Jessica Oster

Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2022 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise. Read More

Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists deploy first calcium isotope analysis of North American stalagmite to show how past weather extremes may predict events in California. Read More

Paleoclimatologist Jessica Oster uses geological clues from stalagmites to explore implications for future climate change. Read More

Stalagmite records from monsoon regions such as India are vital to understanding past variability in the global climate system and the underlying reasons for this variability. Read More

Vanderbilt and Tennessee State universities are joining forces to significantly increase the number of underrepresented minorities studying the geosciences. Read More

A study of stalagmite records from the White Moon Cave in the Santa Cruz Mountains finds the California coast was lashed by exceptionally wet and stormy weather for 150 years...8,200 years ago. Read More

Paleoclimatic cave study in California is designed to identify the factors that made megadroughts commonplace in the western U.S. from 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. Read More

Application of new micro-analytical techniques have transformed rocks and gravel buried in a special type of soil into a rich source of data about past climates that can help scientists understand how the climate will change in the future. Read More

In the latest VUCast: See a rescue dog walk again, thanks to Vanderbilt engineering students; learn what we found when we followed climate researchers underground; and the Class of 2019 runs for the Commodores! Watch now. Read More

Jessica Oster is a member of a small group of earth scientists pioneering the use of mineral cave deposits in stalagmites, collectively known as speleothems, as proxies for the prehistoric climate. Read More

VIDEO» For Vanderbilt Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Jessica Oster, getting data means getting dirty. Oster and her team are collecting mineral deposits deep inside caves to find clues to climate change. Read More

The award honors highly accomplished women working in science, technology, engineering or mathematics who have made a positive impact on the trajectories of other women thinking about or newly embarking on STEM careers. Read More

Jessica Oster and her colleagues have shown that the analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in north east India can detect the link between El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian monsoon. Read More

Researchers have reconstructed the climate in the Western United States 21,000 years ago and are using the data to improve climate models that forecast future precipitation patterns. Read More