We study extreme weather, climate change, and their impacts on both ecosystems and modern society.
Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Geoscience
We use biology, chemistry, geology, and physics to understand how the Earth System supports such a diversity of life and how human behavior is impacting this system.
Geodata Science Initiative
Data science is the fourth and the newest paradigm of science. In Geodata Science Initiative, we conduct transdisciplinary research, merging or articulating EAPS subject matters with technical areas in data science: statistical and machine learning methods and models, algorithms for the models and methods, and computational environments for data analysis.
Geology and Geophysics
We study the processes that shape our planet, from the building of mountains and oil-bearing sedimentary basins, to the flow of warm rocks and cold glaciers, to the triggering of earthquakes.
Planetary Science
We study the evolution of the solar system and how planets evolve over time due to impacts, tectonics, and atmospheric processes, with an eye to the potential for past and future habitability.
Research News
Purdue geologist Michael Eddy receives national early career award for Earth history research
03-30-2026
Michael P. Eddy, an associate professor in Purdue University's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, has received the 2026 Early Geological Career Award from the Geological Society of America's Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology and Volcanology Division. The award recognizes scientists near the beginning of their careers who have made distinguished, multidisciplinary and field-based contributions to geology.
NASA Aims to Launch the World’s First Planet-Hopping Spacecraft Powered by Nuclear Fission
03-30-2026
Smithsonian Magazine — On March 24, NASA announced that it wants to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars by the end of 2028. If successful, it would be the first probe to use nuclear propulsion to travel beyond Earth’s orbit. EAPS's Briony Horgan was quoted in the article.
Steps to Leaps Awards Recipient - Ayobami Oladapo
03-30-2026
Ayobami Oladapo, a PhD student in EAPS, was honored as the 2026 Steps to Leaps Student of the Year. The honor is bestowed upon a student who has shown a passion for growth within the Steps to Leaps pillar areas and/or contributes toward the education of peers within those pillars.
IFL Science — Two fossil skulls found in central China are prompting fresh debate over when they lived – and where they belong in the human family tree. EAPS's Darryl Granger was quoted in the article.
Back to the Moon!
03-19-2026
Living on Earth — The Artemis II mission is getting ready to use the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA to return to the moon for the first time since the original Apollo missions more than 50 years ago. EAPS's Erik Conway, a historian of science and technology at Purdue University and former NASA historian, tells Host Aynsley O’Neill about how declining public support shut down the Apollo program and why NASA again faces headwinds in maintaining the public’s interest in space exploration.