Vanessa Sun

Overhead view of textbook with various colorful page flags sticking out the sides. On the white page is a small written message in black ink, saying: “To Vanessa Sun, I enjoyed reading your letter. You have a wonderful path ahead of you in atmospheric chemistry. I look forward to meeting you at some time in the future. All the Best, John H. Seinfeld. June 17, 2024.” There is a rainbow suncatcher refraction over the “To Vanessa Sun” of the message.

For the first time ever, I have 2 textbooks: one for office, one for home. I keep my precious annotated & signed version at home. Thought it was nerdy to get the author’s autograph but a prof told me that students lined up for the same at a seminar once 😂

🧵 Looking for (polar) climate data visualizations? Start here! 📈📉🧪⚒️🌊

+ Polar climate change: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...
+ Global climate change indicators: zacklabe.com/climate-chan...
+ #Arctic sea ice extent: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...
+ #Antarctic sea ice: zacklabe.com/antarctic-se...

Screenshot that says "August 2025 Monthly Update [September update delayed due to US Govn’t shutdown resulting in unavailable data]"

Unfortunately still no #Arctic sea ice thickness and volume update for the month of September on my website... data issues from the U.S. government shutdown

PIOMAS notice: psc.apl.uw.edu/research/pro...

All grading systems require as a first step that we all believe in a lie.

atmospheric scientists be like tonight i gotta find the planetary boundary layer height from this skew t log p plot

(the atmospheric scientist is me)

🌊❄️ Join us 14–16 Oct 2025 for the Virtual Workshop: Ocean Connectivity & Exchange Across the Antarctic Peninsula

free | 3 sessions | global time zones | talks + discussions

👉 Sponsored by SOOS WAPSA RWG
🔗 More info & program: airtable.com/appoukWG95eu...

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

PhD Position in Atmospheric Chemistry

We have a new PhD project to study ozone formation from fires. If interested in atmospheric chemistry, fires, living in Zurich, and studying at ETH, consider applying here: jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

Why is none of science reddit talking about the government shutdown rn

Flyer for a panel session on "Graduate school Admissions". Logos from sponsors and the speakers titles are included.

Applying to graduate programs in the sciences? 🧬✨

Join us for our upcoming Faculty Panel Discussion to learn the key do’s and don’ts for a competitive application package, directly from university administrators.

📅 October 7th at 11am ET
📍 Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/faculty-pa...

Flyer on "Graduate Student Panel on Admissions" on Tuesday, October 7th at 9am ET. The three panelists pictures are shown, their names, and their affiliations. Our sponsors logo are shown.

🎓 Graduate Student Panel on Admissions⁠

Hear from current grad students about:⁠
💡 What admissions committees look for⁠
📝 Tips for writing a strong application⁠
🙋🏽‍♀️ Their experiences applying

📅 Date: Tuesday, 10/7 at 9am ET⁠
🌐 Register: www.eventbrite.com/e/graduate-s...

Fangirling over meeting a professor this week. Kind of a first for me!

In FY25, the University of Vermont had 39 H1B beneficiaries approved.

In 2016, I was one of them.

What this country, my adopted country, my child’s country, is doing is monstrous and will have grave repercussions for all Americans well beyond this current presidential term. This is so sad to see.

whoever created the batch search on the EPA Comptox Dashboard— i love you so much 😭

UNL is proposing to cut the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, which would eliminate the undergraduate and graduate meteorology programs. Please consider sharing the importance of our department with UNL through this link: apc.unl.edu/fall-2025-bu...

Pan-Arctic map of data coverage in the Fossil Arctic Marine Mammal database. Shown is a bivariate choropleth map denoting species richness and number of fossils in 200km x 200 km grid cells

🐋 🐻‍❄️ 🦭 MASSIVE NEW FOSSIL DATABASE 🐋 🐻‍❄️ 🦭

Our FAMM (Fossil Arctic Marine Mammal) database has now been published #OpenAccess in Global Ecology and Biogeography!

Come learn about the cool stuff you can do with #Arctic #fossil material and bio-molecular archives! ☢️ ⚛️ 🧬

Link and thread below!

🧵 1/🦴

How did assaults on science become the norm — and what can we do? An insightful book explores attacks on science from a historical and a personal perspective.

Science and scientists are under attack like never before and we need all the tools in the toolbox to fight back. Here's my @nature.com book review of Science Under Siege. Thanks for speaking up for science, @michaelemann.bsky.social and @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Author of tweet on left side of photo holding up white mug that says MIT Atmos Chem on it. She wears bronze and gold framed glasses and has short hair. Behind her is a dual monitor desk setup with a bigger and more yellow monitor on the left and smaller and whiter monitor on right. On the left monitor, Zotero is open with typed notes next to a paper. On the right monitor, Google Slides is open showing a slide titled F0AM Box Modeling.

Woke up early to prepare leading paper discussion in group meeting today 👩🏻‍💻📊📑☕️☀️

A round table in the center of the photo with an open binder and some notes in the front left, a laptop and orange colored photo beneath the binder. Behind the binder, also on the table, is a closed translucent binder. In the background behind the table is an outdoor lounge with several silver chairs, tables, and benches.

Able to run my MATLAB script before my flight 😇 can’t use Python properly on this laptop though 😒

top phd student quotes of the day (all said by me):

• “i accept my own mediocrity now”

• “I gave up on any semblance of a timeline a few months ago 🤪”

• “Not me skimming paper and being like, huh, i could be a scientist”

• “She’s not the one who’s been editing spreadsheets 5ever”

me: does it ever get less overwhelming?
advisor: no
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

My graduate student just messaged and said she’s doing ok, and is prepared to propose this semester. I pray over her and her family as she works, I remember these phases she is going through, and sheer degree of fatigue I felt.

All love, graduate students, we need you. 🙏🏾

brb crashing out over chemistry (better than over matlab tho 😉)

Gonna get the first one for when I reach candidacy this year but not allowed to use it. Hopefully it will tide me over til the actual finish line 🥂🍾

I’m a genius! I have a new PhD motivator!!!

Advisor wants to start a tradition where her PhD graduates open a bottle of champagne with a sword. Today, I discovered that custom engraved goblets are A Thing and I want to get them! One for me, one for her, and one for the future graduates.

Spotted this tiny juvenile pilot fish during my safety stop this morning 🐟✨

It kept me company for the full 20 minutes—like a loyal little dive buddy 🤿

Morning dive buddy just cruising by 🐙

(🎥 by Alex, real dive buddy in charge of saving my life)

Red line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance from January 1959 through June 2025. There is a seasonal cycle and long-term increasing trend. Current levels of CO2 are at 430 ppm. This is the Keeling Curve graph. A line for CO2 10 years ago is also annotated.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) averaged about 430 ppm in June 2025

10 years ago June averaged about 403 ppm

Preliminary data from @noaa.gov: gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Accelerating increase in the duration of heatwaves under global warming Nature Geoscience - The duration of long heatwaves increases at an accelerating rate with warming such that a large increase in the risk of long-lasting heatwaves results from relatively modest...

As the planet warms, heatwaves don’t just increase — they increase in duration faster with each degree rise in temperature. Something to look forward to. 🥵

Motherfucking wind farms…