EPS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Associate / McColl Group
Alexis Berg obtained his PhD in 2011 from Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris, France), working at the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL).
Alexis Berg (alexis_berg@fas.harvard.edu) is a Research Associate in Prof. Kaighin McColl's group. He is an Earth System scientist whose research interests focus on land-climate interactions, land surface hydrology and global ecosystems. His research relies primarily on the analysis of climate model simulations and global observational datasets. On-going research focuses on understanding the coupled responses of the continental water cycle, land ecosystems and climate to greenhouse warming.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Research Interests
Anders N. Albertsen studied Chemistry at the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT) under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Pierre-Alain Monnard. The Ph.D. thesis, "Study of Replication Processes in Minimal Self-Replicating Systems", was defended in December 2013. Anders joined the Perez-Mercader group in February 2014.
Research interests: Self-Assembly, Vesicles, Micelles, Reverse Micelles, Nanoreactors, Reactivity of Membranes, Membrane Coupled Reactions, Encapsulated Reactions, Compartmentalization of Living Systems, the Origin of Life, and Synthetic Biology.
Job Titles:
- Fisher Professor of Natural History Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Emeritus
Andy Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University. He received his B.A. in Geology from Lehigh University in 1973 and his Ph.D., also in Geology, from Harvard in 1977. Read more
Job Titles:
- Associate / Huybers Group
My research focuses on the transfer of water and energy in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Currently, I am investigating water stress in agricultural systems to better constrain estimates of crop yields in future climates. I am keen on using observational data from a variety of platforms including satellites, weather stations, and eddy covariance towers to model the interactions between the land and atmosphere.
I work on mechanics-based structural restoration. Restoration consists in recovering paleo-geometries of geological structures through time. Restoration has many applications: knowledge of the paleo-structures, strain/stress quantification, determination of fracture areas, validation of structural interpretations, etc. Several methods have been being developed since the beginning of the previous century, first based on geometrical and kinematic assumptions, and more recently on geomechanical rules.
My work consists in developing a restoration software based on geomechanics and in applying it on geological case studies. The tool I am developing is RINGMecha (http://www.ring-team.org/software/ring-libraries/44-ringmecha). The final aims are to determine the validity of this restoration method for geomechanical analysis, and to compare it to other restoration methods.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Earth Scientist
Brad Lipovsky is an Earth Scientist who primarily studies glaciology, tectonics, and volcanology using geophysical observations, mathematical physics, and numerical simulations. Ongoing research focuses on the physics of the glacier-atmosphere, glacier-bed, and glacier-ocean interfaces.
Job Titles:
- Academic Programs Manager
Job Titles:
- Visiting Professor of Physical Oceanography and Climate
Professor Wunch's area of expertise is physical oceanography and its relation to climate. His work is generally in the area relating global scale observations to theoretical and modeling ideas. Large scale state estimation and inverse methods are used to determine the ocean circulation and its properties and variability on time scales of millennia to hours.
Job Titles:
- Event and Field Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Senior Sponsored Research Specialist
Provides management and oversight of research grants with specific focus on pre-award activities, including proposal preparation, approval, and submission.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator of the Director 's Office, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Job Titles:
- Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Accretion, core formation, and composition of the deep interiors of Earth and other terrestrial planets. She combines high-pressure, high-temperature mineral physics experiments with planetary-scale modeling.
Fischer received a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Integrated Science from Northwestern University in 2009, and a Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2015.
Job Titles:
- Research Group Coordinator Supporting Ishii and Mitrovica
Job Titles:
- Associate / Jacobsen Group
- Director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Daniel Green is Director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and he is involved in research of small bodies of the solar system - particularly comets and meteors, but also minor planets. He collects and archives/publishes data on comets from observers around the world, and these data are published in the International Comet Quarterly (the world's largest journal devoted solely to comets, which he edits) and posted at the Cometary Science Archive on its computers at EPS. He also directs the acquisition of CCD images of comets on a nightly basis using telescopes in Tibet, and those images are analyzed, measured, and archived; searching for new comets and near-earth asteroids. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union's 13-member Committee on Small Body Nomenclature, which approves names for comets and minor planets (including trans-Neptunian objects) and their satellites. He is a member of Harvard's Origins program, with an interest in how observational data of comets can help in the study of their origins and in the origins of the solar system. Green obtained his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy from the University of Durham (U.K.), his thesis focusing on analysis of old astronomical data in the historical literature using modern techniques, to extend our archive of useful data by centuries.
Current position: Physicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Job Titles:
- Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences / Director of Graduate Studies
Isotope geochemistry and historical geobiology. Re-animating ancient ecosystems and ocean chemistry using stable isotope systems, chemical speciation techniques, modern microbial experiments (for calibration) and theoretical considerations.
