanning facilities at the international ocean discovery program the resulting elemental ratios clearly distinguish fossil-rich from barren fossil layers the research team has planned further petrographic studies to understand the depositional process within the sedimentary sequence in addition volcanic ash layers synchronic to the clarkia deposit were processed for zircon u-pb dating which will yield absolute age control for the paleolake höfig is working on collecting and identifying the fossils leaves from the collected rock samples in addition the team will extract lipid biomarkers and conduct compound-specific carbon isotope analysis i want to first acknowledge my advisor dr yige zhang for letting me participate in this great project höfig said as a young scientist it is inspiring to be part of a research that covers so many different aspects within the geosciences this is a striking project because it couples the information from extraordinary fossils of 15 million years old with climate change one of the most pressing issues of todays society she said it is equally important to understand how small organic molecules keep secrets about the climate of bygone geological time by bumsoo kim
ennis rios '19 (photo courtesy of the texas a&m corps of cadets)ennis rios '19 (r) discussing field work with dr stacey lyle (l) geography assistant professor of practice (photo by: chris mouchyn texas a&m geosciences)
ennis rios '19 with fellow gist senior mariam moeen '19 photo by: chris mouchyn texas a&m geosciences
in addition to focusing on his studies rios has been a member of the corps of cadets while at texas a&m and served as the 2018-19 deputy corps commander he has also been a member of the prestigious ross volunteer company he began his time at texas a&m as a member of delta company an outfit in the corps specifically organized for combat veterans the corps has been really rewarding and i have met a lot of great people through my position in the corps rios said when i look at what i got to do while ive been here the bonds i have been able to make through the corps the ross volunteers and the deputy corps commander position it has been really rewarding rios credits his success as a student veteran to his experiences in delta company the group provides support for individuals from different backgrounds but with shared life experiences since veterans often have lower graduation rates compared to other students delta company provides combat veterans with a community that understands the challenges they face one of the things that came out of the quick research i did was that what does make veterans successful in college is finding a team similar to what they had in the military he said getting here i tried to surround myself with a good team of people so that we could move through the mission of school together looking back over the years since he left the military there are a few things that rios wishes he could pass on to the people who are in a similar position to the one he was in in 2015 as i approach graduation i have thought a lot about how i wish i could tell my friends that are still in the military or just got out ‘hey i know you talked about going to college or mentioned it in chats here and there but man you can do it i am about to graduate looking to the future rios has been accepted into the masters program in the texas a&m department of geography he hopes to focus his graduate studies at the confluence between hydrology and human-environment interactions by rhett douris
from faults to fossils geology undergraduates journey on unforgettable tripgeology students participated in a multi-state field trip obtaining invaluable research skills over spring break may 3 2019teaching assistant david szafranski instructs students on how to properly measure carbonate stratigraphy in new mexico (all photos courtesy of dr nick perez)dr mike pope points out characteristic features of mississippian mud mounds in the cliff face across the valleyover spring break undergraduate students in the texas a&m university department of geology and geophysics field methods course (geol 250) journeyed on an unforgettable 9-day field trip to west texas and new mexico led by professor and department head dr mike pope and assistant professor dr nick perez the students worked on enhancing their field skills by participating in hands-on activities such as measuring stratigraphic sections conducting geologic mapping in a range of lithologies and constructing geologic cross sections during the trip the students camped in state parks had to cook their own food and resupplied materials along the way students in the geosciences have unique opportunities to participate in high-impact learning experiences such as this which are unparalleled in their ability to create well-rounded and capable geoscientists perez said beginning in el paso texas the students explored the franklin mountains looking at early paleozoic and siliciclastic deposits perez said they then observed different lithologies from the precambrian basement such as granite volcanic tufts extrusive volcanic rocks and more following this the group then travelled to a camp outside of alamogordo new mexico where they participated in geologic mapping of mid-paleozoic era carbonate and siliciclastic rocksstudents participate in mapping basement lithologies in the franklin mountainsdr mike pope lectures to students about carbonate stratigraphy in el paso they got to see unique mississippian mud mounds faults and fossils there perez said the students then had the opportunity to journey to white sands national park where they observed first-hand modern aeolian sediment transport and also experience dune field work on a windy day having to brave the elements and still conduct proper research travelling next to the guadalupe mountains the group had the opportunity to climb the permian reef trail and see a variety of ancient reef environments dating back to the permian era upon travelling through the chihuahuan desert in new mexico the students got to stop at the carlsbad caverns and see ancient sea ledges comprised of stalactites and stalagmites their adventure concluded in mason texas where the students were tasked with mapping the contact between proterozoic basement and cretaceous carbonates on the final sunday of spring break the group returned to college station tired but ready to return to classes again the following day by amanda hoth '21
