The Earth Science Department at Rice University is currently accepting applications for a faculty position in the area of basin analysis.
Welcome!
The Rice Earth Science Department has 17 professors on staff and a similar number of adjunct professors from the local energy industry and space science community. The department includes about a dozen post docs and staff scientists, about 50 graduate students, 20 undergraduate majors, and 14 administrative and technical staff. We have strong connections to NASA, the Lunar Planetary Institute, and the Houston energy industry.
Department focus areas are the structure and evolution of the continental lithosphere (Earth Structure and Dynamics), the past and present evolution of the Earth's climate, surface, and environment (Earth System Science), and the physics and chemistry of fluid flow and rock-fluid interactions (Environment and Energy Resources). Research topics include the evolution of Venus, Mars and the Moon, the Earth's core, mantle, crust, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere, climate change and paleoclimate, and the genesis and migration of, and exploration for hydrocarbons.
We have a creative and dynamic faculty pursuing fundamental questions about the Earth and our environment. The Earth Science Department is ranked 25th nationally by US News and World Report, with the Rice Geophysics and Seismology Program ranked 12th nationally. Moreover, in recent years Rice geochemists have been awarded a Donath Medal, the Kuno Award, two Clarke Medals, and two Packard Grants.
The department has a modern, aesthetically pleasing building, state of the art labs, and owns and is partner in a range of High Performance Computing facilities.
Rice is now home to the NSF GeoPRISMS office.
The Center for Computational Geophysics is one of the principal partners in the new Rice DAVinCI Visualization Center.
The Department is home to a popular Professional Masters Program in Subsurface Geoscience which trains students for careers in the energy industry.
Latest News
Earth Science students receive Chevron fellowship awards
Scholarships benefit students in their first year of graduate study
For the fall of 2011, Rice graduate students, Jennifer Hero and Rachel Margolis were the recipients of fellowships funded by the Chevron Corporation. Additionally, Rice Earth Science student, Kate Ziegelgruber, will receive funding through an awarded fellowship for the Spring 2012 semester. Earth Science graduate student, David Mathews, is the beneficiary of Chevron fellowship funding for both the fall and spring semesters.
These students, all in their first year of studies, were selected on the basis of their academic records (grades, test scores, letters of recommendation etc.). The department is proud to recognize these students and is grateful to Chevron for its continued support of the department's educational mission.
Rice Earth Science professor refuses publication of report with systematic deletions
Texas state environmental agency accused of censorship relating to climate change findings
Dr. John Anderson, Rice University's W. Maurice Ewing Professor of Oceanography, charges that The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has systematically omitted all references to climate change and sea-level rise from an article he wrote about changes in Galveston Bay.
The deletions by the Texas agency are ideological and political, said Dr. Anderson. "I don't think there is any question but that their motive is to tone this thing down as it relates to global change," Anderson said. "...It's not about the science. It's all politics."
"Anderson said the TCEQ won't allow the article—written for a report by the TCEQ's Galveston Bay Estuary Program—to be published without the deletions. That, and Anderson's refusal to accept the changes, are holding up publication of The State of the Bay, a periodic report published by the program."
The rest of the Houston Chronicle article is here: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Professor-says-state-agency-censored-article-2211691.php
Additional media coverage on this issue:
UPI.com - Scientists Revolt over Texas Censorship: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/10/14/Scientists-revolt-over-Texas-censorship/UPI-60611318617220/
The Guardian (UK) - Rick Perry officials spark revolt after doctoring environment report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/14/rick-perry-texas-censorship-environment-report?newsfeed=true
New Scientist - Texas officials censored climate change report: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/10/texas-officials-censored-clima.html
Houston Press' "Best of 2011" Scientific Breakthrough Award
Dr. Alan Levander and Team recognized for Colorado Plateau research
The annual Houston Press "Best of" awards are out, and Rice's Dr. Alan Levander has been recognized in the Scientific Breakthrough category.
From the Press: "The asthenosphere and lithosphere don't usually concern us, but thankfully a brainiac team over at Rice University led by Alan Levander has them on their radar. There's a huge section of land known as the Colorado Plateau; it has a "rising while it's sinking" quality that's had scientists scratching their heads for a while. Seems the bottom layers (that's the asthenosphere) are pushing up, while the top layers (the lithosphere) are sinking down..."