Job Titles:
- Phillips Professor of Astronomy / Director, Origins of Life Initiative
Research Interests: Professor Sasselov studies, among other things, extrasolar planets, and he's a co-investigator on NASA's Kepler mission, which is monitoring 100,000 stars in a three-year hunt for exoplanets -- including Jupiter-sized giants. Sasselov watches for exoplanets by looking for transits, the act of a planet passing across the face of its star, dimming its light and changing its chemical signature. This simple, elegant way of searching has led to a bounty of newly discovered planets. https://sasselov.cfa.harvard.edu/
He is an astronomer who explores the interaction between light and matter. He is the director of Harvard's Origins of Life Initiative, an interdisciplinary institute that joins biologists, chemists and astronomers in searching for the starting points of life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere). What is an astronomer doing looking for the origins of life, a question more often asked by biologists? Sasselov suggests that planetary conditions are the seedbed of life; knowing the composition and conditions of a planet will give us clues, perhaps, as to how life might form there. And as we discover new planets that might host life, having a working definition of life will help us screen for possible new forms of it. Other institute members such as biologist George Church and chemist George Whitesides work on the question from other angles, looking for (and building) alternative biologies that might fit conditions elsewhere in the universe.
Ding Ma received his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University. Advised by Prof.ZhimingKuang, his dissertation research investigated three dominant patterns of large-scale atmospheric variability, namely the South Asian monsoon, Madden-Julian Oscillation and the annular mode.Beforemoving back to Harvard, he was an Earth Institute Fellow at Columbia University, where he was working with Prof. Adam Sobel to explore extreme weather associated with large-scale variability. His work emphasizes a combination of observational analysis andnumerical modeling. Guided by observations, numerical experiments are designed and conducted to pursue a better theoretical understanding of the large-scale atmospheric variability in the past, present and future. The main goal of his work is to identify essentialphysical mechanisms governing the large-scale circulation variability.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student / Drabon Group
Research in the Keutsch group is aimed at improving our understanding of photochemical oxidation processes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that produce tropospheric ozone (O 3) and are central to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. O 3 and aerosol affect human health and climate, and uncertainties in the radiative effects of aerosol comprise the largest uncertainties in current estimates of anthropogenic forcing of climate. Our scientific approach builds on enabling new field observations of key VOC oxidation intermediates (OVOCs) via instrumentation and method development.
Provides support and oversight for general financial transactions, including purchases, reimbursements, and corporate and purchasing cards.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Fellow / Drabon Group
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics
Job Titles:
- Professor of Environmental Policy at the Harvard 's Kennedy School of Government
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences / Head Tutor
Research interests include the formation and interior evolution of the Earth and other planetary bodies. Roger's primary tool is paleomagnetism, which he complements with geodynamical modeling.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Research Professor / Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Emeritus
DR. JOHN P. HOLDREN is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, CoDirector of the School's Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Faculty Affiliate in the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also Visiting Distinguished Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, and Senior Advisor to the President at the Woods Hole Research Center, a pre-eminent scientific think tank focused on the role of the terrestrial biosphere in global climate change. From January 2009 to January 2017, he was President Obama's Science Advisor and Senate-confirmed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), becoming the longest-serving Science Advisor to the President in the history of the position.... Read more about John Holdren
Provides broad administrative management and supervision of faculty support and financial staff.
Job Titles:
- Research Group Coordinator
- Research Group Coordinator Supporting Huybers, Johnston, and Knoll
Job Titles:
- Research Administration Specialist
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
My research focuses on the habitability of the early Earth and how it was affected by crustal processes and changing surface environments. The study of the early Earth requires a clear understanding of present-day sedimentary processes as well as an appreciation of the non-uniformitarian character of the early Earth. My research integrates multidisciplinary approaches by applying stratigraphic, provenance and geochemical analyses paired with detailed knowledge of complex geology at outcrop- to basin-scale. Specifically, my contributions to the field focus on: (1) Furthering our understanding of the formation of crust during the Hadean and Archean, (2) evaluating processes of early life recorded in the rock record and studying the influence of impact-related environmental perturbations on the biosphere, and (3) characterizing the poorly understood tectonic processes in the Archean.
Job Titles:
- Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Emeritus
Job Titles:
- Department Chair / Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University
Peter Huybers is a Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University whose research interests lie in developing a better understanding of the climate system and its implications for society. On-going research involves interactions between volcanism and glaciation, trends and predictability of extreme temperatures, and implication of climate change for food production.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry
Gas-phase kinetics of free radicals; catalytic processes in the atmosphere controlling global change of ozone; high-altitude experiments from balloons and aircraft; development of laser systems for stratospheric and tropospheric studies; development of high-altitude, long-duration unmanned aircraft for studies of global change.
Job Titles:
- Research Group Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Fischer received a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Integrated Science from Northwestern University in 2009, and a Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2015.
Explosive development of tropical and mid-latitude cyclones, predictability of weather regimes, dynamics of glacial and equable paleoclimates
Job Titles:
- Professor of Geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry and cosmochemistry; the formation and early differentiation of the terrestrial planets; the chemical evolution of Earth's crust-mantle system; Earth systems evolution and environmental geochemistry.
Job Titles:
- Research Group Coordinator
- Research Group Coordinator Supporting Fischer, Jacobsen, and McColl
Job Titles:
- Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Emeritus
Job Titles:
- Associate / Fischer Group
My research focuses on processes that occurred in the primitive Earth, during the period when core-mantle differentiation was ongoing. This is the era of the Earth's history when major chemical reservoirs were established and the Earth acquired its bulk physical properties. I study the chemistry of different groups of elements through experiments carried out at high temperature and pressures using the laser-heated diamond anvil cell. This apparatus is capable of simulating the extreme conditions that existed in a deep terrestrial magma ocean. The results of these experiments are applicable to questions regarding terrestrial planet formation, bulk compositions and volatile accretion.
Job Titles:
- Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering