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🎃 Happy Fall Y’all! 🍂

EEPS graduate students/Geounion celebrated fall by hosting a pumpkin painting event last Thursday on the patio. As the photos show, the nice weather is getting all of EEPS out of their offices and into the sunshine.

#RiceEEPS #HalloEEPS #EEPSOween
October 28, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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April was a busy month for the #RiceEEPS department at Rice university!

EEPS graduate students lifted off 🚀 to table at the #SpaceCenterHouston - Planet Earth Celebration in late April. Children and adults, alike, had a blast 🛰️learning about the science of earthquakes.
Ellie moreland and a child attendee at NASA. Standing in front of a table with spaghetti noodle and marshmallow contraptions. a group of people stand in front of a table that has a rice owl sign 4 young people stand in front of table making a marshmallow/spaghetti structure
June 4, 2025 at 5:06 PM
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Hi, I'm Ainsley Ganti, a senior from Baker college, majoring in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences or EEPS.

This week, I will be sharing highlights from my field camp experience. I hope you enjoy!

#RiceEEPS #DevlinSchnableScholarship #FieldCamp #Taşkesti #Türkiye
August 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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🏆#RiceEEPS is excited to announce ANOTHER faculty award.

Dr. Jonathan Ajo-Franklin was awarded the Reginald Fessenden Award, given in recognition of technical contributions to exploration geophysics.

To learn more about DAS, visit: tinyurl.com/2s3as7n8
Dr. Ajo-Franklin and lab in the field.
June 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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Join Dr. Taiyi Wang, O.K. Earl postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Cascading magmatic unrest and aseismic faulting in the Aegean Sea enabled by elastic stress relay".

🗓️ Oct. 9th @ 1 pm
📍KWGl, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #CalTech
"Cascading magmatic unrest and aseismic faulting in the Aegean Sea enabled by elastic stress relay" special guest: Dr. Taiyi Wang october 9th, 2025. Picture of wang with text: O. K. Earl postdoctoral fellow at Caltech division of geological and planetary science.
October 8, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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📆 Grad Student Field Trip Day 3 - #ChasmLake Trail & #RockyMountainNationalPark

Day 3 was very eventful with an 8 mile hike at chasm lake and a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park. Students saw beautiful geology, scenery and even some furry friends!

#RiceEEPS #GeoScience #FieldTrip
Anindita Dash takes a selfie with the rest of the EEPS grad students with mountains in the background. A rice hat is next to an EEPS hand lens on a mossy rock with mountains in the background. A few alpaca's walk the trail with mountains in the background. Text: Stop 5 Chasm Lake Trail Hiking is a fundamental skill for geologists. At this stop we will hike for 8-mile to Chasm Lake, glacial lake located at the base of Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. As a glacier formed and flowed down the face of Longs Peak, it plucked and scoured away the rock, creating the steep, amphitheater-like walls that surround the lake. The lake is dammed by a moraine, a mound of rock and debris that the glacier deposited as it melted. This terminal moraine is what created the natural basin for the lake.
September 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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To read more about their findings, follow this link: tinyurl.com/EEPSRICE

#RiceEEPS #BakerInstitute #CarbonCredit #Carbon #LandManagement
Prospects for Carbon Markets in Africa: Ethiopia as a Case Study | Baker Institute
Africa’s diverse ecosystems have the potential to store significant amounts of carbon, aiding in the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide and supporting biodiversity. This report by Bezaye G.…
tinyurl.com
June 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
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Join Ellie Moreland, EEPS graduate scholar and planetary scientist for a 12 hour day at the Mars 2020 Science Team Meeting in Oslo, Norway.

To learn more about Ellie, visit her website: eleanormoreland.com

#Mars2020 #RiceEEPS #GradSchool #DayInTheLife #Norway #GeoScience #PlanetaryScience #RiceU
July 17, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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Join Dr. Rogerio Deienno, Lead Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, TOMORROW, for a talk titled "Chondrite Parent Bodies as Escaped Satellites of Proto-Planetary Embryos."

🗓️ October 30th @ 1 pm
📍Keith-Wiess Geological Laboratories, Room 100

#RiceEEPS #Seminar #Geoscience
October 29, 2025 at 4:04 PM
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📆 Grad Student Field Trip Day 4 - Garden of the Gods, Florissant National Monument & Fossil Quary

In this video, students got to search for fossils in the Florissant Fossil Quarry.

#RiceEEPS #GeoScience #FieldTrip #GardenOfTheGods #FlorissantNationalMonument #FossilQuarry
September 6, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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👋 Hey EEPS, ENVS-EEPS, ENVS-EEB, and prospective undergraduate students!

Join EEPS & @rice.rugs THIS FRIDAY for free boba & an information session followed by cloud watching with Dr. Sylvia Dee.

