Reno, Nev. (March 1, 2019): This week, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents awarded Monica Arienzo, Ph.D. of the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno with its annual Rising Researcher Award. The honor is given annually to one NSHE faculty member from DRI, UNR, and UNLV.
Arienzo is an assistant research professor of hydrology with DRI’s Division of Hydrologic Sciences. She was recognized for her early-career accomplishments using geochemical tools to understand climatic changes of the past and human impacts to the environment, and for her commitment to sharing her research with the scientific community, the greater Nevada community, and with students.
As a member of DRI’s Ice Core Laboratory, Arienzo and her collaborators have published climate records extending 100,000 years into the past. Her work also has focused on emissions from anthropogenic processes since the industrial revolution. Using ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica, and the European Alps, this research demonstrated the geographic extent of anthropogenic emissions, variations in emissions through time, and sources of these emissions. Locally, her work includes a project partnering with a Nevada non-profit organization to assess the impact of pollutants to the Tahoe Basin snow and water resources.
“I am honored to receive this award,” Arienzo said. “I look forward to continuing this important work with our team at DRI to understand interactions between the environment, climate, and human activities.”
With her collaborators, Dr. Arienzo is at the forefront in development of new geochemical methods including extraction of small (<1µL) water samples from stalagmites, analysis of formation temperatures for carbonates, and novel dating techniques for ice cores. She is currently collaborating with researchers at eight different institutions in four countries on a variety of interdisciplinary research projects.
Since joining DRI, Dr. Arienzo has been the lead author on four and co-author on ten peer-reviewed manuscripts published in high-impact journals including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Science and Technology, and Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Arienzo holds a B.A. in geology from Franklin and Marshall College and a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. She joined DRI in 2014 as a Postdoctoral Fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Joe McConnell, and was promoted to Assistant Research Professor in 2016.
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The Desert Research Institute (DRI) is a recognized world leader in investigating the effects of natural and human-induced environmental change and advancing technologies aimed at assessing a changing planet. For more than 50 years DRI research faculty, students, and staff have applied scientific understanding to support the effective management of natural resources while meeting Nevada’s needs for economic diversification and science-based educational opportunities. With campuses in Reno and Las Vegas, DRI serves as the non-profit environmental research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
