D E P A R T M E N T O F G E O L O G Y , U N I V E R S I T Y O F C I N C I N N A T I

A l u m n i / A l u m n a e N e w s l e t t e r

Letter from Department HeadDear Alumni:Welcome to this year’s edition of

Upper Crust, which may be the thickestone yet! I won’t delay you too muchfrom getting to the good stuff, but thereare few things that I wanted to chatabout briefly.

First and foremost, I want to thank allof you who were able to make it to townfor our Centennial Celebration, whichincluded a full range of activities that tookplace April 25-28. Amongthe highlights were a spir-ited alumni roundtable dis-cussion, chaired admirablyby Todd Stephenson,Jennifer Loos, and SteveHolland; an engaging talkby author SimonWinchester; a celebratorydinner attended by some200 people; our annualJohn L. Rich lecture pre-sented by noted geochronologist SamuelBowring of MIT; a riverboat dinner cruise;and field trips. I hope that those of youattended enjoyed the opportunities toreconnect with faculty and old friends,and to get a sense firsthand of how weare doing. I know that many of you wereamazed to see a campus that is virtuallyunrecognizable if you haven’t been herein the last five years, let alone 48 years,which was the case for David Sommers(BS 1959). Many thanks to Warren Hufffor his tirelessness in overseeing theplanning for this wonderful event.

Our faculty, students, and alumni hadnumerous notable achievements andmilestones during the past year, many ofwhich are reported in Upper Crust. But Idid want to offer up a few highlights ofthe year, albeit in rapid-firefashion…...alumnus Thomas Klekampand his wife Amber established ournewest endowment fund, the Thomas C.and Amber W. Klekamp Student TravelFund to support the research travel ofundergraduate and graduate stu-

dents…….three members of our depart-ment received special recognition at thisyear’s McMicken College of Arts andSciences awards banquet, includingalumnus Steve Wells (M.S., 1973, Ph.D.1976), who received the College’sDistinguished Alumnus Award; CarlBrett, who received the McMickenDean’s award for Excellence in researchby a faculty member; and Byron Adams,who received the outstanding Master’sstudent award…… Ana Loñdono has

been awarded theCollege’s Neff Fellowship,given annually to an out-standing female graduatestudent……..Tom Algeoand Tom Lowell were bothrecipients of new researchgrants from the NationalScience Foundation at atime when funding for newinitiatives is difficult to

acquire at NSF……our graduate studentscontinue to publish in peer-reviewed jour-nals and receive external funding atimpressive rates; of particular note thisyear are the grants received by BeckyReverman from the Evolving EarthFoundation (plus several other grants toBecky), Jason Dortch from the MurieScience and Learning Center, and JayZambito form the PaleontologicalSociety. Along with his award, Jay wasinformed that his proposal was the high-est rated of 69 student proposalsreceived this year by theSociety…….Lewis Owen was promotedto full professor with tenure, an achieve-ment that was very well earned!

As noted last year, we have been work-ing actively to recruit new undergraduatemajors into Geology from the ranks ofthe incoming freshman class. For thefirst time this year, we offered a full-yearfreshman seminar sequence inIntroductory Geology, taught by CarlBrett, Craig Dietsch, and Lewis Owen.The sequence has limited enrollment,features a lot of face time with faculty

SP R I N G 2007

IN S I D E TH I S IS S U E

Letter from Dr. Miller,Department Head

Pages 1-2

Faculty & Staff NewsPages 2 - 11

Alumni/ae ReportsPages 13 - 32

Donor ListPage 25

2006 - 2007Colloquium Lecture

SeriesPage 32

Centennial CelebrationScrapbook

Pages 33 - 37

Student Publications &Presentations

Page 38

StudentTheses Defended

Page 39

Cont inued on page 2.

Thomas J. AlgeoA major focus of my research during the past three

years has been the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB).My goal is to better understand the underlying causesof this event horizon through multiproxy chemostrati-graphic analysis of key boundary sections in China,Vietnam, India, New Zealand, Canada, and elsewhere. Ialso have an NSF-funded project to apply new isotopicsystems (Mo, Os) to the Frasnian/Famennian andDevonian/Carboniferous boundaries. Folks interested inthese projects should visit my website: http://home-pages.uc.edu/~algeot/. Anyone interested in dis-cussing them can email me at: Thomas.Algeo@uc.edu n

Carlton E. Brett By all counts, 2006 was one of the most exciting and

rewarding years of my life. I continued studies ofDevonian cycles in Germany with colleagues from theSenckenberg Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. This hasresulted in a cooperative research program to docu-ment cycles and bioevents and compare them rigorous-ly with those in North America. I was one of three earthscientists, globally to receive an Alexander Humboldt

Research Prize at ceremonies held in Bamberg,Germany in March, 2006 and again in Berlin during earlyJuly. I did initial fieldwork on Devonian sequence stratig-raphy with colleagues from Senckenberg in March andcontinued that field study during a six-week stay inFrankfurt during July and August. During this time weestablished a cooperative working group to examine thesequence stratigraphy, microfacies faunal changes, andpalynofacies of the Middle Devonian succession in theEifel region, the Sauerland, and Kellerwald areas. Alarge number of samples collected for microfacies havebeen processed and are currently under study. This verygenerous award will permit me to make several furthertrips to Germany for further collaborative research.

My German colleagues and I also formulated plans toextend studies of sequence stratigraphy and bioeventsto the Lower to Middle Devonian of southwestMorocco. We received a National Geographic Grant todocument the taphonomy, stratigraphy, and paleoecolo-gy of world- famous Moroccan Devonian trilobite beds.I have recently returned from a fantastically interestingtrip to southwestern Morocco. Fifteen people partici-pated, including my New York colleagues, Gordon Baird,George McIntosh, former student Alex Bartholomew,

and upper-level students, and is heavily field-oriented.We advertised the sequence last summer with a lettersent to all incoming freshmen in Arts and Sciences, andwith brief presentations and picture-laden pamphletshanded out at freshman-orientations sessions.Although it is too early to fully assess how we did dur-ing the first year, I can already report that we saw moreinterest among students in becoming geology majorsthan we’ve seen in many years, including severaldeclared majors among the freshmen. For the comingyear, we will be tweaking things a little based on les-sons learned in the first year, but there already appearsto be little doubt that this is a valuable new addition toour curriculum.

Planning has begun to move forward for the 2009North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC),which we will be hosting on campus at UC. We havenow firmed up the actual dates of the meeting, June 20-26, 2009, and we have contacted a broad range of pale-ontological societies, as well as faculty at neighboringschools, about helping in the organization of the meet-ing. We look forward to a wide range of activities,including symposia devoted to cutting-edge topics suchas exopaleontology (the search for ancient life on otherplanets) and molecular paleobiology; a diverse roster offield trips; plenary sessions focused on commemoratingthe bicentennial of Charles Darwin’s birth and thesesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin ofSpecies; and a slate of “fun” activities, including a ban-

quet in the spectacular rotunda of the CincinnatiMuseum Center.

I am very pleased to report that, at the start of the aca-demic year, Kate Cosgrove came aboard as our depart-mental financial administrator. Given Kate’s acumenwith electronic management tools in general and, espe-cially, with the complex online accounting system thatUC now uses, the management of our financialresources is in very good hands. With Alice McDadenow well-ensconced as our graduate secretary, wehave a terrific front-office staff in place that will hopeful-ly carry us well into the future!

At the same time that he was working to plan theCentennial celebration, Warren was actively collectingmaterial for this year’s Upper Crust. Many thanks toWarren for everything he does to help us maintain con-tact with all of you, and to our graphic designer, TimPhillips, for putting this newsletter, as well as manyother items that play integral roles in our mission.

Even though our Centennial celebration is now behindus, I hope that many of you will still want to pay us avisit. Please don’t be scarce, and let us know if you areplanning to be in the area. And, if you are going to nextFall’s Geological Society of America meeting in Denver,please join us on Monday evening for our alumni party!Warm regards,Arnie Miller

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

Faculty & Staff News

Letter from Department Head (Continued)

2

now professor at SUNY New Paltz, present PhD stu-dent Jay Zambito, and Brenda Hanke and Glenn Storrsof the Cincinnati Museum Center, as well as colleaguesfrom Germany, and Morocco. This international collabo-ration and synthesis of many specialties produced unex-pected wealth of results. We have detailed data onnearly 1000 trilobites and have measured and correlat-ed five sections of strata over nearly 70kilometers. Fossil, rock and geochemicalcollections of nearly 600 lbs were retrievedand are being shipped to laboratories atCincinnati and Germany for further analy-ses. Beyond our expectations, new sec-tions were explored, resulting in discoveryof a large (~1 meter) head of a very ancientfossil arthrodire (armored fish) and the firstdiscovery of Devonian blastoids andedrioasteroids from northern Africa.

In a completely different realm ofresearch, we were very been busy withour SSETI project (Shelf and SlopeExperimental Taphonomy Initiative), a longterm team project on preservation pat-terns and processes in modern marineenvironments now coordinated, in part, byformer doctoral student Karla ParsonsHubbard of Oberlin). In 1993, we placed alarge number of replicate samples of gas-tropod and bivalve shells, sea urchins,crabs and various types of wood on thesea bottom at many locations along shal-low to deep transects at Lee StockingIsland, Bahamas and on the Louisiana andTexas shelf/slope in the Gulf of Mexico. InJanuary, 2006, aided by UC graduate stu-dents Austin Hendy and Chad Ferguson, we returned tore-sample Bahamas transect to after 13 years withcooperation from the RV Johnson Sea-Link, a mannedsubmersible run out of Harbor Branch Marine Labs inFlorida. Later, in August to September 2006, workingwith UC graduate students Kate Bulinski, Devin Buick,and Brad Deline, we returned to several sites in the Gulfof Mexico where, again working with the submersibleJohnson Sea-Link; in contrast to the extraordinary hurri-cane season of 2005, the Gulf was dead calm in 2006and we had unprecedented success, retrieving nearlyall of our sites and several that had been deployed even

earlier in 1991. We were stunned that our samplearrays at over 300’ in the Gulf had been tossed aroundby Hurricane Rita and by the discovery of a giant pillar ofmethanogenic carbonate akin to the Cretaceous TeepeeButtes of Colorado, studied by one of our colleagues(and former PhD student) Karla Parsons Hubbard. Alltold, we successfully retrieved and analyzed samples

from some 30 sites stations. Before the yearwas over we had processed nearly 3000 shellsfor evidence of encrustation and bioerosionyielding pver 200, 000 data points. The netresult: after 13 years on the sea bottom,exposed shallow water shells are more than100%encrusted and some are breaking downinto fragments; surprisingly, our shells belowabout 100 m are nearly as pristine as the daythey went down. We are in the process of ana-lyzing an enormous database ranging morethan a decade: by far the longest runningtaphonomic experiment of its kind.

