Dear Alumni,
Greetings from Oakland! I am writing to you as the new department Chair of Geology and Environmental Science, only one of the many changes that 2025 has brought to the department. We owe our previous Department Chair, Josef Werne, a huge thank you! for his excellent stewardship during his 6 years as department Chair. Not only did Joe power the department through the Pandemic, he oversaw the hiring of four new tenure-track faculty, four new teaching professors, and led the department through our most recent strategic planning process that sets our goals for the next ten years! Two of the new faculty, Amanda Donaldson (ecohydrology ) and Gavin Piccione (geochemist and climate scientist) will be arriving Fall of 2026 (be on the lookout for more information on Amanda and Gavin in our 2026 newsletter!)
Our faculty continue to pursue cutting-edge research in a wide variety of areas, including paleoclimate and environmental change, volcanic hazards, impacts of energy extraction, mountain building, nitrogen in the environment, heavy metal contamination, water resources, carbon sequestration, and carbon storage in arctic permafrost. In particular, the department prides itself on providing research opportunities for undergraduate students in both the field and laboratories, where students get the chance to explore rock and environmental samples using an array of analytical equipment and tools.
GES research is highlighted by recent high-impact publications led by students. For example, Justin Mackey (PhD ‘25), working with Dan Bain, published work in Scientific Reports showing surprising lithium content in produced water from natural gas fracking wells. This fundamental discovery by Pitt’s interdisciplinary team is growing in its recognition and may lead to produced water being an important source for future demands that may increase nearly 40-fold worldwide.
Jennie Plasterr (nee Johnsen), working with Nadine McQuarrie and Eitan Shelef argue that dramatic, 2-3 km deep canyons (30% to 50% deeper than the Grand Canyon) were incised into the Andes Mountains when the east flowing rivers captured higher elevation, internally drained river systems resulting in a dramatic increase in the area that drains to the river, and, hence, its discharge and ability to carve through rock. One of these rivers, the San Gaban, was able to erode through a ridge-line and capture higher elevation river systems at approximately 5 and 1.5 million years ago, because tectonic forces that were pushing the ridge-line upward and resisting erosion had slowed considerably 5 million years earlier (at ~10 Ma). This research was published in Science Advances on November 5th.
GES students who took Emily Elliott’s Watershed Biogeochemistry course in spring 2023 published research they conducted during class in the June 2025 issue of Biogeochemistry. Elliott and her students collaborated with U.S. Army Corps engineers to monitor the downriver impacts from an artificial spring flood in the Allegheny River, created with a large water release from Kinzua Dam in Warren County, Pennsylvania. Such spring pulse events aim to improve the quality and quantity of water in the river. Results reveal distinct temporal shifts in water chemistry, with observed fluctuations in total suspended solids, dissolved metals, and nutrient concentrations that highlighted connections between the main channel and adjacent riparian zones.
GES Alumna Frances Russo (B.S. Geology '22), recently published her undergraduate senior thesis as a peer-reviewed manuscript in the journal Icarus. The research article ("The effects of measured slope on Martian lava flow modeling") performed a model sensitivity analysis on a commonly used method for investigating the emplacement of Martian lava flows. The results from the study indicate that previous applications of the model may have produced inaccurate compositions for Martian lava flows and presents a new statistical approach to account for topography.
Our graduate students continue to stand out and have received the following awards. Gabriella Zuccolotto received a NASA FINESST Fellowship (2024-2027), while Kristi Dobra (2022-2026) and Anthony Schneider (2024-2029) received DOD SMART Fellowships. Jason Aguirre received an Honorable Mention on his NSF GRFP proposal. Giannina Ramirez (2022-2025), Claire Mock (2024-2027), and Grace Mattson received ARCS Foundation Awards, which are given to academically outstanding students in science, engineering, math, technology, and medical research. Hailey Sinon and MS student Camille Butkus were awarded GSA Research Grants in 2024. Fan Gao, Laura Lopera Congote, and Adnan Deshaee were awarded DSAS Mellon Fellowships for the 2024-2025 academic year. Grace Mattson received the Whittington Fellowship, and Angelina Rodriguez received the Leroy Irvis Fellowship.
Finally, we are pleased to congratulate two of our newest Distinguished Alumni. In 2025-26, Emily Mercurio (PhD ’11) was awarded our Distinguished Alumna award in recognition of her creative, innovative, and data-driven solutions to support decision-making at the intersection of our natural and built environments. Emily is the CEO and Co-Founder of CivicMapper. She is a distinguished geoscientist and entrepreneur whose career has been deeply shaped by her academic and research experiences at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2024-25, Carole Lojek was awarded our Distinguished Alumna award based on her impressive career in both industry and national laboratories. In these positions Carol ran teams dealing with environmental waste handling issues at the Nevada Test Site; managed projects to increase regional and international security in Kazakhstan by developing cooperative environmental monitoring measures; provided technical support for corporate strategic planning and congressional relations activities; and worked on licensing intellectual property and commercializing technologies such as Sandia’s decontamination formulation used to successfully decontaminate anthrax in U.S. Congressional office buildings in Washington, D.C in 2001.
While we can only highlight a few of you, we continue to be proud of all of our current and former students and faculty. The recognition and reputation of GES is due to your collective excellence. We are incredibly grateful for your support and gifts. They allow us to offer extraordinary opportunities to our students. Please keep in touch and stop by and see us if you are in the Pittsburgh area.
Hail to Pitt!
Nadine McQuarrie
Professor and Chair