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These stories offer a glimpse of the many ways in which faculty and students are addressing some of today's greatest challenges in the Earth and environmental sciences.

Steve Gorelick elected to National Academy of Engineering, one of 66 new members announced today
National Academies

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Gorelick was honored for his work on optimization techniques and transport models for groundwater and remediation of contaminated aquifers.

Mark Zoback: More environmental rules needed for shale gas
Stanford Report by Mark Golden

Obama's new rule is only one step toward ensuring the safety of hydraulic fracturing, the booming technology that offers economic and environmental benefits, according to Stanford geophysicist and DOE adviser Mark Zoback.

Wireless power could revolutionize highway transportation
Stanford News Service by Mark Shwartz

A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they cruise down the road.

Stanford scientists' computer models help predict tsunami risk
Stanford Report by Steven Fyffe

Stanford scientists are using complex computational models to solve the puzzle of the devastating tsunami that struck Japan earlier this year and predict where future tsunamis might occur.

Scrub carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere? Too expensive, says Stanford researcher
Stanford Report

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-authored by Assistant Professor Jennifer Wilcox, concludes that if air-capture of carbon dioxide with chemicals is ever used, it will be far in the future.

Rosemary Knight: Geophysicist, senate chair, hitchhiking advocate
Stanford Report by Kathleen J. Sullivan

Rosemary Knight, who joined the Stanford faculty in 2000 after teaching for a decade at the University of British Columbia, loved math, physics and chemistry in high school and was elated when she "discovered" geology, a field that combined all three.

Mapping underground water sources for drip irrigation could change African village life
Stanford Report

Investments in small-scale irrigation and geophysical mapping will help relieve food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, Stanford researchers say.

Stanford scientists subject rocks to hellish conditions to combat global warming
Stanford News Service by Mark Shwartz

A team of Earth scientists at Stanford University is subjecting chunks of rock to hellish conditions in the laboratory – all in the name of curbing climate change.

Opal offers fast, lasting remedy for uranium contamination at nuclear sites
Stanford Report by Louis Bergeron

Kate Maher leads a team of Stanford researchers proposing to use opal to sequester uranium at contaminated sites. The idea springs from natural deposits of opal, containing uranium, that have been stable for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years.

Ishan Nath, Earth Systems, named Rhodes Scholar for 2012
Stanford Report

Nath is pursuing a double major in economics and Earth Systems, with a focus on energy, and is one of five from Stanford named Rhodes Scholars for 2012.