![\"Geochemist](\"http:\/\/blog.ldeo.columbia.edu\/2014report\/files\/2014\/05\/image001.jpg\")
<\/a>Geochemist Steve Goldstein and a group of Columbia University undergraduates spent spring break in Barbados studying the fossil coral reefs fringing the island. Students examined the magnificent reefs both on dry land and underwater, and considered how evolving knowledge of natural climate cycles plays a key role in understanding modern climate change.<\/p><\/div>\n
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences<\/strong><\/p>\n Much of our formal education is taught through the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES), which is distinguished as having the best Earth science Ph.D. program in the country, a ranking that reflects Lamont\u2019s exceptional people, resources and affiliated programs. The bright students in DEES bring enthusiasm and innovative ideas, lend fresh energy to our current investigations and shape the directions of our future research.<\/p>\n In the fall, DEES welcomed 19 new graduate students. They came from seventeen institutions and five different nations and populated each of the five research divisions at Lamont. Three of these incoming graduate students and five of Lamont\u2019s current graduate students were named recipients of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships: Natalie Accardo, Weston Anderson, Logan Brenner, Kassandra Costa, Sam Phelps, Hannah Rabinowitz, Michael Sandstrom and Sebastian Vivancos. The fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based masters and doctoral degrees. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend, along with an education allowance for tuition and fees and opportunities for international research and professional development.<\/p>\n Two more of our current graduate students, Julius Busecke and Nandini Ramesh, received NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowships (NESSF). The purpose of the NESSF fellowships is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA\u2019s scientific goals.<\/p>\n Lamont Summer Intern Program<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the course of its 30-year existence, Lamont\u2019s Summer Intern Program has brought to Lamont more than 590 undergraduates from a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines to work with our scientists. The program provides students hands-on research experience, first-class mentoring, exposure to professional scientists and opportunities for participants to continue working with Lamont researchers once the 10-week program concludes. Many Summer Intern Program participants go on to become scientists, and some even return to Lamont as graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.<\/p>\n Oceanographer Dallas Abbott, who directs the program each summer, believes that the Lamont program is unique. The variety of Earth science research that takes place on campus exposes students to the vastness of the field. \u201cSometimes the interns discover that what interests them most is not what they did as a research project but what one of the other students did. They comprehend the multitude of scientific questions that still remain unsolved.\u201d<\/p>\n Recognizing Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring<\/strong><\/p>\n A local non-profit organization, Keep Rockland Beautiful, named Lamont education coordinator Margie Turrin the recipient of their 2013 Education Award. \u201cMargie is an extraordinary educator who has brought engaging, experiential learning to thousands of students throughout Rockland\u201d and \u201cher leadership continues to support a cleaner, more environmentally sound Rockland County,\u201d reads the award citation. A member of our Polar Geophysics group, Turrin is active in a wide range of environmental education activities for teachers and students and frequently blogs about her fieldwork experiences in the Polar Regions.<\/p>\n Lamont Education Coordinator Margie Turrin works with young science enthusiasts at New York City’s World Science Festival.<\/p><\/div>\n Shaking Up Seismology with Sight and Sound<\/strong><\/p>\n Geophysicist Ben Holtzman grew up discovering science through interactive exhibits in San Francisco\u2019s Exploratorium and now provides a similar experience for others. Holtzman designs immersive shows that allow people to experience what earthquakes and seismic waves look and sound like as they move through and around the Earth. In June, Holtzman and his collaborators presented the first of these shows, SeismoDome: Sights and Sounds of Global Seismology, at the American Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n Holtzman is also a musician and plays in a band with Jason Candler, a sound artist and Holtzman\u2019s SeismoDome collaborator. With help from additional collaborators ranging from seismologists to computer musicians to astrophysicists, the two produced an audio and visual narrative of five of the world\u2019s recent large earthquakes. The SeismoDome audience experiences these events from the perspective of being out in space and then deep inside the planet.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most fundamental ideas that most people don\u2019t know and everybody understands when they leave the show is that an earthquake, if it\u2019s big enough, sends waves throughout the entire planet. That\u2019s just a very simple idea to grasp when you see it and hear it,\u201d says Holtzman.<\/p>\n In addition to providing an awe-inspiring experience, Holtzman hopes that people will leave Seismodome realizing that earthquakes are a constant natural process, like weather, and there\u2019s nothing inherently bad about them. \u201cWe always say in these exhibits that people have very negative associations with earthquakes because most of the time when you hear about an earthquake it\u2019s because it\u2019s killed people,\u201d said Holtzman. \u201cWhat\u2019s bad is how they happen to interact with us \u2013 and that\u2019s entirely our fault.\u201d<\/p>\n Holtzman plans to offer similar shows at the American Museum of Natural History and at other locations in the future; visit Seismic Sound Lab<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n Spring Break in Death Valley<\/strong><\/p>\n Death Valley is a land of extremes \u2013 among the hottest, driest and lowest points on Earth. Why would students choose to spend spring break there? \u201cIt just sounds very exotic,\u201d says Nicholas Christie-Blick. \u201cIt\u2019s very far away from their personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n This past spring, Christie-Blick led his tenth undergraduate field trip to California\u2019s Death Valley National Park. The trip has become so popular that Christie-Blick routinely turns students away, and many of those who finish the course go on to become Earth and environmental science majors.<\/p>\n<\/a>