Jan Tullis, an accomplished and beloved professor emerita in the University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, died Sept. 15 at the age of 81.
Tullis, born in Swedesboro, New Jersey, is survived by her sisters Mary Conway and Ellen Shelton; her nieces, Jessie and Kit Shelton; and Terry Tullis, her former husband and longtime friend.
At the age of 13, Tullis and her family moved to Weston, Connecticut, where the nearby nature preserves first inspired her love for the natural sciences. Upon arriving at Carleton College in 1961, she was immediately captivated by crustal rocks and deformation processes. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in geology in 1965 before getting her PhD with distinction in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971.
In 1970, she became an assistant professor of research at Brown, receiving her tenure in 1979. In 1981, she became the chair of the Department of Geological Sciences’ undergraduate program.
Tullis’ research largely focused on the deformation mechanisms of rocks, where she examined the behavior of the Earth’s crust when pressure is applied. Her work set the foundation for the following decades of crust deformation research. Her work still exerts an outsize influence in current research.
Tullis was the core of EEPS 0220: “Understanding Earth and Environmental Processes,” which she co-taught with Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer. The course is now co-taught by Fischer and DEEPS Professor Greg Hirth. Full of hands-on rock labs and field trips to Newport’s Cliff Walk, the course provides an introduction to the processes that shape the Earth’s surface.
Within the classroom, Tullis made a point to know all of the enrolled students by name. In every iteration of the course, Tullis held daily drop-in hours to help coach and guide students.
Throughout her time at Brown, Tullis also dedicated herself to supporting women and minority students in science courses. She served as a Geoscience Affinity Group faculty mentor and a member of the Advisory Board for Women in Science and Engineering since its founding in 1992.
Tullis received many awards in teaching and advising, including the Association of Women Geoscientists Outstanding Educator Award in 1998, the Karen Romer Award for Undergraduate Advising and Mentoring in 2004 and the Hazeltine Award for Excellence in Teaching, Advising and Mentoring in 2011, among others.
In 2013, her department created the Jan Tullis Undergraduate Teaching Award in her honor, which is given to one graduating senior every year.
Tullis was also recognized for her research expertise as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America. She was also awarded the GSA Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Career Contribution Award in 2005.
In the months following her passing, The Herald spoke with several of Jan Tullis’ former students, friends and colleagues, who remember her approach to life-long mentorship, inspired dedication and her emphasis on creating and sustaining personal connections.
A pioneering woman in geoscience
In the late 1960s, when Tullis began her research in rock deformation under a prominent advisor, she conducted some experiments without his knowledge. Many were regarded as “groundbreaking,” said Hirth, one of Tullis’ PhD advisees.
At the time, Tullis was one of few women in the geoscience field, but that did not stop her from conducting her research.
“She was so talented at coming up with innovative experiments that her work spoke for itself,” Fischer said.
A decade later, shortly after Tullis began conducting hands-on research at the University, Pamela Burnley ’82 arrived at Brown. Still, female professors in geoscience, like Tullis, were rare.
“It was helpful to know that women could do that. That was not a common thing,” Burnley said. But Tullis reminded her that they “were women together.”
“In some ways, Jan was like a mother to the undergraduates,” said Burnley, who is now a professor of geomaterials, geophysics and geoscience education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “I take that approach in taking care of my students too,” she added.
Shortly after Burnley graduated, Hirth arrived at Brown to begin his PhD research. Over the two decades since Tullis had begun researching, women still remained few and far between. Hirth recounted being in the lab when a male professor commented on the increase of the number of women in geology. To that, Tullis turned and said, “name 10.” He named six.
“She had to go through a lot to get where she was and she was just a total powerhouse,” said Julia Grossman ’23, a former Metro editor for The Herald who worked for Tullis as a Meiklejohn advisor and was one of her former students.
A door that was always open
Most of Tullis’ groundbreaking research began in her office in Rhode Island Hall, with mass spectrometers propped up by textbooks. Her undergraduate students would sit across from her door, which was always open. When the department’s building moved to the newly built Geo-Chem building, Tullis’ door, adorned with pictures sent by students and captioned by Tullis, always remained open.
In the office itself, her bookshelf was lined with rocks that illustrated important geological processes, resting below the row of nature-themed mugs. On her desk, amidst other natural objects was a tall but organized stack of papers. The ever-growing stack would include not only notes about each of her individual advisees, but also the emails she received from her students, which she would print out and annotate.
“She remembered everything we told her because she had it all written down,” Grossman said.
Students would stop by this office regularly. Gabriel Traietti ’25, another one of Tullis’ Meiklejohn advisors and former students, worked in a lab in the Geo-Chem building the summer before Tullis passed. His path out of the building always included a stop at her office — always for a check-in and occasionally for a homemade snickerdoodle.
“She was the first person I would go to for any issues in class. She was the first person I spoke to when I decided to apply for a PhD program,” Traietti said.
And whenever a student spoke to Tullis, they were always greeted with a “Hey, partner.”
“You always knew that she cared about you when she would use ‘partner,’” Fischer added.
