DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

During spring quarter many of our students make summer plans participate in selective, funded research and application programs, which are frequently amazing experiences. Moreover, DEEPS bestows research, teaching, and service awards upon the most outstanding of its students. However, before graduation & summer season, we'd like to pause to congratulate several of our students who have received honorary awards during the academic year. For example, 

Undergraduate researcher Kyan Shlipak, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, was awarded an Outstanding Student Presentation Award at the #AGU24 meeting for his poster: “Contribution of U.S. residential wood combustion to winter PM2.5 concentrations and an exploration of mitigation benefits”.

Undergraduate researcher Corbin Diaz, majoring in Data Science, won the Interactive Visualization Challenge at the 2025 Computation and Data Exchange (CoDEx) Symposium held at Northwestern University. Diaz won this award for his interactive web application that visualizes 2022 storm events throughout the United States. 

Undergraduate researcher Jonathan Chen, majoring in Earth and Planetary Sciences, was awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering in America, intended to support his studies in a PhD program in Paleontology or Geoscience. Jonathan's career goal is to research the geochemistry and evolution of foraminifera during intervals of prehistoric climate change and teach as a university professor or a museum curator. 

PhD candidate Esmee Kuiper and incoming graduate student Anna Oehlerking each received a honorable mention for their outstanding NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Proposals.

Graduate student Ann Sinclair received the AGU Precipitation Technical Committee Award for her #AGU24 lightning talk, "Uncertainty among hourly precipitation estimates for shallow landslide and debris flow events in southern California."

Graduate student Maria Villareal received the Harold T. Stearns Fellowship Award from the Geological Society of America.

PhD candidate Victoria Lang has been awarded a Northwestern University Presidential Fellowship for next academic year. This fellowship is the most prestigious honor Northwestern bestows upon its graduate students. 

It is great when the hard work and future potential of our students begets formal recognition and visibility. Congratulations, Kyan, Corbin, Jonathan, Esmee, Anna, Ann, Maria, and Victoria!