In June 2006, with Arnie Miller and severalof our UC students, I attended the SecondInternational Paleontological Congress inBeijing, China. I also participated in field stud-ies of the Devonian in the spectacular towerkarst of Guilin and learned of more similaritiesof sea level and bioevents in yet another andfantastic venue. The meeting was very inter-esting and we even had a stroll on the famedGreat Wall.

Former graduate student Pat McLaughlin ,Warren Huff and I, are moving ahead withNSF funded research on Silurian sequencestratigraphy in eastern Laurentia . Especially

because of Pat’s extraordinary efforts we now havedetailed correlations of all Silurian drill cores and majoroutcrops in Ohio and in a number of sections inKentucky and Indiana. New bentonites have been iden-tified and are being processed. We are working to linkwith carbon isotopic studies of Brad Kramer and MattSaltzmann at Ohio State University and through thisjoint work we are moving toward intercontinental corre-lations with classic sections in Great Britain andGotland, Sweden.

On other fronts I am working on Cambrian cycles andtrilobite taphonomy in Utah with student Tony Kramer in

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

3

Carl Brett on lecturing onCentennial Field Trip.

....discovery of alarge head of a

very ancient fossil arthrodire(armored fish)....”

“

Utah. In May I worked with Tony in the Drum Mountainson linking paleontology of cycles with gamma ray andmagnetosusceptibility studies with geophysicists SueHalgedahl and Rich Garrard of University of Utah. Wesqueezed in a good deal and learned a lot. I am wrap-ping up work on taphofacies of Jurassic ammonite bedsin England with Peter Allison. We are bringing these oldprojects to closure and have already submitted a coupleof papers on these topics.

Several graduate students also brought their projectsto closure and are off to new lives. Pat McLaughlin, whodefended his dissertation in May has had a temporaryteaching position (filling in for another former student,Jeff Trop, already on sabbatical!) at Bucknell Universitybut has recently accepted a permanent position asPaleozoic stratigrapher for the Wisconsin GeologicalSurvey.

Alex Bartholomew completed and defended his dis-sertation on Devonian sequence stratigraphy and pale-oecology; he also accepted a tenure track position atState University College of New York at New Paltzwhere he seems to be flourishing.

Sean Cornell, also intending to finish a dissertation onOrdovician basin analysis soon, is in a first year of atenure track professorship at Pennsylvania StateUniversity at Shippensburg, PA.

Jessica Bazeley, who will soon complete her mastersthesis, accepted a position as assistant collections man-ager at Yale’s Peabody Museum. And PhD studentAustin Hendy, who is jointly advised by Arnie Miller and

myself, has just accepted a two-year post-doc at Yale,as well. Mike DeSantis will finish his PhD this year andhe will then have an NSF post-doc with Warren Huff andmyself.

New PhD students Jay Zambito and Brad Deline arealso making good headway. Jay just received word thathis grant proposal, submitted to the PaleontologicalSociety, was judged the best of all 69 proposals thisyear. Masters thesis candidate, Tony Kramer received atwo-year fellowship for K-12 teaching internshipthrough the STRP program, an NSF sponsored programto enhance high school education in science and engi-neering. Tony has made good headway in developingcreative methods for teaching science in secondaryschools. New masters student Trisha Smrecak is work-ing on an exciting project that will bridge our studies ofmodern encrusters in the SSETI project with those ofOrdovician fossils in the Cincinnati area. All in all, Icouldn’t be more thrilled with the success of our out-standing students. n

Carl E. Brett - Publications 2006-2007PAPERS

Bartholomew, A.J., Brett, C.E., DeSantis, M., Baird, G.C. and Tsujita, C., 2006. Sequence stratigraphy of the MiddleDevonian succession in eastern North America. Northeastern Geology and Environmental Science, v. 28, p. 2-33.

Brett, C.E. 2006. Index Fossils. McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

Brett, C.E. and Ray, D.R. 2006. Sequence and event stratigraphy of Silurian strata of the Cincinnati Arch region:correlations with New York-Ontario successions. Proceedings of the McCoy Symposium (2nd InternationalSymposium on the Silurian System). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria v.117-2: 175-198.

Brett, C.E., Allison, P.A., Tsujita, C.J., Soldani, D., and Moffat, H., 2006. Sedimentology, taphonomy, and paleoe-cology of meter-scale cycles from the Upper Ordovician of Ontario. Palaios,v. 21, p. 530-547.

Bonelli, J. R. Jr., Brett, C.E., Miller, A.I., and Bennington, J.B., 2006. Testing for faunal stability across a regionalbiotic transition: Quantifying stasis and variation among recurring coral biofacies in the Middle Devonian AppalachianBasin. Paleobiology, v. 32 (1): 20-37.

Ellwood, B., Brett, C.E.,Tomkin, J.,and MacDonald,W.D. 2007. Magnetostratigraphy susceptibility of the UpperOrdovician Kope Formation, northern Kentucky. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 210:295-329.

McLaughlin, P.I. and Brett, C.E. 2006. Widespread soft-sediment deformation horizons in Lower Silurian strata ofthe Appalachian basin: distal signature of orogeny. GFF, Geological Society of Sweden, v. 128 (2): 169-172.

Sumrall, C., Brett, C.E., and Cornell, S. 2006. The systematics and ontogeny of Pyrgopostibulla belli, a new edrioas-teroid (Echinodermata) from Lower Devonian of New York. Journal of Paleontology.

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

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Brett (Continued)

Do you have any recollections of field trips, social events,classroom experiences or other experiences during your UC

days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues?Send them to Warren D. Huff, Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincinnati,

45221 and we’ll include them in next year’s issue.

Madeleine BriskinHello Everyone!

It was good to visit with you all during the centennial!MY very best wishes for a great summer.

Until next time.Au Revoir n

Sandi CannellFor those of you who missed talking to me in the

Department, I retired last June. I have been very busysince then. Mostly enjoying myself. Don and I spendtime every month at our cabin near Lake Cumberlandwhere life is peaceful and very relaxing. Don enjoys get-ting away from work and I enjoy winding down from all ofmy volunteer activities. I can be seen answering ques-tions at the Flying Pig Marathon, judging costumes at theJingle Bell Run, serving Saturday Morning breakfast formy church group, delivering lunch on legs Over-the-Rhine,or playing my Dulcimer at Bethesda North Hospital. Ibelong to the Cincinnati Dulcimer Society and the Hills ofKentucky Dulcimer Society. We play all over town. Irecently saw geology students at the Natural HistoryMuseum when I played for their Appalachian DaysFestival and hope to see more of you at the AppalachianFestival at Coney Island.

The following article appeared in the recent issue ofDulcimer Doin’s:

While on vacation last summer Don and I were travelingsouth on I-75 south of Berea, Kentucky when we came

Carl E. Brett - Publications 2006-2007PAPERS (continued)

Tsujita, C.J. and Brett, C.E., Topor, M. and Topor, J. 2006. Evidence of high-frequency storm disturbance in theMiddle Devonian Arkona Shale, southwestern Ontario. Journal of Taphonomy 4 (2): 49-68.

Ver Straeten, C.A. and Brett, C.E., 2006. Pragian to Eifelian strata (Middle Lower to Lower Middle Devonian), northernAppalachian basin--Stratigraphic nomenclatural changes. Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences, v. 28, p. 80-95.

Guidebook Articles:

Brett, C.E., McLaughlin, P.I., Jacobi, R.D., 2006.Silurian sequence stratigraphy, events, and paleoenvironments alongthe cratonic margin of the Appalachian foreland. 290-353. In Jacobi, R. (ed.), Field Trip Guidebook, New York StateGeological Association, 78th Annual Meeting, Buffalo, NY.

Baird, G.C., Kirchgasser, W.T., Over, D.J. & Brett, C.E., 2006, Middle – Upper Devonian depositional and biotic eventsin western New York. 128-164, In Jacobi, R. (ed.), Field Trip Guidebook, New York State Geological Association, 78thAnnual Meeting, Buffalo, NY.

Baird, G.C., Kirchgasser, W.T., Over, D.J. & Brett, C.E., 2006, An early Late Devonian bone bed-pelagic limestone suc-cession: The North Evans-Genundewa limestone story. 354-395, In Jacobi, R. (ed.), Field Trip Guidebook, New YorkState Geological Association, 78th Annual Meeting, Buffalo,

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Prof. Carl Brett & Alex Barthlomew (PhD ’07)

upon a tragic accident. All south bound lanes of I-75 hadbeen closed while fire fighters were putting out the fire ofa motor home (there were no personal injuries).

There were two young children in the van in front ofus and I could see they were getting restless as wewere speaking to their father. To make the best of a ter-rible situation I got out my dulcimer and started playingchildren’s songs. The children and I sang songs until itwas time to move on! n

Craig DietschThe past year has been full of India, teaching, good times

with Dream Team II, and other happenings. In June 2006,I was already back in India with Lewis Owen, my graduatestudents Becky Reverman and Byron Adams, Lewis’ stu-

dents JasonDortch and SarahLaxton, andLewis’s colleaguefrom MontanaState, Ulli Kamp.We spent a weekin Ladakh exploringthe Indus SutureZone whereblueschists andultra-high pressurerocks of the TsoMoriri CrystallineComplex (subduct-ed to over 100 kilo-meters!) are

exposed and Tso (Lake) Moriri itself, which occupies aNeogene extensional basin. More days were spent inLahul with Byron, hiking up side valleys off the ChandraRiver to collect more samples for (U-Th)/He apatite ther-mochronology. Hiking far into the Kulti Valley was particu-larly enjoyable with wonderful, Hobbit-esque scenery. Theoutcomes for this trip were several.

Byron completed his M.S. degree — he successfullydefended in late May. Byron research was truly ground-breaking for the Department: he was the first to combine

apatite thermochronology with cosmogenic surface expo-sure dating of strath terraces. His data constrain the exhu-mation history of Lahul and make an important contribu-tion to our understanding of landscape evolution there.Byron’s thesis was recognized by McMicken College asthe Most Outstanding M.S. Thesis. Congratulations,Byron!

Becky is going to focus her research on the P-T-t evolu-tion of the ductile Zildat shear zone and the brittle RibilFault that likely control the exhumation of blueschists ofthe Indus Suture Zone and control formation of the TsoMoriri dome (Becky’s creative ideas). We are going backto India in just a few days with the second running of theGeology of the Himalaya field course: we will be sevenundergraduates, three graduates, and faculty colleaguesfrom Purdue and Mexico. Come join us in 2009. Myteaching highlight was a spring break fieldtrip to NewEngland. We were in NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, and VT seeingevidence in the rocks for the Taconic, Acadian, andAlleghenian orogenies. Camping at Promised Land StatePark in northeastern PA in 20 inches of snow and a night-time temperature of -6 degrees Farenheit was…cold(wonderful stars, too).