teaching assistant david szafranski instructs students on how to properly measure carbonate stratigraphy in new mexico (all photos courtesy of dr nick perez)dr mike pope points out characteristic features of mississippian mud mounds in the cliff face across the valley
over spring break undergraduate students in the texas a&m university department of geology and geophysics field methods course (geol 250) journeyed on an unforgettable 9-day field trip to west texas and new mexico led by professor and department head dr mike pope and assistant professor dr nick perez the students worked on enhancing their field skills by participating in hands-on activities such as measuring stratigraphic sections conducting geologic mapping in a range of lithologies and constructing geologic cross sections during the trip the students camped in state parks had to cook their own food and resupplied materials along the way students in the geosciences have unique opportunities to participate in high-impact learning experiences such as this which are unparalleled in their ability to create well-rounded and capable geoscientists perez said beginning in el paso texas the students explored the franklin mountains looking at early paleozoic and siliciclastic deposits perez said they then observed different lithologies from the precambrian basement such as granite volcanic tufts extrusive volcanic rocks and more following this the group then travelled to a camp outside of alamogordo new mexico where they participated in geologic mapping of mid-paleozoic era carbonate and siliciclastic rocks
students participate in mapping basement lithologies in the franklin mountainsdr mike pope lectures to students about carbonate stratigraphy in el paso
they got to see unique mississippian mud mounds faults and fossils there perez said the students then had the opportunity to journey to white sands national park where they observed first-hand modern aeolian sediment transport and also experience dune field work on a windy day having to brave the elements and still conduct proper research travelling next to the guadalupe mountains the group had the opportunity to climb the permian reef trail and see a variety of ancient reef environments dating back to the permian era upon travelling through the chihuahuan desert in new mexico the students got to stop at the carlsbad caverns and see ancient sea ledges comprised of stalactites and stalagmites their adventure concluded in mason texas where the students were tasked with mapping the contact between proterozoic basement and cretaceous carbonates on the final sunday of spring break the group returned to college station tired but ready to return to classes again the following day by amanda hoth '21
wendy jepson awarded inaugural university professorshipgeography professor is one of five texas a&m faculty members to receive this honor may 1 2019dr wendy jepson professor in the texas a&m university department of geography in the college of geosciences has been awarded an inaugural university professorship texas a&m and the office of provost and executive vice president carol a fierke announced the award this week and will recognize the five recipients as holders of university professorships may 8 at a celebration of distinguished faculty the new designation recognizes faculty who have demonstrated significant and sustained accomplishments in their discipline earning them national and international recognition according to the provost the award also highlights the recipients commitment to inclusivity accountability climate and equity in their department college and throughout their service at texas a&m i am absolutely thrilled that our own dr jepson was one of only five superstars named to the inaugural cohort of university professors said dean of the college of geosciences dr debbie thomas in addition to jepson the 2019 university professorship recipients are: dr ivan rusyn veterinary integrative sciences college of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences; dr vladislav yakovlev biomedical engineering college of engineering; dr bhimanagouda patil horticultural sciences college of agriculture and life sciences; and dr deborah bell-pederson biology college of science according to the provost recipients will receive an annual stipend for three years and as faculty members in good standing they retain the title of university professorship throughout their career at the university nominations for the distinction were submitted by department heads or deans and the finalists were selected by a university committee and approved by the provost these awards join with endeavors like the presidents excellence fund and other faculty reinvestment programs to empower and advance the careers of faculty at every level by leslie lee 09