In 2009, Tripati became an assistant professor at UCLA and was subsequently promoted to associate professor in 2014, where she continues to teach full-time. She has joint appointments in the Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences and Earth, Planetary, & Space Sciences departments and the Institutes of Geophysics & Planetary Physics and Environment & Sustainability. Since she was an undergraduate student, Tripati has been working on advancing and utilizing state-of-the-art geochemical methods to understand Earth's climate evolution. Over the course of her career, she has applied these methods to better understand the history and patterns of changes in Earth's temperature, carbon cycling, pH, ice volume, and hydrology. Tripati's laboratory leverages
clumped isotope geochemistry as a tool to reconstruct climate norms from the distant past in order to understand the dynamics of
climate change over a range of timescales. The primary geochemical method she works with is clumped isotope
thermometry, which has led to advancements of its use in the field. She helped develop a technique known as a "
paleothermometer," which allows scientists to measure past temperatures by analyzing the chemical ratios of specimens from different time periods. The chemical composition of a particular specimen reflects the composition of the Earth's atmosphere at a given point in time, allowing scientists to understand what the atmosphere was like in the past. Using these techniques in a 2009 study, Tripati and her team were able to find that the last time carbon dioxide levels reached their current level was between 10 and 15 million years ago when the average global temperature was 10˚F warmer than it is today. In a later study published in 2016, Tripati and her colleagues from around the world demonstrated that an ice sheet collapse that took place 14,000 years ago caused the Earth's entire jet stream to shift within a single century. Their results were based on analysis of an
ANDRILL-2 drill core that was extracted near the U.S. Antarctic base
McMurdo Station. The study suggested that the Antarctic ice sheet may be sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that are not far from where they currently reside. Tripati has also applied her expertise in clumped isotope geochemistry towards determining the body temperatures of
dinosaurs that have long been extinct. As a visiting professor at
California Institute of Technology, she collaborated on a 2011 study that analyzed the composition of fossilized teeth of Jurassic
sauropods to find that their internal body temperature was close to that of most modern mammals, resting somewhere between 36 and 38˚C. Scientists had previously hypothesized that sauropod body temperature was warmer, but their study suggested that these dinosaurs stayed cool by using internal air sacs for ventilation. In a later 2015 study, she and her colleagues analyzed the chemical composition of ancient eggshells to estimate the maternal body temperature of a number of different dinosaurs. Their results, combined with other studies, suggested that dinosaurs aren't simply cold-blooded or warm-blooded, but were somewhere in between. Tripati's most recent research work contributes to finding methodologies that can be used for compilation of climate proxy data across a wide geographic range. Ultimately this work will contribute to creating climate "atlas" which will help understand other climate
change models. In 2014, Tripati received a
National Science Foundation CAREER Award to leverage
clumped isotopes as a tool to reconstruct terrestrial climates during the
Last Glacial Maximum, as well as to support her work recruiting and retaining a diverse research workforce. == Diversity, equity, and inclusion ==