The 2025 Kent State East Liverpool Earth Day Environmental Justice Undergraduate Research Conference will be held April 26, calling attention to Arctic nations and climate change.
The conference will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Purinton Hall, located at 400 E. Fourth St. The free event is open to the public.
Students will present research projects in written and poster formats that explore the roles and responsibilities of Arctic nations to protect fragile ecosystems; manage natural resources sustainably; promote the well-being of Arctic residents; address the challenges of climate change; and respect the rights of the Indigenous populations in these regions.
The keynote speaker for the conference is Kent State Assistant Professor Allyson Tessin, Ph.D., a geologist and seagoing oceanographer who works in sub-polar and polar regions to understand how climate change impacts cycling of carbon, nutrients and trace metals.
She leads the sediment biogeochemistry lab at Kent State and a group of scientists who research in fields of oceanography, biogeochemistry and sedimentary geology. The group is active with the international scientific ocean drilling community.
“How climate change will impact the chemistry of the oceans is still relatively poorly understood but will impact everything from polar ecosystems to Indigenous communities that rely on subsistence fishing,” Tessin stated. “Clues to what future Arctic Ocean chemistry might look like hide in the ocean’s seafloor.
“One way we can try to predict the changes that will happen is by using cores of mud from the seafloor to reconstruct the impacts of past climate change events over the last several hundred thousand years,” she continued. “We can also study how chemicals are currently exchanging across the seafloor as an important driver of ocean chemistry.”
Tessin received bachelor’s degrees in geology and environmental studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2010; a master’s degree in geological sciences from the University of Michigan in 2013; and a doctorate degree in earth and environmental sciences in 2016 from the University of Michigan. She began teaching at Kent State in 2020.
The Environmental Justice Conference is an annual event at Kent State East Liverpool and is held each spring on the Saturday closest to Earth Day (April 22). It showcases undergraduate research on environmental issues and students from all campuses are welcome to participate.
For updates and additional information on how to submit research projects, contact: Dr. Lydia Rose at Lrose17@kent.edu or Dr. Darryl Hancock at dhancoc4@kent.edu.
Cutline A: Dr. Allyson Tessin
Cutline B: Dr. Allyson Tessin with scientists from the sediment biogeochemistry lab at Kent State.
Cutline C: Dr. Allyson Tessin in the lab.