It's been about three and a half months since I moved from the University of Texas’ Institute for Geophysics at Austin, Texas, (where I got my M.S., Ph.D. and did a year of postdoc) to Brown University in Providence, where I am now a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow. I have 2 years of funding here (well, 21 months now I suppose!) and am working with Steven Clemens to (hopefully) figure out intriguing things about the Indian monsoon and its geological history. I am quite excited to begin this phase of my career and look forward to an eventful tenure in Rhode Island!

Moving from Texas to the smallest state in the United States was, in and of itself, (thankfully) uneventful. We did the drive in three days (10-11 hrs/day) and our route was: Austin, TX -> Memphis, TN -> Roanoake, VA -> Providence, RI.

Foraminiferal assemblage samples prepared by April Martin at Brown University, a seminal contribution to the CLIMAP project spearheaded at Brown University.

Brown University has been an important institution for paleoceanography and paleoclimatology, with John Imbrie, Robley K. Matthews, Warren Prell, Tom Webb, and others laying important foundations for the field. Furthermore, Brown served as the alma mater graduate school for several scientists who went on to make substantial research contributions to paleoceanography including Tom Crowley, Bill Curry, Rick Fairbanks, Dick Poore, Jonathan Overpeck, Harry Dowsett, Will Howard(more recently) Jess Tierney, and many, many others, including the one and only Terry Quinn (my Ph.D. advisor!) Hopefully, I can make meaningful contributions here as well.

Rhode Island and the northeast in general has been fantastic over the last few months, thanks to an extended summer (?) and very pleasant weather. We’ve been exploring quite a bit, sailing here and there, and tasting new foods! I am still amazed that we regularly get to cross (sometimes multiple) state boundaries while driving for less than an hour - even to go over to the local Target! This was not the case at all in Texas, where even ten hours sometimes would not get you out of the state. Although I am not looking forward to the frigid winters in this part of the world, a little part of me is curious to re-experience actual seasons.

Sailing aboard Steve's Lono on a warm, Rhode Island Sunday - Narragansett Bay, RI — Sailing aboard Steve's *Lono* on a warm, Rhode Island Sunday - Narragansett Bay, RI

The leaves starting to change colors late into October - White Mountains, NH