Congratulations to Dr. Elena Robakiewicz who successfully defended her dissertation “Environment and Lake Systems Across Africa: Understanding the Relationship between Environments, Lakes, and Hominins” this summer! Elena is the first student at UConn and the department to complete a dual degree with her Cotutelle between UConn and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen in Germany. She begins a Teaching and Research Fellowship in Tübingen starting in the fall where she will be teaching courses on paleoenvironmental proxies. Congratulations again to Elena and we are excited to see what comes next!