The Department’s Centennial was great – thanks toArnie Miller for asking me to introduce Simon Winchesterfor his talk which led to spending the afternoon andevening with Simon — a great bloke, as they say. Also,thanks to Warren Huff for inviting Sam Bowring of MIT togive the John L. Rich Lecture talk during the Centennial. Ilearned that Bowring’s lab is producing accurate U-Pb zir-cons ages as young as 600,000 years! Incredible.Collaborating with Sam to date young monazites fromLadakh is an important part of our latest proposal to NSF.

This summer I’ll be separating apatite from samples col-lected in Ladakh as part of my University Research CouncilSummer Faculty Fellowship. I’ll be teaching a new tecton-ics, mineralogy, and petrology course for majors in theirsecond-ish year in the fall – don’t worry, we will look at 100thin sections. n

Markus FuchsDr. Markus Fuchs is an assistant professor of geology

at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and is spendingthe year on a post-doc leave with support from the MaxKade Foundation to work with Lewis Owen. Markuswrites:

Coming from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, Istarted my one-year sabbatical in the GeologyDepartment at UC in March 2007. The overall supportfrom the faculty, staff and students of the departmentmade it possible that a 'European Freshman' like mecould easily find his place in this extremely enjoyableatmosphere of the 'New World'.

Together with Prof. Owen, several projects arealready in progress, all dealing with the temporal deter-mination of environmental change during the young

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

6

Craig Dietsch with students in the Himalayas.

Sandi Cannell entertaining distress travelers on 75.

Cannell (Continued)

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

Quaternary. InCalifornia, the Santa-Barbara project dealswith the reconstruc-tion of recent faultactivity and its effectupon topographicdevelopment. Basedupon optical stimulat-ed luminescence,sediments that were

redistributed due tofault activity are being dated to constrain the timing offault movement. Also situated in California, but in thesemi-desert environment of the Saline Valley, pulses ofalluvial fan activity can tell stories about past climateconditions, which lead to a better understanding of cli-mate change and its driving forces. To date alluvial fanactivity, surface exposure dating is applied using thecosmogenic nuclide 10Be. A third project located inPanama deals again with the determination of faultactivity using luminescence dating techniques. Here,knowledge about past fault activity in the vicinity of thenewly build Panama Canal is of great importance for theCanal's safety. n

Warren HuffTeaching

This year I have continued to teach two courses per quar-ter plus I have added a third, distance learning (DL) sectionsof Geol. 101-102-103. The DL course began with 30 regis-tered students and has grown to 90 in 103. The workloadturns out to be non-trivial, but I attribute some of that to abeginner’s learning curve. In addition to podcasting myclass lectures, I have worked very successfully with thesoftware folks in the FTRC to enable audiovisual communi-cation during evening online live chat sessions.

ResearchI continue as co-PI on a NSF grant with Carl Brett: High

resolution sequence and event stratigraphy of mid Silurianstrata in eastern Laurentia and Avalonia: 2005-2008. Thatproject is moving along well with some assistance from PatMcLaughlin and Mike DeSantis. I have several publicationsto report for the past year and the citations are listed below,including several in press manuscripts.

I have two PhD students workingunder my supervision, OzlemToprak and Brian Nicklen. Ozlemis making good progress in herresearch and she expects tocomplete her work this year.Brian has tackled a researchproject focusing on zircon agedating of Guadalupian ben-tonites from the MarathonBasin. There are three GSSPswith very poor age control inthat section. Our plan is forBrian to learn to do the age datinghimself in Scott Samson’s lab atSyracuse. In preparation for thisBrian attended a short course ongeochronology at Oxford (UK) lastsummer.

ServiceAt the department level, I continue as alumni liaison and

editor of our annual newsletter. This role included my par-ticipation in working with the Geography Department inplanning the centennial celebration covered elsewhere inthis issue. I also serve on the Undergraduate PolicyCommittee.

At the college level I am a member of the A&S DistanceLearning Committee (still with ad hoc status but destined tobecome a standing committee in the fall).

At the university level I serve on the Blackboard AdvisoryCommittee (VP Fred Siff, Chair), The Great BeginningsSteering Committee (ICL) (Pamela Person, Chair) and theCET&L Advisory Committee (Wayne Hall, Chair).

At the professional level I am serving a three-year term assecretary for the Clay Minerals Society. I am an associateeditor of Clays & Clay Minerals and also of AmericanMineralogist. In addition, I was a co-presenter at GSA lastfall, along with Tom Olszewski (Texas A&M), of aPaleontological Society s h o r t c o u r s e e n t i t l e d , Recent Developments in Geochronology.

7

Professor Huff introducingUC President Nancy

Zimpher at CentennialCelebration.

Visiting Professor Markus Fuchs.

Huff (Continued)PublicationsHuff, W.D., 2006, Volcanism and its Contribution toMudrock Genesis: Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences, V. 15,p. 111-122.

Su Wen-Bo, Li Zhi-ming, Shi Xiao-ying, Zhou Hong-rui,Huang Si-ji, Liu Xiao-ming, Chen Xiao-yu, Zhang, Ji-en, YangHong-mei, Jia Liu-jing, Huff, W.D., and Ettensohn, F.R.,2006, K-bentonites and black shales from the Wufeng-Longmaxi formations (Early Paleozoic, South China) andXiamaling formation (Early Neoproterozoic, North China) –implications for tectonic processes during two importanttransitions: Earth Science Frontiers, v. 13, No. 6, p. 82-95.

Huff, W.D., Bergström, S.M. andKolata, D.R., in press, Ordovicianexplosive volcanism: In: Finney,S.C. and Berry, W. (Eds.) Earth sys-tem during the Ordovician Period:Geological Society of AmericaSpecial Paper.

Bergström, S.M., Schmitz, B.,Saltzman, M.R., and Huff, W.D., inpress, The Upper OrdovicianGuttenberg ‰13C excursion (GICE)in North America and Baltoscandia:Occurrence, chronostratigraphicsignificance and paleoenvironmen-tal relationships: In: Finney, S.C. and Berry, W. (Eds.) Earthsystem during the Ordovician Period: Geological Society ofAmerica Special Paper.

Huff, W.D., in press, Ordovician K-bentonites: Issues ininterpreting and correlating ancient tephras: QuaternaryInternational. n

J. Barry MaynardTwo big efforts this year -- sulfur isotopes as tracers

of the Archean atmosphere and sources of lead in drink-ing water. On the sulfur isotope project, I've been work-ing with a group at the Carnegie (see photo) analyzingthe 33 and 36 isotopes of sulfur from Archean paleosolsusing laser fluorination. The analysis is exacting (I cando 4 or 5 a day), but we now have a robust data set andare writing up the results. We consistently see mass-

independent Sin the ancientsoils, indicativeof an oxygen-free atmos-phere, whichwe expected,but also withc o n s i s t e n t l ynegative "capdelta" values,telling us thatthe S is trans-ferred from theatmosphere to

the soil as sulfate.

For Pb in drinking water, DavidMast of Physics and I are finish-ing up a big project on relativecontributions of plumbing compo-nents. It turns out that brassfaucets and water meters can besignificant sources of Pb. Typicalbrass has 4 or 5 % Pb as separateinclusions. As the brass corrodes,these Pb "pockets" are releasedat irregular intervals to give highPb detects in water samples (see

backscatter SEM image -- the bright white spots aremetallic Pb). n

Dave MeyerFirst, the really big news of the year for me! On

March 4, 2007, Kani and I became the proud grandpar-ents of Bailey Jonathan Meyer, born in Brooklyn, NY, toEmilou and Ross! We visited during spring break andthey were home for two weeks in May. He is such agreat joy to us! Back to last June, when I expected toteach a course for our new Masters of TeachingScience program, and stayed in Cincinnati when manyfrom the paleo group journeyed to China for the bigpaleo conference. It turned out the class had insuffi-cient enrollment to be taught, so I used the time towork on the Cincinnatian book. Progress has steadily

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

8

S isotope group at the Carnegie Labs.

Section of a brass faucet with Pb blebs.

The GeologyDepartment’s

own MikeMenard –

InstrumentationSpecialist, rid-

ing his hog withfriends.

Warren Huff performing atthe 2006 holiday dinner.

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

continued through the year, and Richard Davis and I arehoping to turn it over to the publishers this summer. Ialso had time for fieldwork with Ben Dattilo on ourRafinesquina research, so it was back to StonelickCreek, one of the best natural outcrops in the regionwhere so many exciting discoveries have been made inthe Cincinnatian. The results of our work were present-ed at a poster session this past April at a regional GSAmeeting in Lawrence, Kansas, and also to Dry Dredgersin May. The Dredgers are always a helpful and criticalaudience for anything about the local fossils!

During the Autumn quarter I taught Age of Dinosaursand helped lead the 4-Day Fieldtrip with a great day onLake Cumberland. In the Winter quarter I organizedPaleoseminar around the diverse works of DolfSeilacher, and got quite a lot of work done on the book.It was wonderful to see many alumni and friends of theDepartment for the Centennial. We now begin planningfor NAPC in 2009. This Spring I have had my two sec-tions of Coral Reefs. This summer I will be returning toCuraçao for the Miami Univ. coral reef ecology coursewith one of our students as well as helping grad studentLiz Dame with her Diadema research. I am look-ing forward to our Maine trip in August, and somegood boating! n

Arnie MillerYes, yes, I know that year after year, I keep mentioning

Principles of Paleontology, 3rd Edition, co-authored withMichael Foote (University of Chicago), but I promise thatthis will be the last year, because it has been PUBLISHED(August 2006, but with a 2007 copyright, W.H. Freemanand Company). The end game was quite something, and Ilearned a lot about the book business, which is very differ-ent from publishing research papers. Remarkably, we wentfrom finalization of our manuscript all the way to a printedbook in about five months, and this involved everythingfrom copy editing, to drafting of artwork, to acquisition ofphotos and copyright permissions, to assembly of “frontmatter” (fancy trade lingo for table of contents, preface,etc.) and ‘back matter” (glossary, index, etc)., to assemblyof galley proofs, to multiple rounds of corrections on every-thing, etc. I shudder to think about how long all of thiswould have taken without the modern tools available forelectronic publication and communication, but it’s all done!

I’ve actually started working on another book (NOT a text-book), but, this time, I think I’ll refrain from discussing it untilit is published…….

