Chile is considered a natural lab for researchers in several fields related to Earth Sciences, including climate, volcanology, glaciology, seismology, and renewable energies, among others. As in previous years, the Center held several public events featuring scientists, faculty members and researchers from the Earth Institute’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). In addition to these programs, many Columbia scientists continue collaborating with Chilean counterparts in research projects in this field.
Columbia University faculty and their Chilean counterparts are increasingly interested in collaborative research projects and initiatives. This is reflected, for example, in the work carried out in 2016 and 2017 by the Marcus G. Langseth Research Vessel of the LDEO in Chilean seas, with two Universidad de Chile scientists on board, in a bid to identify faults in the seabed.
Similarly, the Columbia University-Universidad Católica astrophysics joint research program, which is in its fourth year, involves student exchanges while an agreement of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center with Chile’s Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD), the Clínica Alemana-UDD School of Medicine and its Institute of Sciences and Innovation in Medicine (ICIM) includes joint research and educational activities.
In March 2018, a team of scientists led by William D’Andrea, Associate Research Professor at Columbia University’s LDEO, traveled to Easter Island to work on a major wetlands research project. The collaborative field team also included LDEO’s Lorelei Curtin and Andrea Seelenfreund from Chile’s Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.
In addition, Mike Kaplan, an Associate Research Professor at LDEO, spent two months in Punta Arenas, at the Gaia Antarctic Research Center (CIGA) of Universidad de Magallanes, teaching local undergraduate and graduate students and working on researching topics related to geosciences, including Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic landscapes and how glaciers and climates changed in the past (paleoclimatology).