Rice University Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences

08/14/2026

Come have a drink and hear about what has been going on in the Rice EEPS Department at the IMAGE, All-Alumni Reception. You do not have to be registered for IMAGE to attend the reception.

📍Marriott Marquis Hotel (Montgomery Room)
🕐 August 19th, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

For those registered for IMAGE, join Professor Kirsten Siebach for the 2026 Halbouty Lecture titled, "Exploring Mars with Curiosity and Perseverance", on August 19th from 5:25-6:15 pm in the convention center. Learn more: https://tinyurl.com/yck5ahfe

08/12/2026

08/11/2026

Climate change affects human health in ways that extend far beyond extreme heat, influencing everything from severe weather and access to health care to infectious disease and mental health.

Rice University professors Sylvia Dee and Joseph Campana discuss how researchers are bringing together climate science, public health, predictive modeling, education and communication to better understand these risks and help communities prepare for a changing climate.

Their work is part of FORECAST, a new collaborative effort supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Climate + Health Excellence award.

Learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JvoVZ5NmB8

08/04/2026

Check out Dr. Richard Gordon's recently published paper, featured by American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Why did the Hawaiian hotspot shift southward relative to Earth's spin axis between 56 and 48 million years ago? 🤔

In JGR: Solid Earth, a new study examines the magnetic field patterns above 56-million-year-old seafloor rocks to investigate this question by determining the past location of Earth's spin axis.

🔗 Check out their results: http://spklr.io/6188EukcC

07/20/2026

The Rice Science Olympiad, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, is a STEM competition event spearheaded by dedicated undergraduate students and supportive Rice faculty. Recently, the minds behind this year’s regional tournament sat down to discuss the evolution of the event, the rigorous preparation involved, and the driving passion that makes it all possible.

Read the article here: https://eeps.rice.edu/news/2026/decade-stem-olympics-inside-rice-universitys-science-olympiad

07/13/2026

Morgan Underwood, EEPS Ph.D. student, recently wrote an article for The Conversation U.S. (TCUS) titled, "Beyond the habitable zone: Exoplanet atmospheres are the next clue to finding life on planets orbiting distant stars". TCUS is a nonprofit news outlet that pairs researchers with professional editors to make expert knowledge accessible to the public.

Read more about her journey pitching and writing this article: https://eeps.rice.edu/news/2026/morgan-underwood-talks-about-pitching-story-conversation

Read her article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-habitable-zone-exoplanet-atmospheres-are-the-next-clue-to-finding-life-on-planets-orbiting-distant-stars-267498



📷️ Courtesy of Rice Center for Teaching Excellence

07/06/2026

Adnan Dehghani, EEPS Ph.D. student in Dr. Noemi Vergopolan’s Computational Hydrology group, was recently awarded a Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI) grant for research that addresses priority water issues both in Texas and beyond.

“My goal here is to address a major challenge in hydrology: the lack of a comprehensive, high-quality and multi-source benchmark dataset of river streamflow across the entire United States. I plan to develop a benchmark database that integrates decades of historical gauge data with modern satellite observations,” says Dehghani.

Read more: https://eeps.rice.edu/news/2025/phd-student-adnan-dehghani-awarded-two-federally-funded-grants-ai-supported-research

06/29/2026

Martha Lou Broussard ‘57, the first woman to graduate from the Rice Earth Science major was recently interviewed by Broussard fellow and EEPS Ph.D. student, Ellie Moreland, about her almost 70 years in the Earth Sciences for the Woodson Research Center archive.

Watch the full interview: https://sonix.ai/share/2LCa15SmMfTZvaQWC1oqNABh

Fondren Library

Alt Text: Clips of Martha Lou Broussard being interviewed. Full transcript available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oT19oa3MRYMJ_g42waoCsRhrM1JMbzM4/view?usp=sharing

06/22/2026

Rice Ph.D. student, Kelsey Murphy, is mapping the future of the Mississippi River by decoding its past. Using climate models and centuries of data, her work reveals how rising emissions and changing landscapes are driving extreme floods and droughts, delivering the evidence needed to safeguard the region’s water, food, and economy in an uncertain climate.

Read more about her research: https://tinyurl.com/mpm7d6u3