I am an undergraduate student majoring in Atmospheric Science and minoring in Chemistry. I’m passionate about atmospheric chemistry and its role in air quality and climate, and my current research focuses on soil nitrogen oxide emissions in the agricultural Midwest. While I’ve loved pursuing research at Berkeley, the best part has truly been learning from and collaborating with others. I’ve also enjoyed engaging with the Earth and Planetary Science community as a mentor and peer advisor.
Outside of academics, I enjoy hiking, backpacking, cooking, reading, and spending time with loved ones. I’m originally from San Diego and San Luis Obispo, so some say I’ve been making my way up the coast!
I am a second-year PhD student in Earth and Planetary Sciences, supervised by Professor Penny Wieser. I investigate how magmas form, migrate, and erupt, with the goal of improving eruption forecasting and reducing volcanic hazards. I grew up exploring the volcanic terrains of Taiwan and the sills along the Hudson River, where minerals and fumaroles first sparked my curiosity about Earth’s inner workings. That early fascination has evolved into a scientific drive to understand magmatism from source to eruption.
I earned a B.A. in Earth Science from Columbia University and an M.Phil. in Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge as a Euretta J. Kellett Fellow. After, I worked as a Data Science Fellow in the Geoinformatics Research Group at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. I now study high-threat volcanoes in the Cascade Arc. By analyzing crystals and the inclusions trapped within, I aim to constrain magma storage depths and timescales of magma mixing and ascent to better interpret signs of volcanic unrest. My approach blends geochemistry, data science, and machine learning to extract insights from complex geological records. Outside of research, I enjoy rowing, hiking, and cooking.
I am Zhenyu He and I was born in a small mountainous town in China built around a national molybdenum mining enterprise. This polluted mining town in China sparked my initial interest in the environment and sustainability and ultimately climate science. I finished my bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science in the School of Physics at Peking University. Now as a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley, my research focuses on the climatic consequences of nuclear war. I modeled how soot from the resulting city fire can be lofted into the upper troposphere or even the stratosphere through intense fire-driven convection. My work aims to mitigate scientific disagreements about the severity and likelihood of nuclear winter and inform global disarmament policy.
Outside of research, I’m deeply passionate about intellectual exchange. I find joy and clarity in discussing ideas with people from diverse backgrounds by sharing, listening, and refining perspectives. These moments of deep conversation energize me. I also enjoy spontaneous, boundary-free forms of expression, like singing on an open lawn, where creativity feels natural and unconstrained.
I’m interested in using the chemistry of the rock record to better understand how our climate has changed through Earth’s history. We’ve only had thermometers and rain gauges with which to study climate variables for a century or two, but the earth is 4.54 billion years old. How do we know anything about the climate system from before this period? My work aims to help address such questions.
I am a marine microbial biogeochemist, interested in learning about how small creatures in the ocean help build the marine ecosystem and cycle carbon as well as other nutrients. I work on timescales that range from the beginning of the Holocene to the current millennium, and on samples that come anywhere from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. My passion stems from a lifelong concern about our climate, and always am down for a good chat about how we can make things right. Apart from science, I also love the outdoors and am an avid tennis player.
I was born in Germany, conducted my undergraduate studies in chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and moved to Berkeley in 2021 for the chemistry PhD program. Inspired to address the urgent threats of climate change, my PhD research in inorganic chemistry focuses on the activation and conversion of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into value-added products and/or fuels. In my free time I enjoy running and exploring the beaches around Northern California.
My research revolves around Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)—a technology that transforms fiber-optic cables into dense seismic arrays. Its application in submarine cables can improve real-time earthquake detection and earthquake early warning (EEW), while also providing finer insights into the interaction between ocean waves and the solid earth.
I’m working on understanding the early diagenesis processes of marine sediments and figuring out how recrystallization changed major geochemistry records. My work for now is studying shallow carbonate sediments collected from Bahama and processing simulation lab experiments and would follow with modeling building.
I am the first of my family to attend college and as such I am particularly motivated to help broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (KPB) is associated with one of the five largest mass extinction events in the geologic record and is typified by the rapid loss of taxa such as the non-avian Dinosaurs. The extinction may serve as an analog to the modern ecological crisis. I will work to develop a high-temporal resolution record of the paleoenvironmental and palaeoecological turnover across the KPB using plant and bacterial biomarkers preserved in low grade coals (lignites) in the Hell Creek region of Montana.
Tanja (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at U.C. Berkeley. She used computer simulations to investigate thermodynamic material/transport properties of water-rich exoplanet interiors. Materials within planets are subjected to extreme pressures and temperatures and highly accurate ab-initio computer simulations offer us a glimpse into their interiors. She is currently working on calculating the equation-of-state for rock and ice mixtures (i.e. the miscibility curve).
On a personal note, Tanja is a refugee and a first-generation college student. She finds it imperative to continue mentorship and outreach efforts as she pursues a scientific career.
Tanja Kovacevic Research Talk