When Grossman had her first advising meeting, at the boulders outside the Geo-Chem building, she came away with three main takeaways.
“One: this woman is incredible and she’s calling me partner. I don’t know what that means but I like it. Two: she has really strong opinions and usually they are correct. Three: I know I’m going to be taken care of here,” she said.
Grossman knew that she wanted to pursue geoscience before she came to Brown. Before deciding what college she was going to attend, Grossman emailed Tullis to learn more about the geoscience program.
“It was the best email I’ve ever sent,” Grossman said. After she was accepted, Grossman received an email from Tullis, answering any questions she had before arriving in Providence. After Grossman’s first-year, she worked as Tullis’ Meiklejohn for the rest of her time at Brown.
Gregorio Posada Pardo ’26 also began contact with Tullis via email. She messaged him after he had been accepted to Brown, introducing herself to see if he was potentially interested in the DEEPS department. Though he was not initially interested in the field, Pardo said that the email gave him a certain “comfort.”
“Jan was my first contact with an actual person at Brown, someone that could provide much needed answers about courses, college life and career options,” Pardo said.
When Pardo first met Tullis in her office in the basement of the Geo-Chem building, it was Tullis who led the conversation. She asked him questions ranging from his hobbies to his potential careers.
“That was the most surprising and unique thing about Jan, especially as an educator. She genuinely expressed interest in her students as people,” Pardo said.
As Tullis’ co-educator, Fischer witnessed this first-hand. “Her advice wasn’t just about courses and concentrations, it was also about how you find your path to a meaningful and happy life,” Fischer said. “She was really good at getting students to think through what really mattered to them.”
Fischer recalled how Tullis would grin and her whole face would light up when she was talking with an advisee.
Among Tullis’ students, there was a unique “sense of community,” Tee Gotsch '26 noted. Tullis would welcome her students to her house, which was decorated by the garden she tended.
She loved to bake and, more than that, loved finding new recipes for her students with dietary restrictions, Grossman said. Once or twice a year, Tullis would welcome students on a warm afternoon to enjoy pastries with a heavy side of laughter.
Tullis would walk from her house, which became a home for many students, to the Geo-Chem building for work everyday. There, with her always-open door, she made sure to water every plant in the building.
“She made us better in every way possible,” Grossman said.
A great connector
Gotsch also recalled the vast network of personal connections that Tullis upheld both at Brown and beyond campus.
When Burnley was looking for research in 1982, Tullis pointed her to an internship with Steve Kirby at the US Geological Survey. She believes that the research ultimately set her apart from other candidates focused on rock deformation, paving the way for her current role as a professor in the field.
Similarly, when Gotsch worked with Tullis as her Meiklejohn, Tullis frequently connected students with alumni who shared similar research interests. When Traietti was choosing his research advisor, a fundamental step for his geochemistry and environmental chemistry concentration, he sat down with Tullis to review the various options.
Tullis maintained such strong relationships that at every reunion, she was swarmed by alumni, Grossman said. “She was the most popular one at the DEEPS reception, by far, just because of all the lives she touched there,” she added.
Don’t be afraid to be wrong
The introductory EEPS 0220 class was “perfectly crafted” by Tullis, Grossman said, with one of its key components being the six days of drop-in hours offered every week.
“She strongly believed that there was no such thing as a dumb question,” Gotsch said. They added that Tullis was always ready with descriptive diagrams to answer any questions that a student may have.
Tullis always said to her students that they should not be afraid to be wrong. Hirth and Fischer recalled her advice that there are some things you are never going to be sure of, but that students should experiment regardless.
“You look at who is a leader in that field today. They’re all Jan’s students,” Burnley said.
Jan’s rocks
As the waves broke over the rocks and the sun set on a warmer late afternoon at the annual Newport Cliff Walk field trip, Fischer remembered Tullis watching her students. She was grinning as they worked on their assignments and learned about the rock processes that comprised the landscape.
“Over hundreds of millions of years, there is such a story (in Newport). And if you just pay attention, if you look for the details and if you understand how these processes work together, then you can piece it together,” Grossman said.
One of Tullis’s favorite rocks was the Grand Canyon. She would spend a whole lecture in EEPS 0220 focusing on the story that was told by the different rock layers. When Traietti visited the Grand Canyon on a field trip sponsored by the department, he was able to fully appreciate the rocks.
“She bred in me an interest in understanding the systems that created beauty,” Traietti said.
For many students in geoscience, particularly students studying rock deformation, the field that Tullis helped pioneer and the story that rocks told are inherent to their work.
Outside the Geo-Chem building sit two large boulders. When the department first moved from Rhode Island Hall to the Geo-Chem building, Tullis insisted on the two boulders being placed on the adjacent lawn.
They were the location of Grossman’s first advising meeting, with Tullis’s three main takeaways. They were the location of various conversations that Gotsch had with Tullis, as they chatted about “life and interests.” For many of Tullis’ students, the boulders remind them of her, partially because of their associated scientific processes, but mostly because of the memories they have of Tullis and the stories they tell.
Fittingly, Traietti often calls them “Jan’s rocks.”
Hadley Carr is a senior staff writer at The Herald.