We're cirrus 😂 ...it'll be fun ☁️.

#RiceEEPS #RiceENVS #InfoSession #RiceUndergrad
Free boba - first come, first served. Undergraduate Info session. Learn about EEPS Explore, Research opportunities, field camp opportunities, and more. KWGL 123, Friday October 17th, 3-4 pm
October 14, 2025 at 10:28 PM
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Are you melting in the Texas heat? Then come iceskating ⛸️ with GeoUnion, courtesy of the #RiceEEPS department.

🕐July 26th @ 2 pm
📍Galleria Mall Ice Skating Rink

Contact Bruu (GeoUnion President) or Anindita (GeoUnion Vice President) for more information.
Geounion 2025 Summer events: June 2, 2025 bake off, June 25, 2025 badminton tournament, July 26th ice rink 2 pm at galleria.
July 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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🧭 Field Camp Recap Bonus:

Before field camp started, I traveled around with recent EEPS alum Tanya in Istanbul! Here is a video of us jamming on the bağlama. Perhaps @igneous.is_bliss will venture into Anatolian rock???

-Ainsley Ganti, Baker College

#RiceEEPS #FieldCamp #Türkiye
August 9, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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🧭 Field Camp Recap Day 3:

This is a photo of a hellish valley before we started mapping it. My partner and I spent at least two hours in this valley alone despite the fact that it only took up maybe 2 cm of our map.

#RiceEEPS #DevlinSchnableScholarship #FieldCamp #Türkiye
Mountain with vegetation looking over distant land
August 6, 2025 at 5:02 PM
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Recently, #RiceEEPS undergrads presented at the #REU Symposium. Learn more about their projects this week.

First up:
Presenter: Charlotte Raymond
Title: Impact of Phosphorus Limitation on Silica & Carbon Usage in an Antarctic Diatom
Mentors: Drs. Kranz & Torres
August 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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👋 Hey current & incoming undergrads, join EEPS and ENVS for snowcones.

🗓️ Friday, September 5th, from 3-4 pm
📍 KWGL patio

Any & all undergrads are welcome at the EEPS Welcome (Back) event. Hope to see you there!

#RiceEEPS #RiceENVS #WelcomeBack
Blue background with colorful snowcone Title: Welcome (back) to EEPS! Text: Snow cone edition, September 5th @3 pm KWGL patio. Come say hi to current & prospective EEPS & ENVS students. All undergrads are welcome!
August 29, 2025 at 5:05 PM
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📆 Grad Student Field Trip Day 1 - Mineral Cleaning Lab

Students were all smiles while examining beautifully cleaned minerals at a mineral lab in Denver, Colorado. They learned techniques to transform field specimens into ones fit for display.

#RiceEEPS #GeoScience #Minerals
EEPS graduate student smiling while taking pictures of minerals. picture of 12 minerals in boxes. selfie with EEPS students and mineral lab staff. Text reads: Day 1 - Stop 1 Mineral Cleaning Lab: We will visit a mineral cleaning lab near the Denver airport as our first stop. The work performed in these labs goes far beyond a simple wash and scrub. They employ a range of techniques to transform rough, often unattractive, specimens from the field into museum-quality display pieces or samples ready for scientific analysis. Text is next to two pictures of minerals labeled "Tom Zhang"
September 3, 2025 at 10:30 PM
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#RiceEEPS students & faculty got to welcome the 1st batch of undergrads to campus last week at the 2025 Rice Emerging Scholars Program (RESP) Faculty Fair! RESP participants learned about all the EEPS and Environmental Science programs have to offer.

🦉Nice to meet you, owls!
EEPS undergraduate student speaks to RESP scholar with course booklet in hand. EEPS/ENVS faculty speaks to RESP scholar while they both sit at a table with EEPS information materials and swag. EEPS faculty stands by eeps sign while a student looks at eeps handouts and swag.
July 28, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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📆 Grad Student Field Trip Day 5 - Rock Hounding 👷

For the final day of the field trip, EEPS grad students got to hunt for their own mineral samples to bring home. They donned hardhats and safety gear...and looked pretty cool.

#RiceEEPS #GeoScience #FieldTrip #RockHounding
Collage of 5 photos of students rock hounding with dirty hands, tools such as pix axes, and smiles. Two eeps grad students sit near the site smiling in hard hats.
September 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
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⏪ Throwback to welcoming the class of 2029 to EEPS

Join EEPS representatives this Friday, for the School of Natural Sciences Undergraduate Research fair. Swipe for details.

#RiceEEPS #RiceENVS #RiceUniversity
Students sitting at tables looking to the left and reading materials. EEPS faculty speak to students. Undergraduate Research Fair, Friday, October 10th 12-1:30 pm Brockman Hall for Physics Patio, Lunch provided.
October 7, 2025 at 10:28 PM
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🔎Check it out: EEPS has a Fall 2025 100-Level course zine. Special thanks to EEPS & ENVS undergraduates, Ainsley Ganti, Nyla Hartigan, Adam Leff, Nat Pujet, & Charlotte Raymond for volunteering their time this summer to make this happen. It was a hit!

