News

EARTH SCIENCES - Graduate student Annika Dechert at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences and a team of researchers are working on studying the eruption history of South Sister volcano in the Oregon Cascades. The results of the study will inform the way the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory draws up hazards maps for Central Oregon and help shape the way scientists think about other similar volcanoes. The research team published their latest findings in August in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.
EARTH SCIENCES - When Clark Honors College senior Erin Morrison set out to witness the historic launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission in Florida in mid-October, she had no idea she’d also be facing a Category-5 hurricane. Europa Clipper was supposed to take off on Oct. 10, the same day Hurricane Milton was projected to make landfall over Kennedy Space Center.
EARTH SCIENCES - Carol Paty, a comparative planetologist in the College of Arts and Sciences helped develop one of the scientific instruments aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper, which blasted off Oct. 14, on the world’s first mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa. Paty, an Earth sciences professor, is a member of the research teams behind two of the nine scientific instruments the spacecraft will use to confirm and measure what scientists strongly suspect is a vast sea of salty water buried under a sheet of ice enveloping the moon’s surface.
EARTH SCIENCES - The Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) has awarded 14 grants to researchers across the US and beyond to study the Cascadia subduction zone, a massive fault along the West Coast that could generate a magnitude 9.0+ earthquake at any moment. The CRESCENT Seed Grant Program was established to enlist more researchers in the effort to meet those goals.
EARTH SCIENCES - More than 100 scientists and community partners recently convened to discuss resilience and preparedness planning in a workshop hosted by the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), a new multi-institution earthquake research center led by the University of Oregon. Attendees discussed the latest science and resilience planning needs of communities related to a better understanding of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Three College of Arts and Sciences researchers have received the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious honor for early-career faculty members in the past year: Luca Mazzucato (biology, mathematics and physics), Brittany Erickson (computer science and earth sciences) and Julia Widom (chemistry). Known as the CAREER Awards, the organization recognizes and fosters rising stars by funding innovative research.
The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation announced this year's Outstanding Research Awards, many of which went to College of Arts and Sciences faculty members: Professor Carlos Aguirre (history and Latin American studies), Assistant Professor Gabriel Sanchez (anthropology) and Leland O'Driscoll (associate director of the Oregon Hazards Lab).
EARTH SCIENCES - Iceland’s ongoing volcanic eruptions may continue on and off for years to decades, threatening the country’s most densely populated region and vital infrastructure. Ilya Bindeman, an earth sciences professor in CAS, said volcanoes are ordinary on the geological scale, but on the human scale, they can be devastating.
EARTH SCIENCES, PHYSICS - Staff and faculty members came together for the inaugural College of Arts and Sciences Awards and Hallmark Achievement Reception, which celebrated some of the achievements of faculty and staff. In addition to celebrating some of the college’s faculty members who have received accolades outside of the university, the ceremony featured the college’s first-ever awards that recognize the work of faculty and staff.
ANTHROPOLOGY, BIOLOGY, EARTH SCIENCES - Students in the College of Arts and Sciences have the opportunity this winter to take classes on the picturesque Oregon Coast at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology.
EARTH SCIENCES - What will happen if a massive earthquake reduces the Pacific Northwest to rubble? The nation’s first subduction zone earthquake hazards center, CRESCENT, brings together researchers and policymakers to help build resilience against the inevitable temblor—and increase diversity in the Earth sciences.
EARTH SCIENCES, DATA SCIENCE - Clark Honors College senior and data science major Lynette Wotruba took up data science three years into her college career. Today, she’s working with the Department of Earth Sciences to make information about the dangers of tsunamis accessible to communities along the Oregon coast.
EARTH SCIENCES - The Oregon Hazards Lab is a research lab within the UO’s Department of Earth Sciences, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Its mission is to detect, monitor and mitigate natural and human-caused hazards, such as earthquakes and wildfires.
EARTH SCIENCES, OREGON INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY - While cruising the Pacific Ocean looking for deep-sea creatures to study, a UO undergraduate researcher got more than he bargained for—rare ash samples from an underwater volcanic eruption 62 miles away.
EARTH SCIENCES - Research led by Rebecca Dorsey, an Earth sciences professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, led research that reveals the dynamics of seismically active faults on either side of the Strait of Messina and how they interact to create a narrow marine passage filled with geologic hazards.