2022
September 1. And so it begins! I start as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geoscience at Aarhus University.
March 31. I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be starting as an Assistant Professor at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark come this fall.
February 24. New paper (Lupien et al., 2022) out now in Scientific Reports! Orbital controls on eastern African hydroclimate in the Pleistocene.
February 4. I’ve joined the advisory panel for the The PATCH Lab (Paleo Analysis of Terrestrial Climate and Hydrology), a web app for archiving and discovering stable isotope data.
January 15. Funded! NSF-OCE MG&G awards $613,617 to Terrestrial Organics since The Oligocene (TOTO): The Rains Down in Africa.
2021
December 15. An article in American Scientist on our recent Journal of Human Evolution paper discusses the importance of continental drilling and multi-proxy records.
November 1. Our new podcast is out! How We Got Here: Because the Earth needs professional help. Check it out here!
October 14. I’m quoted in an article in Sapiens.org on the influences of climate change on hominin adaptability. This story was later picked up in The Atlantic and Smithsonian Magazine.
August 10. I wrote a ‘Behind the Paper‘ on our recent Journal of Human Evolution paper for Nature Ecology and Evolution Community.
July 28. New paper (Yost et al., 2021) out now in Frontiers in Earth Science! Orbital Influence on Precipitation, Fire, and Grass Community Composition From 1.87 to 1.38 Ma in the Turkana Basin, Kenya.
July 20. I spoke with my mom’s 60+ club at the Bolton Street Synagogue about ancient climates and human evolution.
June 30. New paper (Lupien et al., 2021) out now in the Journal of Human Evolution! Eastern African environmental variation and its role in the evolution and cultural change of Homo over the last 1 million years.
May 17. Speaking with the Paleoclimate Group at University of California, Santa Cruz on Patterns and drivers of past precipitation in Africa.
May 15. I was featured as a guest on the Common Descent Podcast to discuss Paleoclimatology!
April 30. Joining Dr. Cat Beck’s class at Hamilton College to talk about my 2018 Turkana paper and writing process.
April 29. Joining Dr. Allison Jacobel’s class at Middlebury College to talk about terrestrial paleoclimate.
February 2. I was interviewed by Dr. Jeffery Stone on Twitch where we talked about African climate, leaf waxes, and human evolution.
January 18. We have started a Lamont Pod for the NSF-funded Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) program. Check out our deliverables here.
2020
October 27. Speaking with Princeton for their virtual seminar (EGGS) about African hydroclimate and leaf wax biomarkers.
October 22. Interview with Columbia’s Earth Institute about our new paper on environmental change over the last 1 million years in the Olorgesailie Basin. More news coverage on this exciting new publication from the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Science Magazine, and more!
October 21. New paper (Potts et al., 2020) out in Science Advances: Increased ecological resource variability during a critical transition in hominin evolution.
October 15. Participating in a Day Of Science as part of Science-A-Thon to support the Earth Science Women’s Network.
October 14. Two back-to-back sessions of Skype-A-Scientist with 4th graders in Massachusetts and 8th graders in Michigan!
September 21. Meet-The-Scientist with Time Scavengers.
August 17. New paper (Lupien et al., 2020) out in Quaternary Science Reviews: Abrupt climate change and its influences on hominin evolution during the early Pleistocene in the Turkana Basin, Kenya.
February 20. Climate and Life feature of our field course and new PERMILab in Kenya.
2019
December 25. New paper (Lupien et al., 2019) out in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology: Vegetation change in the Baringo Basin, East Africa across the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation 3.3–2.6 Ma.
July 1. First day as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory!
May 26. Graduate from Brown University with a PhD in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences.
April 18. Defended my dissertation entitled: The Plio-Pleistocene Climate History of East Africa and the Role of Environmental Change on Human Evolution: Studies of Leaf Wax Isotopes from Paleolake Sediment.
January 15. New paper (Liang et al., 2019) out in Organic Geochemistry: Vegetation effects on temperature calibrations of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGTs) in soils.
2018
October 20. Featured in Women Doing Science.
April 15. New paper (Lupien et al., 2018) out in Quaternary Science Reviews: A leaf wax biomarker record of early Pleistocene hydroclimate from West Turkana, Kenya.
Dr. Rachel Lupien 