Welcome to the Department of Earth Sciences
Our Commitment
Zoltan Zajacz
Director of the Department of Earth Sciences
The Earth Sciences play a key role in addressing the challenge of transitioning to a sustainable society that lives in harmony with nature. We are committed to tackle many aspects of this challenge: we assist in reducing atmospheric carbon accumulation via facilitating better exploitation of geothermal energy and more effective carbon capture; we contribute to the development of improved exploration methodologies for minerals critical for technologies widely used in the energy transition; and we improve the ability of humankind to assess geological risk, in particular in association with active volcanism and tectonics. We look into the past by utilizing the geologic record to understand the dynamic interaction between the various spheres of our planet, and predict how this may impact our environment in the future. We collect information in the field by direct observation, remote sensing and subsurface geophysics, and we study Earth materials in the laboratory by using state of the art instrumentation. In addition, we simulate nature by conducting laboratory experiments and computational modeling to obtain deeper understanding of Earth processes. It is a fundamental part of our mission to pass all these skills to our students, and also to teach them how to communicate results to the scientific community and the broader public. We see the new generation of experts we train as our most important contribution to society.
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