News of Arizona geoscientists

UA geosciences professor Susan Beck has been named the chair of the board of directors of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). IRIS is a unversity consortium for seismologic exploration of the Earth's interior and runs the Global Seismic Network as one of its core programs.


Julia Cole, also a faculty member in UA Geosciences, was selected as one of 19 Leopold Leadership Fellows. From the press release:

Based at Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leopold Leadership Program was founded in 1998 and is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Each year the program selects up to 20 mid-career academic environmental scientists as fellows, who receive intensive communication and leadership training to help them deliver scientific information more effectively to journalists, policymakers, business leaders and the public.

"The Leopold Leadership Program recognizes rising stars in environmental science who are taking on leadership positions in their fields and within their universities," said Pam Sturner, managing director of the program. "Our program provides them with the skills and connections to make sure their research is heard and has an impact in the public arena."

A new study published in Nature yesterday, by a team including Ariel Anbar at ASU's School of Earth and Space Sciences, is getting lots of international news media attention. They concluded that a deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly 2 billion years.