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
09-16-2020
On Tuesday, September, 15 2020, friends and colleagues gathered in person and virtually at Shamrock Park in Lafayette, IN to celebrate the life of Barbara Gibson. She was a dear friend, a trusted colleague, and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University is forever better because of her tremendous influence.
Scientists drove radars inside Hurricane Laura’s fiercest winds, hoping to unravel their mysteries
09-08-2020
Karen Kosiba, 2009 PhD alumna, is featured in this Washington Post article. The heat was intense, the humidity unbearable, and it was 12 hours before Hurricane Laura made landfall. A team of veteran atmospheric scientists was huddled on the shoulder of Highway 73 in Winnie, Tex., shrouding million-dollar pieces of scientific equipment in duct tape and plastic wrap. Twin mobile weather radar units — each known as a DOW, or Doppler on Wheels — were on their way into the core of a storm that the National Hurricane Center had warned was “unsurvivable.” They needed a bit of help being waterproofed.
Did life on Earth come from space? Chummy microbes offer clues.
08-27-2020
Where did life come from? Results from a 3-year experiment on the International Space Station support an idea proposed nearly 40 years ago by Purdue EAPS professor Jay Melosh. "It should perhaps let us realize better that we are part of the universe.”
08-27-2020
Hiring experts in the field is a top priority for the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University (EAPS) so that these faculty can lead Boilermakers to promising careers and academic pursuits. EAPS welcomes six new faculty for the 2020-2021 academic year.
08-26-2020
Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Studies (EAPS) and Agronomy (AGRY) Tim Filley, along with assistant professor of EAPS, Lisa Welp, have been funded for their role in a research team led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professor Praveen Kumar. The grant of more than $6 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will enable the team to study critical interfaces, such as hillslopes, flood plains, and tile drains, in the environment that affect the transport and transformation of materials such as water, sediment, carbon and nutrients.