Last year, I mentioned a set of developing collaborationswith colleagues in China, and a then-impending trip toChina, to chair a symposium on Geobiodiversity at the June2006 International Paleontological Convention (IPC) inChina. The meeting was terrific, and the symposium wentquite well, including a plenary presentation by Carl Brett,along with 1.5-days worth of talks from a broadly interna-tional contingent. All of my graduate students presentedtalks at IPC, and we then traveled to Nanjing, at the invita-

tion of Chinese paleontologist Rong Jia-Yu, where I present-ed a lecture on the study of Phanerozoic diversity trends tocolleagues and students at the Nanjing Institute of Geologyand Paleontology (I don’t know whether it was any good,but I can safely say that it was the lengthiest talk of mylife…). We also had a very nice roundtable discussion atNanjing about the Ordovician Radiation, during which sev-eral Chinese colleagues presented summaries to us of theirrecent findings, and this now appears to be leading tomeaningful collaboration. A grant proposal to fund thebeginning of this work has been submitted by my colleagueFan Junxuan to the National Science Foundation of China;we will be exploring ways to acquire American funding aswell. In the meantime, our manuscript for the GeologicalJournal on the history of marine biodiversity in South China,mentioned last year, is now in press.

My graduate students are progressing very well, and theycontinue to inspire me with their remarkable creativity andenergy. Austin Hendy (co-advised by Carl Brett) and ChadFerguson are nearing completion of their Ph.D. degrees,and have several papers published, in press, or acceptedpending final revisions. Next September, Austin, who hasfocused mainly on the Cenozoic history of biodiversity inthe New Zealand region and beyond, will be moving to YaleUniversity; he has been awarded the Gaylord Donnelleypostdoctoral position in the Institute for Biospheric Studies.As of this writing, Chad, who is working on the use ofthe subfossil record in coastal marine settings to diag-nose recent anthropogenic changes, is interviewing fortwo different academic positions for next year. KateBulinski is progressing well on her Ph.D., which isfocused on the assessment of numerical properties ofcommunities and their relationship to the diagnosis ofbroader scale, global transitions in biodiversity. Kate iscurrently revising her first peer-reviewed paper basedon this work (we anticipate that the paper will beaccepted after minor revision), and she just published another paper based on a side project conducted atFriday Harbor marine labs on aspects of the behavioral ecology of hermit crabs. Devin Buick is really pushing the outside of the analytical envelope in his ongoing Ph.D. research on the history of the

9

Arnie Miller, Master of Ceremonies at the

Centennial Celebration

Miller (Continued)prolific bivalve genus Cucullaea. He is developing anentirely new set of methods to analyze and, especially,to visualize morphological variation in ways that far tran-scend Cucullaea; these methods are likely to inspire awide spectrum of paleontologists and biologists whoare interested in the morphological variations of individ-uals.

Vanessa has completed her first year at Tufts University,where she wants to major in economics, even after discov-ering that she will have to use Calculus from time to time insome of her work. She is also a member of the Women’sbasketball team and was getting significant playing timeuntil she blew out her knee in the fifth game of season.She is well on the road to recovery from ACL reconstruc-tion surgery, however, and should be cleared to play in timefor fall practice. Nate just completed tenth grade, whichincluded AP courses in U.S. History and Latin, and he is cur-rently learning to drive (!!). Mary Jo’s work as a schoolsocial worker in the Cincinnati Public School system is evolving to include an increasing role as an advocate for thegrowing number of Spanish-speaking families in the sys-tem. Given her background, this is work that she finds par-ticularly interesting and rewarding. Chico (our Jack RussellTerrier) continues to chase the squirrels, not to mention thegentlemen who are currently ripping up our street whilst putting in new gas pipelines. n

David NashNash gratefully handed over the mantle of Director of

Graduate Studies to Barry Maynard this year. He workedwith Mike Menard to set up our new beautifully-equippedcomputer lab with PCs and Macs in Room 601. DespiteNash’s reticence about foreign travel to non “American-speaking” countries, in July, 2006 he traveled to Peru tovisit his doctoral student, Ana Londoñ, near Moquegua inextreme southern Peru. On his way to Moquegua, Nashmade a side trip to visit Machu Picchu (see photograph )andthe Inca structures around Cusco. He was amazed by theworkmanship and scale of the stonework atSacsayhuaman. As described in his “blurb” in last year’snewsletter, Ana is studying and modeling the erosion ofpre-Columbian agricultural terraces (see accompanyingphotograph) in the hyper-arid environment of southern Peru(immediately adjacent to the Atacama desert). Nash saysthe experience has opened his eyes to true aridity and thatthe Mojave desert is a veritable jungle in comparison.

So many alums and friends of the department havestopped by to say “Hey!” to Nash during their visits to thedepartment that he is afraid to list them for fear he will mor-tally offend by omitting someone. He was very touchedand proud that so many of his former and present graduatestudents made it to the department’s centennial. JimBeaujon, Rick Bullard, Kris Fields, Bruce Patterson, andMary Riestenberg all attended the festivities.

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

Ms. Ana Cristina Londoño,doctoral student in geomor-

phology, at the foot of anInca terrace (c. 500 years

old). Ana is measuring andmodeling erosion rates on

pre-Columbian agriculturalterraces in Southern Peru.

(Photo above) Machu Picchu, intriguing Inca ruins in the Peruvian Andes.

10

Nash (Continued)

During the coming academic year, Nashwill work with Ana and Rick to finish theirdoctoral degrees. He is also looking for-ward to Geomorphology once again beingpart of the required undergraduate curricu-lum for geology majors (and increasingfrom 3 to 4 credit hours to boot!). n

Lewis OwenLewis Owen continued his research on

the Quaternary geology and geomorpholo-gy of tectonically active mountain beltsand their forelands during the 2006-2007academic year. This involved fieldwork innorthern India, Tibet, the Atlas Mountains,the Scotish Isles and the western USA. Hereceived a grant from the NSF to hold aworkshop on mountain glaciation andlandscape evolution in Tibet, whichinvolved a field excursion across theTibetan Plateau during September 2006.Some of his research in the western USAwas partially support by the NationalEarthquake Hazard Reduction Program. This work involvesexamining slip rates for the central and southern SanJacinto Fault Zone, southern California to assess the role ofthis fault in deformation along the San Andreas transformplate boundary. During 2006-2007, Lewis published nineresearch papers appearing in the Journal of the GeologicalSociety, London, the Geological Society of America Bulletin,Quaternary International, Quaternary Science Reviews, andthe Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Copiesof some of these papers can be seen on his website athttp://www.uc.edu/geology/faculty/owen.html. n

Paul PotterAnother busy year, just as I like it. This year I took one

trip to Brazil to work on a paper with a researcher fromPETROBRAS, to keep up my Portuguese, to visitfriends and to relax. Here in the U.S. I attended twomeetings of the American Association of PetroleumGeologists (the national meeting in Houston and thesectional meeting in Buffalo) and started some carbon-ate research on the Mississippian Salem – St. Louis

Limestones along the CumberlandRiver in western Kentucky withmembers of the Kentucky andIllinois Geological Surveys. I pub-lished “Big Rivers Worldwide” withKenneth Hamblin of Brigham YoungUniversity in Provo, Utah, and alsothe second edition of “Exploring theGeology of the Cincinnati/NorthernKentucky Region.” The Big Riversvolume was published by theBrigham Young University Press andthe Cincinnati/Northern Kentuckyvolume by the Kentucky GeologicalSurvey. The “Exploring” volume hasbeen my major task for the last twoyears.

In addition, at the suggestion of col-leagues at the Kentucky GeologicalSurvey, I bought a Garmin GPSreceiver and have been going aroundKentucky obtaining the longitudeand latitude of the many field pic-tures I have taken of Kentucky since

the 1960’s. These are to be added as a separate layerto the digital version of the more than seven hundredgeologic quadrangle maps that cover Kentucky. The isa good example of a “fun project that serves a mostuseful purpose.”

In the coming 2007-2008 school year I want to finisha paper on global Miocene tectonic events, publish thestudy of the Mississippian limestones on theCumberland River, finish a paper on small valleys in thecoastal escarpment in Brazil and, with Barry Maynardand Warren Huff, publish our “Timeline forMudstones,” a history of the study of and the contribu-tors to mudstone research in the late 1500’s. I am alsohelping Barry and Mark Bowers of the UC College ofEngineering complete a treatise on ores in mudstones.

I much appreciate the support of both the departmentand the University for these opportunities. n

Paul Potter received the ”Best Unpaid Employee“award of the Kentucky Geological Survey for 2007!

Paul Potter addressing Centennialcelebrants.

F a c u l t y & S t a f f

11

T H E G E O L O G I C A L S O C I E T Y O F A M E R I C A

ANNUAL MEETING & EXPOSITIONO c t o b e r 2 8 t h - 3 1 s t , 2 0 0 7

D e n v e r C o l o r a d o

UC Alumni Reception Monday Oct. 29th, 7:00-9:30pm

Look for a postcard with further information Flag of Denver, Colorado

M A R K YO U R C A L E N DA R S !

12

Which of your UC professors had the mostprofound effect upon your education? Give

us a few anecdotes and we’ll include them innext year’s issue.

T h e D E P A R T M E N T o f G E O L O G YG E O L O G Y C L U B M E R C H A N D I S E

T-SHIRT design on front

design on back

Glass & Mug design

WH I L E SU P P L I E S LA S T!

Centennial Etched Pint Glass - $7Centennial Coffe Mug - $5XL White UC Geology T-Shirt - $12Shipping only $5!

N a m e

A d d r e s s

e m a i l

p h o n e

C a l l p r o c e e d s b e n e f i t t h e U n i v e r s i t y o fC i n c i n n a t i G e o l o g y C l u b

P l e a s e s e n d c h e c k o r m o n e y o r d e r t o :

University of Cincinnati Geology Club500 Geology/Physics BuildingUniversity of CincinnatiCincinnati, OH 45221-0013

DR. E. LUCY BRAUN Crusader for Conservation

1889 - 1971Between 1910-14, she earned an undergraduate degree,

a master’s degree in geology and a Ph. D. in botany at UC.She also taught geology, botany and ecology at UC until1948, when she retired to devote more time to research.

The first woman president of the Ecology Society ofAmerica, a Natural Areas Bill passed in the OhioLegislature in 1970 incorporatig many of her ideas. Shealso led efforts to acquire and preserve many natural areasin Ohio.

Dr. Braun lived her entire lifewith her elder sister, AnnetteBraun, the first woman to earna doctorate at UC in 1911 inzoology. The Braun sisterslived in Walnut Hills, then inthe 1940’s moved to MountWashington surrounded byundisturbed natural woods.

Dr, Braun climbingMt. Shasta sometime

in the 1920’s

John “Cliff” Lee (MS ‘79)The following announcement appeared in the

Cincinnati Enquirer on January 18, 2007:

John Clifford Hodges Lee III, known to all asCliff, passed away Sunday night in a suddenway, at 56. (see 20 for complete annouce-ment).

I N M E M O R I A M

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A l u m n i / a e R e p o r t s

14

Aureal T. Cross (MS ‘41, PhD ‘43)Aureal completed his Masters in 1941 and a PhD thesis

in 1943 at the University of Cincinnati with J. H. Hoskins onPennsylvanian age plants from coal-balls. Aureal replacedK. E. Caster, his paleontology mentor, for three and one halfyears (1946–1949) in the UC Geology Department, and didfield mapping for the Ohio Geological Survey during thesummers.