More details on the "Best of 2011" award: http://www.houstonpress.com/bestof/2011/award/best-scientific-and-10-breakthrough-2674712/
Rice Earth Science Student Awarded BP High Performance Computing Graduate Fellowship
Kaijian Liu receives highly sought-after award from the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology
The Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology has awarded one of this year's BP High Performance Computing Graduate Fellowships to Kaijian Liu, a graduate student in Earth Science studying under professor Alan Levander. Kaijian's research in computational seismology focuses on teleseismic imaging/inversion of the geological structure beneath the western United States.
"BP has been engaged with the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice in a number of ways, including development of HPC education and training material, providing equipment to computer labs and co-hosting workshops focused on high performance computing in the industry," said Jan Odegard, executive director of the K2I at Rice. "The fellowships not only help our students but are instrumental in highlighting the HPC career opportunities in the industry."
A listing of this year's recipients can be viewed here: http://k2i.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=514
Department of Earth Science welcomes new chair
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Richard G. Gordon, W. M. Keck Foundation Professor in Geophysics, as the new Department of Earth Science Chair, effective July 1, 2011.
Fossilized pollen reveals climate history of northern Antarctica
Analysis of direct climate record shows Antarctic tundra persisted until 12 million years ago
A painstaking examination of the first direct and detailed climate record from the continental shelves surrounding Antarctica reveals that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed in a tundra landscape on the continent's northern peninsula about 12 million years ago. The research, which was led by researchers at Rice University and Louisiana State University, is featured on the cover of the July 12 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The rapid decline of glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula has led to widespread speculation about how the rest of the continent's ice sheets will react to rising global temperatures.
"The best way to predict future changes in the behavior of Antarctic ice sheets and their influence on climate is to understand their past," said Rice University marine geologist Dr. John Anderson, the study's lead author. The study paints the most detailed picture to date of how the Antarctic Peninsula first succumbed to ice during a prolonged period of global cooling.
Detailed article on these findings: http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15913
Mystery of Grand Canyon's formation revealed
Rice University geologist leads team effort to solve mystery of the Colorado Plateau
The birth of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau through which it carved has been a geological mystery. Now a giant anomalous structure discovered on the underside of the plateau could shed light on how it was formed. Dr. Alan Levander, the Carey Croneis Professor of Earth Science, is quoted. Dr. Cin-Ty Lee, associate professor of Earth Science, and Rice Earth Science graduate student, Kaijian Liu, contributed to this research and co-authored the findings with Dr. Levander. A link to the Rice news release about this research was featured on the homepage of the National Science Foundation's Science360.gov. The full release can be viewed at http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15703&SnID=839357408
More media coverage on these findings: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/27/how-the-grand-canyon-was-formed_n_854549.html
Rice Earth Science graduate students awarded Grants In Aid from AAPG
Brandon Harper and Karem Lopez are recipients of the 2011 David Worthington prize
Two Rice Earth Science graduate students, Karem Lopez and Brandon Harper, have been awarded the David Worthington Grants In Aid prize from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) at their recent meeting in Houston. This is one of the monetary prizes granted to students through the AAPG Foundation, which embraces a primary goal of providing a source of funding for educational, charitable, and scientific objectives, which directly and indirectly benefit the geologic profession and the general public.
More about the award: http://foundation.aapg.org/gia/worthington_family.cfm
Listing of 2011 AAPG GIA recipients: http://foundation.aapg.org/gia/current.cfm.
Rice mathematician honored for geoscience research
Bill Symes honored by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Rice University applied mathematician Bill Symes' longtime efforts to develop models and tools for oil and gas exploration have earned him a career achievement award from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Symes, the Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, professor of Earth science and director of The Rice Inversion Project (TRIP), won the 2011 Career Award from the SIAM Activity Group on Geosciences. In announcing the award, the society said Symes was chosen for "seminal contributions to methods, analysis, algorithms and software for seismic inversion and wave propagation, for his exceptional influence as a teacher and mentor and for the fundamental impact that his work has had in the industrial community."
More on Dr. Symes' award: http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15593
Full description of SIAM's Career Prize in Geosciences: http://www.siam.org/prizes/sponsored/gscareer.php.
Aftershocks Hamper Rescue Efforts In Japan
8.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shook Japan On Friday
Japan has experienced several strong aftershocks after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit on Friday, and more are expected. After the earthquake, a tsunami swept water several miles inland. Rescuers have had to deal with more than 20 big aftershocks, and experts said those will continue.
"These large magnitude aftershocks will certainly continue for the next few weeks, but they will diminish gradually," said Dale Sawyer, an Earth science professor at Rice University. "Even two or three years from now, we will be able to see very small aftershocks, but at that point they will not be damaging."
