Research Areas
Atmospheric Sciences
We study extreme weather, climate change, and their impacts on both ecosystems and modern society.
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
Forecast to field: Purdue class turns storms into a living laboratory
09-10-2025
The Students of Purdue Observing Tornadic Thunderstorms for Research (SPOTTR) course, officially listed as EAPS 43500: Severe Storms Field Work, takes students beyond the classroom and into the Great Plains for a week of hands-on experience with severe weather. SPOTTR blends fieldwork with active learning, career exploration, and the use of professional meteorological instruments, giving students the skills to forecast, track, and study storms.
Purdue scientists help shape national priorities for future missions
09-10-2025
In recognition of Purdue’s national leadership in science, EAPS professors Tabb Prissel and Brandon Johnson were individually invited by the National Academy of Sciences to present their research on lunar evolution. They each outlined national science objectives for future human exploration of the Moon, focusing on key nonpolar destinations beyond the Artemis campaign’s current emphasis on the lunar south polar region.
Purdue-led team earns NASA grant to uncover the Moon's magnetic past
09-04-2025
For billions of years, the Moon has orbited Earth, holding clues to the story of our solar system. One part of the puzzle remains unsolved: the timing of the Moon's magnetic field. A new $1.1 million NASA award, led by Purdue University researchers, aims to uncover that answer.
Purdue PhD student earns NASA FINESST fellowship to unravel the mysteries of extreme heatwaves
08-29-2025
Yanjun Hu, a PhD student in Purdue University's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, has been awarded a NASA Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship to study the factors that drive heatwaves across the United States.
08-27-2025
Space weathering expert Michelle Thompson of the College of Science and OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, reveals why some gray asteroids reflect light at different wavelengths, like red or blue, more strongly. These results help shed light onto the evolution of rocky bodies in the solar system.