A special collection in honor of of Aureal T. Cross entitled,Biography of Aureal T. Cross: World class coal geologist,palynologist, paleobotanist and educator, by Tom L. Phillips,University of Illinois, appeared in the International Journal ofCoal Geology http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/5867-2007-999309998-638542 Volume 69, Issues 1-2,Pages 1-118 (2 January 2007), edited by Cortland Eble v. 69(2007) pp. 1–20.

Cornelia Kline Riley (BS ‘58)Hi Warren,

Congratulations on one of the more interesting UpperCrust issues. I am particularly fascinated by the SeminarSeries (171...) to teach feet-on-the-ground, hands-on-the-outcrop geology. All too often I was more spirituallyenriched than intellectually instructed when faced witheven simple sequences. The logistics of the course wouldchallenge many, but after noting what great campers yourstudents were last fall, I am sure that even the lesser adapt-able will fall in line - or fall out. Best wishes to Sandi.

I found this old photo of Dan Sass and myself from a field-trip circa 1957. Humorousexperience? I do not recall oneoffhand, but on one fieldtripsomeone lost the keys to hiscar. Instantly Mathew (Sam)MacLeid shimmied under thedashboard to hot wire the igni-tion. I had to suppress laughterwhen the keys were found -the look on Sam's face wasone of supreme disappoint-ment. Sam was my hero; hecould fix anything.

Regards to all,Lolly

F.D. “Bud” Holland, Jr. (PhD ’58)As many people know, I have taken over from the late

Jim Parks the task of editing his book on the life of our advi-sor at KU (before he went to Wisconsin in 1948), DocLaudon. Hurrah!! It is being published by the University ofWisconsin-Madison and will be available at the GSA meet-ing this fall. Look for Bushels of Fossils (The Influential Life

of Lowell Robert Laudon (1905-1993)). It’s full of anecdotesof the adventures of this popular and fun-loving prof whileteaching at Tulsa, KU and UW and on the numerous relatedfield trips. This is a good read for any stratigrapher or pale-ontologist.

In addition, since I retired in 1989 I have been workingmuch of the time on Cretaceous shark teeth from NorthDakota with two more learned former students. Also,Mardi and I drove with son Del to Alaska in July 2004 andtook a cruise up the Inland Passage to Alaska in July 2005to celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary. In late Octoberwe will attend the reunion of my WWII destroyer-minesweeper shipmates, as we do each year.

Fred Schwartz (BA ‘59)Hi Warren-

We are going to be in Cincinnati in March, but we aregoing to miss the Centennial in April. We will be going onto D.C. and the east Coast. I recently came across a bit ofUC Geology memorabilia and thought that the Departmentmight like to have it for its archives.

I don’t know who did the collage, or how I wound up withit. It was done in the late 1950’s

Here is a pix and my recollection of who’s who.

Middle left and right might be Mark Schweinfurth (?). Ialso recognize my own rear end (BS1959) in the picture justbelow the Flexicalymene meeki. Left center is Irv Bass (BS~1955) with the chimp who resided in the museum. Lowerleft is Harvey Sundermann and Dick Durrell and also pix ofHarvey? and (unknown) taking pictures of each. On the leftis Ken Caster, with one of his teaching assistants. I thinkthat the character in the top right cartoon is supposed to beDick Durrell leading a road crossing.

Fritz

40’s

50’s

Cornelia Kline (Lolly) Rileyand Dan Sass, circa 1957.

Bob French (MS ‘61)Hi Warren,

It was good to catch up with you last week and I hopethat all is well at UC. After our conversation I was snowedin at Golden and spent a couple of days at the USGS library,which was very worthwhile. As mentioned, our companyGTL Energy Ltd. (Adelaide, South Australia) is interested inbeneficiating low rank coal, mostly lignites from NorthDakota, Texas and New Zealand. Each has unique proper-ties and special issues to consider. Re the coal processing,we recently received our second patent, the third PatentApplication is being reviewed by the USPO and we hope tosubmit a fourth within the month, all are assigned to ourAustralian parent company.

Shall look forward to visiting with you at the next GSAmeeting. We live about 75 miles north of Denver but Ispend time in Golden where the Hazen labs are located.Perhaps you would care to visit if you have any spare timeafter GSA?

Best regards,Bob

John Pojeta (PhD ‘63)CASTER AWARDS

At the 2006 GSA meetings, several of us decided toestablish a CASTER FUND under the general umbrella ofthe Centennial Fund of the Paleontological Society (PS).The Society will celebrate its centennial in 2008, and by thetime of the GSA meeting in that year, PS hopes to raise$250,000 to support student research. Within theCentennial Fund, named funds can be established. If anamed fund reaches $10,000, one of the student awardswill be called by that name. Each $5,000 above the $10,000results in an additional student award being called by thatname.

As of May 9, 2007, the Caster Fund reached $14,800. Inaddition a pledge of $1,000 has been made. Thus, in 2008,there will be two Caster Student Awards. The moniescame from 28 contributors and ranged from $50 to $2,000.

We encourage all students, friends, and colleagues whoremember Ken and Annie to add to the Caster Fund to seeif we can reach $20,000 and have three Caster StudentAwards. Please send contributions and pledges to: MarkPatzkowsky, PS Treasurer, Department of Geosciences,506 Deike Bldg., Pennsylvania State University, UniversityPark, Pennsylvania 16802, U.S.A. brachio@geosc.psu.edu.The PS is a non-profit corporation registered under Section501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

John Pojeta, Jr. pojetaj@si.edu

http://www.paleo.geos.vt.edu/SJG/Caster.html

Henry “Hank” Schoch (BA ‘66)Dear Warren:

Thanks for sending The Upper Crust. It’s great to hear towhat’s going on around the Department and to catch up onthe whereabouts and doings of old acquaintances. As forme, I’m well into my second retirement now, following tenyears of employment as a production planner for a cabinetmanufacturer. I keep busy hiking and snowshoeing, volun-teering at Colorado National Monument, building furniture,keeping up with the house and yard, spoiling four (soonfive) grandkids, taking certification courses in field archeol-ogy and, most recently, writing another The Story BehindThe Scenery book, my second title in the series. After read-ing my bio, the editor on the project asked me if I knewDepartment alumnus Gerry Schaber, with whom she and

her ex used tosocialize inF l a g s t a f f .Gerry and Iwere at OldTech at thesame time (heas a grad, and Ias an under-grad), so howmany degreesof separationis that?

Last sum-mer, Judy and

I celebrated our 40th anniversary with a second honey-moon back to Cape Cod and lots of places in-between. Westopped by the Department to say hello, but it was highsummer and also lunchtime, so nobody was around. Belowis a fairly recent picture of us at the Grand Canyon, wheremy Park Service career began back in 1967.

This fall, in anticipation of my 65th birthday, I climbed14,048-foot Handies Peak in the San Juans. I thought itwould be a breeze after breezing up 13,300-foot TricoPeak as a warm-up a few weeks earlier, but it was a realgrind – plenty steep, and not much air up there. Evenso, the views from the summit and my sense of accom-plishment were worth the effort, and I look forward todoing more of Colorado’s 14 ers.

You’ve asked for humorous stories, so here are a cou-ple that hark back to a required two-week field trip inJune, 1961:

Ken Caster, assisted by Dick Osgood, led a bunch ofus in a big loop down to Denton, Texas and back, withlots of stops along the way. Nightly accommodationswere varied and rustic. Norm Hester and I shared a pup-tent that belonged to Don Ault, who had opted to go-it-alone in a jungle hammock. A bunch of folks, includingCaster, Osgood and Reuben Bullard, occupied a bigarmy surplus pyramid tent. Tom Weaver slept under thestars.

A l u m n i / a e R e p o r t s

Judy and Hank Schoch at the Grand Canyon.

15

60’s

Hank Schoch (continued)

One night, we camped at Queen Wilhelmina StatePark in the Ouachita Mountains near Mena, Arkansas.The park is elevated, and the campground was quiteexposed. Sometime during the wee hours, the skiesopened. It was raining buckets, and there was so muchlightning that it was almost continuously light outside.Norm and I awoke immediately and were soon joinedby tent-owner Ault, who thought it better to becomethe third person in his two-person tent than to wait inhis hammock for a lightning strike. Strength in num-bers, I guess. So there we lay, in whatever minimal pro-tection the little tent afforded, watching the spectacleoutside. Through all of this, the big pyramid tent lookedlike the Rock of Gibraltar, and I imagine the peopleinside were faring pretty well, but not poor TomWeaver. At first his form in the sleeping bag wasmotionless. Then he began to squirm about like a mon-strous caterpillar. Finally, after a minute or so, he sud-denly leaped up and ran with soggy sleeping bag in towtoward the pyramid tent. At first, we thought he wasintent on gaining entry. Instead, he pulled out enoughstakes so that the whole thing collapsed in a big glisten-ing pile and then made a mad dash for the shelter of anearby restroom.

After the pyramid tent went down, there were signsof a growing commotion beneath the wet formless can-vas. Then Dick Osgood, with flapping raincoat drapedover his PJs, tentatively emerged into the deluge withflashlight-in-hand to survey the scene. Of course, Tomwas nowhere to be seen by then, so I’m sure Dick andhis fellow occupants thought the wind and rain-soft-ened ground were to blame. It was glorious. Thoughwet and miserable, Norm and Don and I just about diedlaughing at Tom’s antics.

A week or so later, we were at Sequoyah State Parknear Muskogee, Oklahoma. Following our evening con-ference, a bunch of us decided to cool-off and clean-upin the lake by the campground. It was well after dark,but we waded in and had been enjoying our quiet ablu-tions for several minutes when something beneath thesurface suddenly and firmly grabbed my ankle.Breaking loose, I let out a loud shout, scrambled franti-cally over the unknown creature and dashed for thesafety of dry ground. The creature turned out to beNorm, whom I trampled and nearly drowned while mak-ing my escape. He said my hollering surely inspired theothers, because in the starlight he could see the dimoutlines of everyone else leaving frothy wakes as theyheaded hastily to shore.

With kindest regards,Hank SchochH1schoch@cs.com

John L. Carter (PhD '66)Dear Warren,

After many years at the Carnegie Museum of NaturalHistory and University of Pittsburgh Libraries I and mywife Ruth are now retired and living in Mt. Pleasant,South Carolina. We enjoy the Low Country's historyrich environment, climate, and food (both seafood inparticular and Southern food in general!) 2006 was abanner year for me. Volume 5 of the brachiopods of theTreatise of Invertebrate Paleontology was finally pub-lished. I was the lead author for the spiriferids. For mycontributions to paleontology, I was honored to receivethe 2006 Leonard Medal from the Department ofGeology at the University of North Dakota.

