A 75th Anniversary committee has been hard at work developing a year–long program of events, public lectures, exhibits and celebratory galas, both in–person on the Lamont Campus and available remotely, exploring our institutional history and reinforcing the importance of basic Earth science research to society. Our website will have a full calendar shortly, but we will continue to reach out to our neighbors about specific events. Of course, one of the first events for the general public will be a special edition of our annual Open House, to be held this year on Saturday, October 19. While we will continue to have the usual program of tents, exhibits and lectures staffed by a veritable army of scientists and volunteers, the 75th Anniversary themes will be everywhere on display. New this year, Palisadian Mary Tiegreen and her AI “partner” will curate an exhibit of Great Master artworks having a climate and environment theme.

Earth science basic research – past, present and future – has never been more relevant to our society. We face challenges ranging from building resilience to natural disasters to planning for an uncertain future climate. Major questions surround how we might mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, for example, or adapt to more extreme weather both practically and equitably. Will we be able to gain enough understanding of the behavior of individual volcanoes to enable life–saving predictions of eruptions? How is ocean health affected by human activity, and will we be able to understand the complex chemical and physical interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere? How fast will sea level rise as the glaciers and ice sheets warm up? These are just a small sample of the questions being addressed by Lamont scientists. There are many, many more.

Underlying all of this is the foundational knowledge of Earth systems that we have built over the decades, and the promise of even more understanding as we bring new observational and analytical tools to bear. The three traditional pillars of basic Earth science research – observation, theory, and laboratory work – are being augmented by a fourth, informatics, with new advances in artificial intelligence and massive new data sources empowering data–driven discovery. One of our 75th Anniversary themes is how these new technologies are combining to advance our understanding of Earth systems by leaps and bounds.

The discoveries of the last 75 years have taught us that Earth has changed tremendously in its geological history and that humanity itself has become a geological force, one that is changing our planet on human time scales rather than geological ones. We are using our 75th Anniversary to not only celebrate the wonder of discovery, but also reflect on how advances in our science will affect how humanity interacts with our planetary home. We hope that our neighbors in our Palisades home will join with us in thinking about our common future.