News & Events
2025 SPRING
FEATURED STUDENT
Nicole Liew
Student in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
SEES Student Nicole Liew was selected to join the University of Washington’s VISIONS25′ expedition to Axial Seamount in the NE Pacific Ocean! VISIONS is an anual expedidition that services the Ocean Observatories Iniative Cabled Array. Check out her blog as she describes her daily adventures!
August 2025
GRADUATION EVENT 2025
SEES 2025 Graduation Ceremony
CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2025!
Dr. Stephen Pekar, Professor and Chair of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, welcomed students, families, and friends to the SEES 2025 Graduation Ceremony with a heartfelt message celebrating the resilience, purpose, and power of the graduating class.
This year’s graduates represent more than academic achievement — they are environmental heroes stepping into careers aimed at safeguarding the future of our planet. As Dr. Pekar emphasized, these students are “the superheroes of our time,” armed with knowledge and a mission to create a more sustainable world.
Congratulations to our graduates for completing their degree !
June 2025
FEATURED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
Laiba Mahmood
Undergraduate student in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Laiba Mahmood, an undergraduate student in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for 2025. The scholarship, awarded to students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, supports outstanding undergraduates with strong potential to become future leaders in research. Laiba is one of 441 scholars nationally recognized for the 2025-2026 academic year and the ninth Goldwater Scholar in Queens College history.
Laiba is currently studying environmental biology and geology, with a keen interest in planetary science and astrobiology, particularly the study of planetary habitability and the evolution of life. Throughout her undergraduate journey, Laiba has gained research experience in microbial biogeochemistry at the University of Michigan and modeled landscape and species evolution in the LEGACi Lab. This summer, she will be conducting planetary habitability research through a NASA internship to better understand the geochemistry of potential organics in Europa’s oceans. Looking ahead, Laiba plans to pursue a Ph.D. in planetary science to better understand the evolution of life and its potential beyond Earth.
2025 Scholars | Barry Goldwater
April 2025
2024 FALL
WHY STUDY GEOLOGY ?
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Dax Soule
Assistant Professor, Seismologist, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Queens College, CUNY
“Axial Seamount Expedition: Turning Setbacks into Triumphs”
Northeast Pacific Ocean | 46.06° N, 130.00° W | June 22, 2024
The article “The People Doing It” delves into the challenges and triumphs of a deep-sea research expedition aboard the R/V Atlantis. It highlights the team’s resilience during a high-pressure 5-day dive to study the Axial Seamount, overcoming setbacks to advance scientific discovery. With a focus on leadership, collaboration, and innovation, the narrative showcases how obstacles can inspire breakthroughs in science and engineering. Read more here.
August 2024
CLASS VISIT
Gregory O’Mullan
Professor Environmental Microbiology
This summer Dr. O’Mullan’s Field Methods In Environmental Sciences class visited the Town of Hempstead Shellfish Hatchery along with demonstrations about the Town’s marine monitoring program and the Renewable Energy Park, including a tour of the solar photovoltaic facility and 100kW wind turbine that powers the facility and associated analytical laboratory.
July 2024
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Chuixiang Yi
Professor, Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Queens College, CUNY
Chuixiang Yi was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for the 2022–23 academic year. His research during this time, conducted at the University of Innsbruck, has recently been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution and was featured by Fulbright Austria for its significant contribution to understanding how temperature and water availability impact ecosystem respiration and carbon emissions. Yi led an outstanding international team of climatologists, ecologists, and data scientists, whose collaborative efforts were instrumental in achieving these groundbreaking results.
September 2024
Internship Scholarship Winners
Congratulations to our SEES
Internship Scholarship Winners
Fall 2024 semester
Victoria Charles
Mariia Ihnatiuk
FEATURED CUNY MASTER'S STUDENT
Julia Sandke
Deep-Sea Biodiversity: VIAME and OOI JupyterHub Accelerate Research
This project, led by Dax Soule and Karen Bemis, studies species diversity at the ASHES vent field off Oregon’s coast using archived video from the OOI CamHD collection. Julia Sandke and a team of researchers use VIAME (Video and Image Analytics for a Marine Environment), a machine learning tool, to automate the classification of vent organisms. By integrating VIAME with JupyterHub and Nvidia GPUs, the team speeds up video analysis, enabling them to develop models that predict species patterns, especially after volcanic eruptions. This research aims to improve understanding of hydrothermal vent ecosystems.
September 2024
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
SEES faculty latest publication
Cecilia M. McHugh
Distinguished Professor, Marine Geology and Sedimentology of School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Queens College, CUNY
Sedimentary signatures of large earthquakes along the submerged Enriquillo–Plantain Garden transpressional plate boundary, northern Caribbean.
The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault (EPGF), part of the northern Caribbean left-lateral transpressional plate boundary, has caused major earthquakes in Haiti, including the 2010 Mw 7.0 and 2021 Mw 7.2 events. Jamaica has also experienced significant earthquakes, such as the 1692 Port Royal and 1907 Great Kingston events, but none are known from the 200-km-long Jamaica Passage segment of the fault.
A National Science Foundation Rapid Response survey mapped the EPGF in this area, collecting seismic profiles and gravity cores to identify event deposits (EDs) linked to past earthquakes. Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian age modeling revealed that 50 out of 58 EDs had overlapping ages, suggesting that these deposits resulted from large earthquakes along the fault. The recent Mw 7.2 Nippes earthquake in Haiti, combined with these findings, indicates increased earthquake hazard potential in the Jamaica Passage.
Read Full Article
August 2024
YEARLY WELCOME EVENT
SEES hosted its annual Welcome Event in the Muyskens Conference Room at the Summit Apartments.
This gathering provided a fantastic opportunity for our students to enjoy a delicious array of food, including Kosher, Halal, and Vegetarian options. Attendees had the chance to mingle with faculty and fellow students making it a perfect opportunity to catch up, meet new people, and enjoy the start of the year together.
See you at our next event !