Thanks and best wishes,John

Edward O'Donnell (PhD ‘67)Warren,

I've been cleaning up and found the attached.Thought you'd get a kick out of them.

16

A l u m n i / a e R e p o r t s

(l to r)Hal Bohmer,one of theSundermanboys, andHarvey him-self.

(l to r)Ron Parsley,

Len Larsen andHal Bohmer.

(l to r)Jack Schmittand GerrySchaber.

O’Donnell (continued)

Attached is an image that appears on the USGS website for the Astrogeology Branch. It was taken at thededication of the Gene Shoemaker Center a few yearsago. The image has Gerry Schaber and Jack Schmitt.

Here are three more (above l to r). They date toaround 1962. You'll recognize Phil Ziegler and me in Rm21, the Graduate Bull Pen before it was turned into aPetrology Lab. The one of the outhouse is a cover wemade for Phil Ziegler's microscope. The last shows (l tor) Dave Lenhardt, Phil Ziegler, and his fiancée DianeGilham.

As I clean up, more pictures will surface and they willbe sent to you for the Department collection.

EdI N M E M O R I A M

Dr. Richard R. Alexander (BS ‘68)The following was posted on the Rider University web

page at http://www.rider.edu/172_1906.htm#alex

(Editor’s note: A session in his memory has been setfor the GSA Annual Meeting in Denver)

It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce thesudden death of Dr. Richard R. Alexander, Chair of theDepartment of Geological, Environmental, and MarineSciences. Dr. Alexander died tragically in a swimmingaccident on Monday, December 11, 2006 while vaca-tioning with his wife, Jeannie, in St. Lucia. The depart-ment extends its heartfelt sympathy to his family,friends, colleagues, and students.

Alex, as he was known by everyone on campus, hada distinguished career at Rider. He joined the geologi-cal and marine sciences faculty in 1981 as an AssociateProfessor. He rose to the rank of full Professor in 1986,and served as Department Chair from 1983 to 1991 andagain from 1993 until his death. He was namedAssistant Dean of Science in the College of Liberal Arts,Education, and Sciences in 1997 and served in that posi-tion until the start of the 2006 fall semester. Alex, whocontinued as Department Chair, then had more time toconcentrate on teaching and research, which were hispassions. As you all know, Alex was the consummate

professor – innovative and demanding, yet always ded-icated and accessible to his students. He was instru-mental in creating field courses for Rider at theBermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), ShoalsMarine Lab off the coast of Maine, and the RoatanInstitute for Marine Sciences in Honduras.

Alex also was one of the most prolific researchers inRider's history and was the author of more than 100published papers, presentations or abstracts at regional,national and international meetings. However, he tookspecial pride in student research and over the yearssponsored dozens of independent research projects. Heand his students were also co-authors of numerouspapers in professional journals. Recently, he wasappointed to the Board of Directors of the NaturalResource Education Foundation of New Jersey, an edu-cational consortium that operates the LighthouseEducation Center on Barnegat Bay, a marine field sta-tion where Rider maintains facilities.

A memorial service for Alex, attended by hundreds ofstudents, faculty, staff, alumni, friends, and familymembers, was held on Friday, January 26, 2007 at 3p.m. in Gill Chapel on Rider's Lawrenceville campus. Areception followed in the Cavalla Room of the BartLuedeke Center. In lieu of flowers, the family encour-ages donations to be made in Dr. Alexander’s memoryfor the Richard R. Alexander Marine AquariumLaboratory. Checks may be made payable to RiderUniversity, c/o The Development Office, RiderUniversity, 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, NJ08648. There should be a notation that the check is forthe Dr. Alexander Marine Aquarium Laboratory.

Bill Hock (BS ‘70) Hi Dr. Huff, I've just retired after 35 yrs of teaching

earth science at the high school level in the Clevelandarea. I remember the 4 day fall trips and the end ofsummer 2 week trips as some of the highlights of myUC studies. Thanks, Bill

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A l u m n i / a e R e p o r t s

70’s

Barry Hillman (MS ‘72)Letter to Warren HuffDear Warren,

Thanks for your email and inquiry regarding my activi-ties. Here is my attempt at a synopsis.

Following completion of my MS at UC, Itook Larry Lattman and Attila’s advice andset out for a PH.D. in Mineral Economicsat Penn State which I accomplished in theSpring of ’75. I then took a job with Gulfand Western (now Viacom) and traveledthe world looking for viable mining opera-tions. In 1979 I joined Exxon’s mineralsgroup evaluating uranium and oil shale inAustralia. In 1983 following another twoyears with G+W, I started my own com-pany, Condor Earth Technologies, Inc.here in Sonora, California. Now, 24 yearslater, we are an employee owned compa-ny of 115 people in four offices. We pro-vide geotechnical and environmental serv-ices throughout central California. Amongother work, we have the distinction ofbeing the largest designer of wine caves,yes, wine caves, in North America withabout 200 completed or under construc-tion. We have also developed some fascinating tech-nology, based on GPS, which is used around the worldfor real-time mapping and real-time deformation moni-toring of dams, oil fields and other structures. My wifeTracey and I met at Penn State and are celebrating 33years of marriage. We have two wonderful daughtersand now two brilliant grandsons. I am quite active inour local community and am a director in our only localbank. I remain passionate about motorcycling and haveridden though much of the US, Europe, South America,New Zealand, etc.

My best to all for a wonderful Centennial Celebration.I wish I were able attend.Best regards,Barry

Stephen Reidel (MS ‘72)Steve visited in November, 2006, and presented a

department colloquium talk entitled, The GeologicEvolution of the Columbia River System - how floodbasalts, tectonics and ice age cataclysmic floodingshaped the rivers of the Pacific Northwest. He also

signed copies of his popular book, Big Black BoringRock.

From the Publisher

Written in the same vein as well-known author JohnMcPhee’s books, Big Black Boring Rock is a collection of

highly readable and witty essays that focus onthe geology of the Pacific Northwest. AuthorSteve Reidel is a geologist with the PacificNorthwest National Laboratory in Richland,Washington, and an expert on Columbia RiverBasalt, the primary rock of the ColumbiaBasin – the semi-arid region of WashingtonState where most of the essays are set. Thebook collects a series of captivating essaysReidel has been writing for more than adecade for the Tri-City Herald, the daily news-paper of the Tri-Cities (Richland, Pasco, andKennewick), Washington. Written in plain lan-guage, Reidel makes geology, an often diffi-cult field to understand, accessible for all read-ers.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I:The Making and Shaping of the ColumbiaBasin covers the creation of the Basin fromthe massive flows of lava covering 100,000square miles—the largest on Earth—to the

walls of water 600 feet deep created by Ice-Age floods thatsculpted the region. Landmarks, Part II, describes the cre-ation and stories behind Tri-Cities landmarks such asRattlesnake Mountain and the Two Sisters. The essaysincluded in Part III, Geohazards, focus on CascadeMountain volcanoes, such as Mount St. Helens; area earth-quakes; and regional tsunamis. And, Part IV takes readersfrom the Tri-Cities to explore geologic wonders scatteredaround the region, such as the Gorge at GeorgeWashington, Gingko Petrified Forest, and Beacon RockState Park.

Whether you are local to this area or an armchair traveler,Big Black Boring Rock offers a fascinating foray into theforces that shaped the northwest corner of this geological-ly diverse country. About the Author - Geologist SteveReidel has studied Northwest geology for more than 30years. His interest in "big, black, boring rocks" began in theearly 1970s with a doctoral fellowship to study basalt. Heholds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in geology from theUniversity of Cincinnati and a doctorate from WashingtonState University. He is a geologist with Pacific NorthwestNational Laboratory in Richland, Washington. n

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Stephen Reidel

Ken Beem (PhD ‘73)Letter to Warren Huff

Hi, Warren! It's been a while, hasn't it? I have nowbeen at Montgomery College - Rockville for 35 years,and am likely to last another couple before pulling theplug. The problem is the traffic -- I have a horrendous30 mile commute each way, and the Washington areatraffic becomes more appalling each day. So, retire-ment in two years is on my short list. My wife Barbaraand I are writers for a number of magazines, mostly onantiques, but we have been appointed travel editors fora local "lifestyle" magazine called The Grapevine thatgets circulated throughout the Baltimore -Washingtonregion. This position requires trips to various destina-tions around the Mid-Atlantic region about every othermonth. Yes, we get free lodging and meals at the finestrestaurants, and guided tours of the most interestingmuseums, galleries, etc., but we do then have to writecomplimentary articles about even places we wouldn'treturn to on a bet. We just got back from a 3 nightwhirlwind tour of Pittsburgh which was very interesting,but the scheduling was really a gruelling endurance test-- our host was "Visit Pittsburgh" who set up an incredi-bly demanding dash through all the sites they wantedus to see. Anyway, this looks like the way I'll be spend-ing my retirement until exhaustion takes its toll. It beatswatching the soaps.Ken

Jojok Sumartojo (PhD ’74)Jojok writes from his home in Marietta, GA, “I’m still

alive and kicking. Still working, albeit part-time, in theenvironmental area.

Best wishes to all,Jojok

William B. Harrison (PhD ‘74)Dear Warren,

I have been busy creating a new subsurface researchand core storage facility here at Western MichiganUniversity.

http://wst023.west.wmich.edu/Photo%20Images%20from%20New%20Core%20Laboratory.htm

It is about 28,000 sq. ft. and will house most of thesubsurface cores, samples and data for the MichiganBasin. Our Grand Opening and building dedication isOct 13, 2006.

Hope to see you all soon,

Bill

Ric Caster (Class of ‘75)Hi, Nice to hear from you. Hope that everything is

going ok.

Still here in Tarsus and signed up for another year. Anychance that you will get to Turkey again in the summer.We are planning to stay here instead of doing the longhaul to Australia again.

I'm in the process of updating our websitehttp://www.randr2go.com so you might want to have alook. I also post new photos on a blog that you can getto from the website. Hope you enjoy the photos I'veattached. All were taken on our last trip to Cappadociaover the New Year weekend.

Take care and keep in touch, Ric

Stephen G. Wells (MS ’73 & PhD ’76)Distinguished Alumni Award.

Wells is president of the Desert Research Institute(DRI) of the University and Community College Systemof Nevada. From state-of-the-art facilities in both LasVegas and Reno, Wells leads three core divisions andthree interdisciplinary science centers that serve thestate of Nevada and every continent in the world. Heis the current president of the Geological Society ofAmerica and a graduate faculty member in theDepartment of Geological Sciences at the University ofNevada, Reno. n

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At the Arts and Sciences Spring Awards Banquet Wells (below) was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award, currentstudent Byron Adams (far right photo, center) received the outstanding Master’s Student Award and Prof. Carleton Brett (farright photo, right) received the McMicken Dean’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship. A banner day for UC Geology!

