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Buzzing With Excitement: EPSS Team Connects With Future Bruins

The department had an exciting and high-energy presence at UCLA’s Bruin Day, the university’s premier admitted student event welcoming incoming freshmen. The day offered an immersive introduction to campus life, academic opportunities, and the vibrant UCLA community. Our booth was buzzing with activity from start to finish.

We saw incredible engagement throughout the day, especially from admits in neighboring Physical Science departments, who were eager to learn more about our programs and connect with our students. Visitors were drawn to our dynamic setup and left inspired after meaningful conversations with our team.

The Artemis launch and broader space-related topics sparked significant conversation, generating excitement and increasing interest in the department. We also built great momentum with neighboring programs, reflecting the collaborative and enthusiastic spirit that defines UCLA.

Overall, Bruin Day was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the department, spark excitement among future Bruins, and celebrate the energy and excellence of our community.

Stay tuned for Transfer Day happening May 16, 2026.


Student volunteers Geophysics major Jackie Chen and Geology major Jordan Winn


Visitor engagement at the EPSS booth


EPSS booth setup during Bruin Day


Video: Highlights from the event


Jonathan Aurnou
Chair and Professor
Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, UCLA

invites you to attend the

Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences
Distinguished Alumni Lecture

“The Mythology of Magma Chambers”

   

Allen Glazner

Allen F. Glazner, Ph.D. ’81, Geology

Emeritus Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham Distinguished Professor,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Thursday, February 12, 2026
Reception – 5:00 p.m. PT
Lecture – 6:00 p.m. PT

UCLA Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM)
in the Portola Building on campus

RSVP Here

Self-parking available in Structure 2
Public transit to UCLA

Magma chambers are foundational elements of geology on Earth and rocky bodies in our solar system and beyond. They leak to the surface and produce volcanoes, or vent catastrophically and form calderas, or freeze in place and produce plutons that are the main building blocks of planetary crusts. The iconic image of a volcano connected to a shallow magma chamber has been seared into our minds owing to illustrations in thousands of books and journal articles. Surely there is no reason to question the existence of shallow magma chambers, right? I’m glad you asked. In this talk Allen F. Glazner will go over compelling geological and geophysical data that rule out the traditional view of magma chambers and offer an alternative view of crustal magmatism that is consistent with current data and explains several things that the traditional magma chamber paradigm cannot.

About the speaker: A native Southern Californian, Glazner earned geology degrees from Pomona College and UCLA before embarking on a 38-year career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a distinguished professor emeritus. Much of his recent work has focused on granites in the Sierra Nevada, with emphasis on Yosemite National Park. He has taught geology to astronauts and National Park personnel, and written “Geology Underfoot” books for the public on Yosemite, Southern California, and Death Valley and Eastern California. His textbook “Petrology and Plate Tectonics: An Earth Systems Approach” came out in 2025.