Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
McWilliams Seminar Series
The "W. Kent McWilliams Geological Research Fund" was formally established in 1980 by Kent McWilliams, an alumnus of Tulane University and co-founder of the McMoRan Exploration Company, to provide essential support for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EENS), which was then known as the Department of Geology. A key provision of this endowment was the establishment of the weekly McWilliams Seminar Series.
Spring 2026 McWilliams Seminar Series
Exploring the Frontiers of Earth, Ocean, and Planetary Science
Seminar will be held every Friday from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM in Science & Engineering Labs, Room 126A for a series of engaging presentations from leading experts across the scientific community.
Speaker: Juan Lorenzo | LSU
Topic: Lunar Rovers (SpaceSSE)
Host: Cynthia Ebinger
Speaker: David Brain | University of Colorado at Boulder
Topic: Planetary
Host: Eduardo Arzabala
| Speaker: | John Sabo | Tulane - ByWater Institute |
| Topic: | TBD |
| Host: | Torbjorn Tornqvist |
Stories of Communicating Scientific Ocean Drilling, from Text to Textiles
Laura Guertin, PhD | Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences, Penn State Brandywine
No Seminar
Ethical field work in the geosciences
Juliet Ryan-Davis, PhD | Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT; Incoming Assistant Professor (Fall 2026), Boston College
"Diverging Elevation Trajectories of US Atlantic Coast Marshes"
Asif Hasan, Ph.D. | Student Tulane Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
&
"Fault-Controlled Fluid Migration Processes in the Northern Gulf of Mexico"
Babatunde Arogundade, Ph.D. Student | Tulane Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
"New perspectives from accessory minerals on magmatic and ore-forming processes"
"Accelerating the Energy Transition with AI-Driven Solid Earth Geoscience"
TBD
"Listening to active peridotite alteration: Lessons for geological hydrogen and carbon mineralization"
"Modeling delta morphodynamics: theory and application to the Wax Lake Delta"
Giulio Mariotti, PH.D | Associate Professor, Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences LSU
No Seminar - Spring Break