The full story: http://www.click2houston.com/news/27187461/detail.html
Less fertilizer is more for biofuel crops
Rice University scientists and their colleagues find that when growing corn crops for ethanol, more means less.
Caroline Masiello, assistant professor of Earth Science, and Morgan Gallagher, who recently earned her PhD in Earth Science, are quoted in findings that have implications for an industry that has grown dramatically in recent years to satisfy the country's need for energy while trying to cut its reliance on fossil fuels. Their research findings describe how corn grain, one source of ethanol, in contrast to a corn plant's stalks and leaves, the source of cellulosic ethanol, respond differently to nitrogen fertilization.
"The findings are an important next step in building a sustainable biofuel economy," says Carrie Masiello, assistant professor of Earth Science at Rice University. "Plants benefit from some nitrogen from fertilizer to produce the biomolecules they need to grow and function, but for many crops, a little is enough. We already know too much fertilizer is bad for the environment. Now we've shown that it's bad for biofuel crop quality too," Masiello says.
The full story: http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/when-fertilizing-corn-less-means-more/
US NEWS & WORLD REPORT ranks Rice Earth Science #12 nationally in Geophysics and Seismology for 2010.
Rajdeep Dasgupta is awarded the
F.W. Clarke Medal from the Geochemical Society
Dr. Rajdeep Dasgupta, an assistant professor of Earth Science at Rice, has been named this year's recipient of the F.W. Clarke Award. This award is made annually at the V. M. Goldschmidt Conference to an early-career scientist for a single outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry, published either as a single paper or a series of papers on a single topic
Read more: http://www.geochemsoc.org/awards/fwclarkeaward.htm
and here: http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=15449
Earth Science Student Steven Boswell awarded 2010-2011 Houston Geological Society Undergraduate Scholarship
The HGS established the Undergraduate Scholarship Fund in 1984, with the long-term objective of funding at least one junior/senior level scholarship per year to outstanding geoscience majors at six local universities.
These competitive awards are for full-time undergraduates carrying the normal academic load as a bonafide geology major with a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. Besides scholastic ability, the applicants must show evidence of high moral, ethical standards and conduct. Eligible students are selected from Rice University, the University of Houston, Lamar University, University of Texas, Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin University, and Sam Houston State University. The application process includes completed forms, transcripts of all college work, and three letters of recommendation with at least one being from an instructor or academic advisor during the past year of study.
Read more: http://www.hgs.org/en/art/24/
Research Highlights
Rice hosts newly funded GeoPRISMS program
Program brings together offshore, onshore communities in geosciences
Rice's campus may be land-locked, but there's one place at the university where the ocean meets the sea. GeoPRISMS, which recently moved into new offices in George R. Brown Hall, aims to bring together terrestrial and marine researchers who study similar geological phenomena. The new, 10-year program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
'We're always looking across the shoreline,' said program director Julia Morgan, professor of Earth Science. 'The goal is to create a dialogue between people who work onshore and people who work offshore. We want to bring those communities together and have them focus some of their attention on the shoreline to see how geological processes change as they cross the shoreline.'
Read More of Jade Boyd's article...
Photo credit: Jeff Fitlow
Graphene oxide goes green
Rice researchers show environmentally friendly ways to make it in bulk, break it down
A new paper from the lab of Rice chemist James Tour demonstrates an environmentally friendly way to make bulk quantities of graphene oxide (GO), an insulating version of single-atom-thick graphene expected to find use in all kinds of material and electronic applications.
A second paper from Tour and Andreas Lüttge, a Rice professor of Earth science and chemistry, shows how GO is broken down by common bacteria that leave behind only harmless, natural graphite.
Dr. Lüttge and Everett Salas, a postdoctoral researcher in his lab and primary author of the second paper, had already been studying the effects of bacteria on carbon, so it was simple to shift their attention to GO. They found bacteria from the genus Shewanella easily convert GO to harmless graphene. The graphene then stacks itself into graphite.
"That's a big plus for green nano, because these ubiquitous bacteria are quickly converting GO into an environmentally benign mineral," Dr. Tour said.
Photo credit: Everett Salas and Zhengzong Sun
Tectonics: Precision is hallmark of 20-year study
Richard Gordon, the W.M. Keck Foundation Chair in Geophysics, and collaborators Chuck DeMets of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have just put the finishing touches on a 20-year labor of love, a precise description of the relative movements of the interlocking tectonic plates that account for about 97 percent of Earth's surface.
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