DeFord Lecture Series

DeFord Lecture Series Speaker Schedule

The DeFord (Technical Sessions) lecture series has been a requirement and a tradition for all graduate students since the late 1940s. Once the official venue for disseminating Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences graduate student research, the DeFord Lecture series is now the forum for lectures by distinguished visitors and members of our community. Faculty and researchers from the Jackson School have invited prestigious researchers from around the world to present a lecture in this series. This is made possible only through a series of endowments, such as those funding past Distinguished Lectures.

The list below shows all the scheduled talks this semester. If you would like to meet with any of the speakers, please contact them or their hosts directly.

DeFord Lecture Series Spring 2026 Speaker Schedule

All talks are Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Boyd Auditorium (JGB 2.324). Lectures will be recorded, and most past lectures are posted on the Jackson School YouTube channel.

Jan. 22

Venkat Lakshmi

University of Virginia

Feb. 12

Jake Jordan

Mati Carbon

Feb. 9

Feb. 26

Roland Bürgmann

University of California Berkeley

March 5

Mattia Pistone

University of Georgia

March 12

Sarah Katz

Yale University

April 16

Rachel Glade

University of Rochester

April 23

Yanlan Liu

Ohio State University