In the lab, Tribe uses complex machines to subject the core to various chemical and physical processes. It can take many weeks to painstakingly analyze one sample and isolate specific biological markers to determine the hydrology of a given period, Tribe said. Ultimately, by examining lipid remnants, researchers can better understand what caused dramatic shifts in climate and use the data to model predictions.

“Because right now we can’t just try to stop climate change, we also have to prepare to adapt to it,” Tribe said.

For Tribe, the implications of the research make it meaningful — and it has narrowed the gap between two worlds she has straddled. She gravitated toward literature and writing as a high schooler, but had always been drawn to Earth science.

“My grandparents live on a rural Island in Canada, so I swung from as urban as it gets in New York City, to spending my entire summers on an island where there was no human infrastructure in sight, just open water and the most beautiful, exposed Precambrian rock,” Tribe said.

Between high school and her first semester at Brown, Tribe spent a year in South America and Central America, where she hiked, taught young children about sustainability at an Argentine nature preserve, and learned more about the natural world, all while developing a passion for Latin American history. As she finished her first year at Brown in Spring 2024, she was eager to learn how researchers interrogate the natural world, and she applied for the position in Russell’s lab. Since May, she has been working with Pérez-Angel and deepening her exposure to scientific research and the related aspects of Latin American and Colombian history.

Enthralled and inspired by the summer research experience, Tribe has initiated her own research project. As a smaller project within Pérez-Angel’s larger study, Tribe is studying the climate conditions that led to the emergence of a specific plant species millions of years ago, and she plans to present her research at a conference in December.

“It’s just something I never would have thought I would do,” Tribe said. “I have been learning so much through the process itself.”

Now an aspiring climate journalist, Tribe said the experience has given her insight into the research process and empowered her to write about climate change from a more informed perspective. Perhaps most importantly, Tribe has developed confidence in a new field.

“This is a majority-female lab in which everyone is incredibly supportive,” Tribe said. “It makes me feel so excited to go to work every day, and it’s opened up the possibility of this career and pathway.”

As she prepares to begin her sophomore year, Tribe will return to the classroom not only with a newfound passion, but a newfound sense of self.

“I think I’ve told myself a lot of narratives throughout my life: that I don’t belong in science because I like art and writing more than math and chemistry,” Tribe said. “I always thought science is not for me and that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I’m learning a lot and doing something that I surprisingly love. Regardless of what I choose to do, reframing that story about myself has been really rewarding.”