Aradhna Tripati named Geological Society of America fellow

Professor Aradhna Tripati was named a Geological Society of America (GSA) fellow at the organization’s spring meeting in April.

Founded in 1888, GSA serves geoscientists in academia, government and industry. Fellowships are granted “in recognition of their distinguished contributions to the geosciences” including publications, research, teaching and “contributing to public awareness of geology.” Tripati will be officially recognized at the society’s annual meeting in November. She joins National Academy of Sciences members Mark Harrison and Bill Schopf, professor An Yin and retired professor Raymond Ingersoll as the fifth fellow from UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences.

Last year, Tripati founded the first-ever center for diversity in environmental science, which focuses on creating mentor relationships and supporting students to “grow and nurture diverse leaders who will solve environmental problems and create pathways to sustainability.” Her outreach and mentoring work through the center and her laboratory was part of a recent feature story in Grist. 

On the research front, she analyzes geologic samples at a molecular level to understand modern climate change by studying how the Earth’s climate changed in prehistoric times. Recent published studies include revelations about Antarctic ice sheets, North America at the end of the last Ice Age and how we may be approaching a carbon dioxide threshold for Greenland ice.