Nick Barber to Contribute to PBS Docuseries in Indonesia The assistant professor of earth and environmental geoscience will be an on-screen science contributor for a docuseries titled “Mysterious Earth”

By Abby Harlan
October 19, 2026

Nick Barber, assistant professor of earth and environmental geoscience at Washington and Lee University, will spend two weeks in East Java, Indonesia, this fall as an on-screen science contributor for a PBS docuseries titled “Mysterious Earth.”

The five-episode series explores the relationships among Earth’s subsystems — the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and cryosphere — and how each sphere of activity influences the other four. Barber’s contribution will help viewers understand how these systems shape humanity’s place in the world.

Barber will serve as the main on-screen science contributor for episodes 4 and 5 of the series, titled “Geosphere.” While in Indonesia, he will visit and study Kawah Ijen, a volcano that has been the main focus of his research. The episodes will use the volcano to examine how plate tectonics sustain life by transporting essential elements from Earth’s interior to the surface, where they enter biogeochemical cycles and support ecosystems. To prepare for the documentary, Barber also consulted with the production team on planning the trip and reviewed the script for scientific accuracy.

Barber has been studying Ijen’s eruptive history since 2023, when he began a postdoctoral fellowship focused on the volcano at McGill University in Canada. During the summer 2024, he led a three-week field campaign at Ijen with four W&L students: Parker Comisac ’24, Allison Hidalgo ’25, Lillian Peskova ’26 and India Balkaran ’27. Barber has continued his work on Ijen, presenting his research at an international conference this summer. He also recently supervised a master’s thesis by Geika Pramana Surya that drew on the 2024 field campaign. Surya earned a master’s degree in geological engineering from Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia) in 2026.

Barber joined the W&L faculty in 2023 after serving as a Wares Postdoctoral Research Fellow at McGill. He holds a bachelor’s degree in geoscience from Drexel University and earned a Ph.D. in earth sciences from the University of Cambridge (U.K.).

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.