#RiceEEPS #EEPSZine
Notebook paper with planets and the words "2025 Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences Fall 100- Level courses" Table of contents page with text: 1. EEPS 101 - The Earth 2. EEPS 102 - History of the Earth 3. EEPS 103 - Field Trips for the Earth 4. EEPS 106 - Investigating Earth’s Surface 5. EEPS 111 - Inhabiting Planet Earth 6. EEPS 114 - Discoveries in EEPS 7.Get Involved with EEPS 8.EEPS Peer Mentor Program 9.Why we chose EEPS" Peer mentor program with text: Need advice? grad school research scholarships classes registration organization LIFE homesickness internships Join the EEPS Peer Mentoring Program! scan the QR code to let us know you are interested! Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences, Rice University I love being in nature, & w EEPS, you get to both learn about the world & see it for yourself on field trips. If you’re curious about any aspect of Earth, the EEPS community is for you! ~Nyla Hartigan I love how interdisciplinary EEPS is! There’s really something for everyone no matter your interests. Also, the sense of community is great!~Nat Pujet I was interested in the applications of chemistry within planetary sciences, but the more classes I took the more interested I became in EEPS as a whole! The community and the field trips are also a plus :)~Ainsley Ganti I decided to major in ENVS- EEPS bc I find environmental science & geology interesting, I love the EEPS community! ~Sam Forman I’ve always been interested in the natural world, & I took a class in hs which transformed my interest from a general love of nature to a more scientific desire to uncover how natural phenomena behave & interact.The tight-knit & welcoming community at Rice cemented that fascination. ~Adam Leff
September 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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#RiceEEPS is so excited for #RiceAlumniWeekend!

Join us for food, drinks, and celebration Friday, November 7th, from 3-4:30 pm on the KWGL patio before supporting EEPS Ph.D. candidate Valeria Sobolevskaia at her 'Science in a Flash' talk. See flyer for details.

Will you join us?

#EEPSAlumni
Welcome home EEPS Alumni, Friday Nov 7th, family friendly reception with food & drink 3-4:30 pm KWGL patio, visit the museum of the earth, Join the wiess school of natural sciences 'science in a flash' where EEPS phd candidate valeria sobolevskaia will talk about her research on distributed acoustic sensing to monitor changes in the environment. 101 brockman hall, 5 pm Theres no place like Rice! Alumni weekend homecoming & reunion Nov 6-9
November 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
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Last week, #RiceEEPS staff paused preparing the department for the Fall semester, to participate in a stretch break thanks to @RiceRecreation Well-Being Outreach Services. It was a great reminder to take time for physical and mental health.

🧘‍♂️Special thanks to our instructor, Denise!
8 people in a u formation smiling at the camera in the EEPS library
July 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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📆 Grad Student Field Trip Day 2 - Colorado School of Mines Geology Trail, Red Rock, & Dinosaur Ridge

On day 2, #RiceEEPS visited colleagues at the Colorado school of Mines to examine the Mine's Field Trail and see 🦕 dinosaur tracks, 🍃 fossilized leaves and 🪵log impression
Students stand and squat around an interesting rock with mountains behind them. Student walk away from camera on road towards an outcrop. student touch a red/orange rock feature. Text: Stop 2 Colorado School of Mines and Mine’s Field Trail We will see rock between 69 and 66 million years ago on CSM campus, including layers of the Pierre, Fox Hills, Laramie, and Arapahoe formations, all of which were tilted to a near-vertical angle by the uplift of the Front Range during the Laramide Orogeny. We will also see dinosaur tracks, as well as fossilized leaf and log impressions, which provide a glimpse into the ancient terrestrial environments that existed before the mountains rose. The path winds through old clay mining pits, which highlights the economic history of the area, as the clays were used to make bricks and tiles. The trail also includes a rock garden where rock samples typical of the geologic formations in the north Golden area are aligned according to their age, from the oldest Precambrian rocks to the east to the youngest Cenozoic lava flows on the west.
September 4, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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Keep up the great work, Owl!🦉

To read more about his research, follow this link: eeps.rice.edu/news/2025/ed...

#RiceEEPS #Research #Geoscience #RiceUniversity
Edgar Villegas awarded RSI Center for Planetary Origins to Habitability (CPO2H) fellowship
Edgar Villegas is among the Spring 2025 RSI Center for Planetary Origins to Habitability (CPO2H) graduate fellowship awardees for his novel research that seeks to explore how impact processing of…
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May 20, 2025 at 5:01 PM