Bill Van Wie (PhD ’76)http://www.devonenergy.com/about/bios/william_van

wie.aspx

William A. Van Wie,Vice President and GeneralManager, Exploration, Devon Energy Corporation

William A. Van Wie waselected to the position ofvice president and generalmanager, Exploration, in2005. From 1999 to 2005,Van Wie served as Devon’svice president and generalmanager, Gulf Division. VanWie previously served assenior vice president andgeneral manager, Offshore,for PennzEnergy. Van Wiebegan his career as a geolo-gist for Tenneco Oil Co.’sFrontier Projects Group in1974. Following the sale ofTenneco’s Gulf of Mexicoproperties to Chevron in 1988, he joined that companyas division geologist. In 1992, he moved to PennzoilExploration and Production Co. as vicepresident/exploitation manager. He then served as man-ager of Offshore Exploration for Amerada Hess Corp.,before he rejoined Pennzoil in 1997. Van Wie is anactive member of the American Association ofPetroleum Geologists and serves as a Trustee for theAmerican Geological Institute Foundation, vice chair-man of IPAA’s Offshore Committee and as a boardmember of the National Ocean Industries Association.He also serves on the board of the Greater HoustonPartnership, the Boys and Girls Clubs of GreaterHouston and the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army.Van Wie received his Bachelor of Science degree ingeology from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NewYork, and a master’s degree and Ph.D in geology fromthe University of Cincinnati.

Wayne Goodman (MS ’76)Marty and Wayne have begun the transition into

empty-nesters. Alex started his freshman year at WMUin September, and we look forward to catching up on allthe details of Semester One in a matter of days. Weknow he's been thoroughly busy on campus;Meanwhile, we are preparing for a trip to Kalamazoonext weekend, as Sean will reach a milestone when hegraduates next Saturday with a BA in RecreationManagement with a Marketing minor. (Yeaaaah!)

We spent the first half of last year sharing a highschool senior's adventures for the last time with Alex(a.k.a. Skeeter). He had a rewarding and successful sen-ior year. He graduated from Gaylord High cum laude inMay after a year full of activity and fun as well as aca-demics. In his senior year, he was a part of the home-

coming court; earned a letter in cross country; earnedhis 3rd letter in hockey (with a chance as a sophomoreto be on a team that played for the state championship);earned his second letter in varsity baseball (and hit .355,earning "most improved player" and making the all-coun-ty team); and lettered in band/orchestra. WMUacknowledged that with some much-appreciated finan-cial aid that accompanied his admission there.

As part of the senior year festivities, Wayne, Marty,and Alex did the traditional Gaylord "find a warm placefor Spring Break” thing and joined 17 other GHS seniorsand their families on the beach at Playa del Carmen,Mexico, for a week in March. Lots of good friends andfun for all. Marty and Wayne played a bit of touristwhile there and had a great trip to Chichen Itza and aterrific day of snorkeling on the reefs near Cancun. Asummer highlight for all was a week with just the fourof us at our old remote Northwoods summer vacationspot on Dog Lake, Ontario, Canada, in August, beforethe boys started the fall term at WMU. Our first timeback there in several years, and we had a blast. Perfectweather, enough fish for fresh catch dinners each dayand embellishment stories, a great week in the quietwilds, and lots of revitalized memories. On the homefront, we made a significant upgrade to our 30-year oldlakeside house when we built a new deck, with a terrif-ic lake view, and new access-swimming dock on thewater. We enjoyed terrific swimming through the sum-mer this year, and Marty's summer office became thedeck with laptop in tow, made nicer when we gotaccess to DSL internet and joined the 21st century aftera bit of a delay. Our newest addition, Shadow, a 1-yearold golden retriever/black lab mix, has become thedaughter Marty (in particular) never had. Be careful ifyou wish for a 60-pound lap dog and be prepared for theconsequences! She has become Wayne's summerwalking and winter skiing/snowshoeing buddy and is aterrific “country living” dog. Well, there's your nutshellcapsule of 2006 in the woods. If you're in these parts,stop by. It's a special place that's a surprisingly shorthop from Interstate 75. Drop us a note and keep uscaught up on your adventures. If any of you don't haveour email address, drop a line atwrgnle@alphacomm.net.

Wayne, Marty, Sean, and Alex Goodman.

I N M E M O R I A M

John “Cliff” Lee (MS ‘79)The following announcement appeared in the

Cincinnati Enquirer on January 18, 2007:

John Clifford Hodges Lee III, known to all as Cliff,passed away Sunday night in a sudden way, at 56.MADCAT, as his license plate read, was a Bengal fanthrough and through. He literally lost his voice cheeringon many a Sunday in the south end zone, and befriend-ed players, their families, and all those around him. Anexceptionally likeable man, and a fine but timid singer,

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William A. Van Wie

Cliff supported the local Blues scene, and had manyclose musician friends as well. With advanced degreesfrom the University of Cincinnati in geology and finance,Cliff worked as a consultant in both gulf and inland gasexploration. He was a member of the American Societyof Professional Geologists, the American Society ofPetroleum Engineers, as well as several other profes-sional associations. He enjoyed travel, scuba diving,book collecting, furniture restoration, and of course,music. Cliff was the son of the late Col. John C. H. LeeJr., and Patricia S. Lee, of Hyde Park, who passed awayjust a year ago. He was the grandson of Lt. Gen. JohnC. H. Lee, the WWII commander of Supply and ServiceForces in Europe. He is survived by his loving sistersMary Anne and Sarah Jean Lee, his devoted brotherThomas, his nephew Rob Donnellon and family, ofDenver, and his uncle and many cousins in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Memorials may be made to the AmericanHeart Association, 2936 Vernon Pl., Cincinnati, 45219,or to the LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, 2925Vernon Pl., Suite 300, Cincinnati, 45219. Visitation atGilligan Funeral Home, 2926 Woodburn Ave., EastWalnut Hills, Friday January 19th, from 5 to 8 P.M., anda memorial Mass at St. Francis DeSales Church,Woodburn and Madison, Saturday January 20th, atNoon, followed by a light luncheon for family andfriends. Condolences may be expressed at: www.gilli-ganfuneralhomes.com

Roy Van Arsdale (PhD ‘79)Warren,

You had asked for any pictures. I have attached oneof Susan Caminish Eriksson and me from one of theChristmas parties (faculty roasts), from 1972 or 1973. Ialso have to put a plug in for myself. A colleague and Ihave an article in this January Scientific American mag-azine that you may find interesting. You can find it at:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&co l I D = 1 & a r t i c l e I D = 9 3 4 6 C A 8 F - E 7 F 2 - 9 9 D F -32CD319973C0B8BC

Regards,Roy

David A. Lienhart (PhD ‘79)Letter to Barry Maynard

Dear Barry,

It was good to see you last week. As we discussed, Iam sending some photos that were taken by Bob"Barney" Barnett, my supervisor at the Corps for aboutsix years in the late 60s, early 70s. When Barney retiredhe gave me these photos along with a lot of historicaldata from the TVA projects. Barney was quite an engi-neering geologist. He worked directly for Berlen C.Moneymaker, Chief Geologist at TVA back in the 30s. In1941 Barney came to the Corps where he worked forBob Nesbitt, the second chief geologist of the Corps.Barney was one of the original founding members ofthe Engineering Geology Division at GSA back in 1947.He worked in Morocco and Algeria and wrote up thefirst geologic study of that area in terms of strategicplanning. He also did the foundation studies for OakRidge National Labs and his geologic reports are nowconsidered the best source of geologic information onthe hydrogeology of the Oak Ridge area. In addition weboth worked on a portable drill design for the lunar roverfor NASA. He was a true gentleman and a great geolo-gist and teacher.

Best regards,

David A. Lienhart

Bob Lenhart (PhD ’79)Here are a few photos:

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Cliff Lee withsponge. 1973Florida Keys

field trip.

(l to r)Wayne Goodman, HelenKlein & Bob Lenhart.1973 Florida Keys field trip.

(l to r) Dr. Wayne Pryor, Heidi Pryor & Robin

Martin. 1975 FloridaKeys field trip.

Susan Caminish Eriksson and Roy Van Arsdale, 1972-1973.

Gregory Schumacher (MS ‘84)Greg and fellow Ohio Survey geologist, Dennis Hull,

published the lead article in the 2006 issue of OhioGeology, published by the Ohio Department of NaturalResources, Division of Geological Survey. It is entitled,The Value of Geologic Maps to Ohio Homeowners.

Donna Herring (MS ‘86)Letter to Barry MaynardDear Barry,

I have just read the Departmental newsletter cover tocover! I miss the fun of the Department, and of geolo-gy.

Since we last corresponded, I have acquired two kidsand been a stay-at-home mom. That's why you neverheard back from me about that potential shale study: itsounded fascinating but I just couldn't do that and themom thing too. I did appreciate your suggestions andencouragement very much, and am not beyond hope.Our daughter came home from Guatemala very ill and Ihad to quit work entirely, and since I wasn't working wethought we'd adopt her a brother as well, the debt bedamned. Anna Maria starts first grade this fall and Carlwill start kindergarten, and when they're both in schoolfulltime I think I'll be likely to get itchy for fieldworkagain, although I have to say I can't yet see a way tomake it happen. I did have fun doing the redesign forthe Denison Geosciences Department webpages lastyear, though they need updating again:http://www.denison.edu/geology/

David is tenured at Denison and enjoying teaching aswell as research. Being married to a geologist is*almost* as fun as being a geologist; the kids and Iwent out bush in Australia with David for an amazingyear (well, we were in Canberra part of the time, wherehe was adjunct at Australian National University). Ofcourse it's sediments that float my boat, and his rocksare the squished high-temp ones, but I think of them assediment-source rocks and they seem more interestingthat way! ;)

While I was still actively working as a geologist I gave

local school presentations, and have continued withthose. During this past Earth Day I was one of eight pre-senters at the local elementary, and during the presen-ters' lunch the Bug Lady said, "So where is that geolo-gy guy, I want to have a word with him!" I said, "Thatwould be me," which comment was met with suchfrank disbelief that the herpetologist across the tablelaughed so hard he spurted Mountain Dew out his nose.Turns out Bug Lady was unhappy I had given the kidsrock salt as a take-home, because she was afraid theirsalty hands had poisoned her giant preying mantis.

I did go back to work part-time last year, as a grantwriter. Eons ago I had written some small museumgrants, and edited/wrote parts or all of some NSF andlesser things while at U Nevada Reno, and had recentlytaken a couple of seminars in grant writing for muse-ums (I volunteer at the local museum in our village). Myneighbor happened to know that I was looking for part-time professional work and had grant experience, andshe also happened to know the director of a health cen-ter who asked her if she knew a part-time grant writer.My healthcare learning curve has been steep but inter-esting, and my job is to find funding for a clinic thatserves low-income and uninsured people on the north-east side of Columbus. The thing the folks at the clinichave most remarked upon is that I figured out how todo research in health information so fast, and ferretedout data sources they didn't know about. Persistenceand curiosity are useful tools, as Paul Potter I'm surewould agree.

I hope you and yours are doing well, and look forwardto being in better touch in the coming years, as the kidsgrow and my time gets more flexible. My hellos andfond good wishes to Dave Meyer and Warren Huff, too.

Cheers,Donna

HerringD@denison.edu

Almerio Franca (PhD ‘87)Dear Prof. Huff,

I am preparing a long ppt file with several pictures from1984-87 that I have from UC campus, students, field tripsand so. I will bring these with me in April and will give

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80’s

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them to you. Here I am enclosing some of these pictures,so you can use them as you wish for the party.

All the best,AlmerioEd. note: See Almerio’s photos at http://homepages.uc.

edu/~huffwd/Cincinnati_Memories/1984-1987.htm

Richard (Rick) Bray (Class of ‘88)Letter to David Meyer

Dave,

After all these years I don’t know where to start. I guesswhere I left off. After working in Houston from 1980(although spending much time in South American and theCaribbean), I went to Libya from 1988-1990 and from therewent to Saudi Arabia where I “found a home” for 10 years.I took early retirement in 1991, just before the World TradeCenter event. I bought a sailboat, moved back to NY andtook a part time job at the NYS Museum in the ReservoirCharacterization Group. At 60, I just reentered the work-force taking a position in Kuala Lumpur with PetronasCarigali, the Malaysian national oil company. At Carigali I ama “Principal of Sedimentology”, kind of an advisor for anycarbonate work that may require assistance. Regardless,Petronas neither has significant production from carbonatesnor much exploratory interests in carbonate provinces (onlyCuba, one of the “stans” of the former USSR and here andthere in SE Asia).

My entire career entire time I have been employed as acarbonate geologist extensively evaluating the Tertiary inLibya, South America and the Caribbean, the Jurassic inSaudi Arabia and the US Gulf and the Cambro-Ordovician ofNew York. Since leaving Saudi Arabia I have consulted inthe United Arab Emirates for the Japanese. Throughout mycareer as a geologist I have never wavered much beyondcarbonate deposition and diagenesis. I leave the arcanesubjects of seismic and logs to those that are interested. Atthe NYS Museum I got back to some Paleozoic rocks, afteryears working in the Mesozoic and Tertiary. In addition tothe Cambro-Ordovician section I even managed to describe

an Onondaga core, which I was peripherally involved with(through Don Kissling) some 30 years ago! At the MuseumI became enmeshed in the issue of hydrothermal diagene-sis. Certainly a provocative subject and one that has gonelargely unrecognized and underappreciated by petroleumgeologists. Although I’m not among the “true believers” itis amazing how many reservoirs have been affected tosome extent, either positively or negatively, by hydrother-mal processes.

I always think back and reminisce about the "longago and far away" days at UC in Old Tech. Last year I sawPete Purrazzella who is still employed in the petroleumservice industry. Up until my move here I regularly saw TimBryan who is now a first officer with Southwest Airlines.Tim married a friend of mine from Binghamton. Last yearDuff Kerr, an early1950-something UC grad, spent sometime in Albany with me reviewing a project and providingsome great insight on the Trenton-Black River. I’m still fas-cinated by echinoderms and marvel whenever I can identi-fy an ophie vertebral ossicle in thin section or on core.Haven’t been diving too much, though I did get to LizardIsland in 2001 and may resume diving here.

Rick

Bill Hanneberg (PhD ‘89)Letter to Warren Huff

Consulting still provides an endless supply of inter-esting and challenging projects. At least I hope it'sendless. I'm coming up on my eighth anniversary asan independent geologist in Seattle, although I domore work out of state than in Washington. Thisweek I've been working on the structural geology ofa failing slope in Franciscan melange overlookingSan Francisco Bay and writing a proposal to do 3-Dmodeling of rock slopes along I-90 in the Cascades.I'm also waiting to hear about another project inPapua New Guinea. My first Papua New Guinea proj-ect, using LiDAR to map landslides around a goldmine in a collapsed caldera with an active g e o t h e r m a l s y s t e m , w a s a n

Bill Haneberg (PhD ‘89)continuedopportunity that I won't forget. I'dsay it was the project of a lifetime,but that would make everything yetto come anticlimactic. Anotherrecent project involved 3-D model-ing of fractured rock in a quarrystraddling the San Andreas fault.It's quite a geological experience todo fieldwork literally inside the faultzone.

Most of my projects involve earthmovements-- especially slope instabil-ity-- at one scale or another, thesedays more often than not using air-borne lidar or digital photogrammetryfor computer modeling and virtualmapping. Technology sure haschanged since my time in Cincinnati,when it was quite an accomplish-ment to have one IBM PC for thegraduate students to share, althoughthe underlying need for good geologyis still the same. Nobody had heard ofInSAR or LiDAR or knew what a giga-byte, let alone a terrabyte, was. I'malso keeping up my academic con-tacts, serving on the PhD committeefor a Simon Fraser University studentdoing terrestrial laser scanning, devel-oping models of groundwater flowthrough variably saturated tuff withcolleagues at the University ofWisconsin, and participation in GSAactivities.

I enjoyed the chance to participatein the UC Himalayan geology trip in2005, and am looking forward toreturning with Lewis, Craig, and anew group of students next month.Amazing geology, culture, food (onmost days), and company. I recom-mend the trip to anyone who has thechance and a taste for out of the wayplaces. As an added bonus, I hadsome great photos to use when Iupdated my consulting web site earli-er this year. While I'm in India thisyear, my wife Lisa will be on a 10,000mile solo motorcycle trip to the eastcoast and back to promote her latestbook. She's self-employed, too, doingbusiness and organization develop-ment consulting in addition to writingand studying for an MFA in creativenon-fiction.

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Dr. Richard R. AlexanderDr. Kodjopa AttohDr. Rex L. Baum

Dr. Wheeler O. BementMrs. Ann M. Borden

Mr. Ronald F. BroadheadMr. Charles S. Brockman

Mr. Robert A. Breitenstein, Jr. &Mrs. Susan M. Breitenstein

Mr. Joseph W. BreuerDr. John L. Carter &Dr. Ruth C. Carter

Mr. and Mrs. Mark A. CiamponeMr. Philip L. ClymerMr. Ronald W. Coble

Devon Energy CorporationMr. and Mrs. Rudolph S. Dreyer

Dry Dredgers, Inc.Edison International Company

Estate of Lucile and Richard DurrellDr. Frank R. Ettensohn

ExxonMobil Education FoundationMr. and Mrs. Michael N. Fein

Mr. Stephen J. FolzenlogenMr. and Mrs. Robert M. Galbraith IV

Mr. Wayne R. GoodmanMs. Andrea J. Haas

Dr. and Mrs. William B. HallMr. Gregory D. Hinterlong

Mr. John D. HoholickMr. Brian W. Keltch

and Mrs. Stacey W. KeltchLt. Cmdr. Arthur L. Kimmel

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. KlekampMs. Elizabeth A. Krebes

Dr. Laurence H. Lattman and Mrs. Hanna R. Lattman

Dr. and Mrs. Richard S. LaubMr. David A. Lienhart & Mrs. Donna P. Lienhart

Mr. Thomas E. LionMarathon Ashland Petroleum LLC

Dr. and Mrs. Wayne D. MartinMr. Thomas R. McManness

Mr. Kirk M. NixonDr. Paul E. Potter

Ms. Margaret PlausThe Rieveschl Foundation

Dr. George Rieveschl, Jr. and Mrs. Ellen L. RieveschlMrs. Cornelia K. Riley

Mr. Tod W. RoushMrs. Maria Rufe

Mr. Luther W. SappenfieldMr. Henry A. Schoch

Dr. Frederick E. SimmsMr. J. Todd Stephenson

Dr. Andrea Levinson SternDr. Jojok SumartojoDr. Sally J. Sutton

Dr. Roy B. VanArsdaleDr. and Mrs. William A. Van Wie

Mr. William L. M. Wilsey

D O N O R STO THE

GEOLOGY DEPARTMENT2 0 0 6 - 2 0 0 7

T h a n k Yo u !

Haneberg (PhD ‘89) continuedThis past year was very gratifying in terms of honors

and awards. First, I was invited to spend some time asa visiting scholar at Western Michigan University. Next,I received the Claire P. Holdredge Award from theAssociation of Environmental and EngineeringGeologists for my book on computational geology andthe Meritorious Service Award from the GSAEngineering Geology Division. Finally, a rock slope sta-bility project along Interstate 90 received two statewideawards from the American Council of EngineeringCompanies: Gold for "Social, Economic, and SustainableDesign Considerations" and Silver for "Originality orInnovative Application of New or Existing Techniques".Our project team used 3-D digital outcrop modeling andvirtual structural mapping as part of a fast-track projectstabilize some potentially dangerous road cuts after tworock falls killed three motorists and completely closedthe interstate for several days in late 2005.

Seattle has an active community of environmentaland engineering geologists, and beyond that is a great

place to live. We had an unusually wet and cold win-ter (although Lisa and I had the good fortune to be onholiday hiking and kayaking in New Zealand during theworst winter storm in decades), and there's nothing likethe view across Puget Sound towards the snow cov-ered Olympics on a sunny day. We do have sunny days.Sometimes.

That's all for now. If anyone wants to get in touch,they can do it either through my web site(www.haneberg.com) or sending email directly to me atbill@haneberg.com.Regards,BillWilliam C. Haneberg, Ph.D.

John Haynes (PhD ‘89)It was good to be back at UC, if even for just a short

time, at the 100th Anniversary celebration, and to seefriends and faculty once again!

I'm finishing up my first year as a member of the geol-ogy faculty at Kent State. My primary teaching respon-sibility is at the Geauga campus, one of the seven KentState regional campuses, where I'm teaching Physical,Historical, and Environmental Geology courses. In thefall term, I also taught a section of Historical at the maincampus in Kent, and a section of Physical at theAshtabula campus.

The family news is that Janette had total hip replace-ment surgery this spring, and is continuing her recovery,which is going quite well as of right now (early May).Bobby will be 14 in June, and he has been accepted toPhillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire for next fall,which he will be attending as a boarding student in the9th grade.

Email is jhaynes3@kent.edu

Kenan Cetin (PhD ‘92)Dear Warren,

I hope this finds you well.The last of issue of UpperCrust brought a nice spring breeze from Cincy, and whata remarkable job you are doing with it! As for me, Ihave been very busy (more than I would like) with workthis summer, and looking for-ward to a vacation break inTurkey in the Fall. More newswill follow later. Best wishesto all in the department. Ialso want to wish Sandi thebest in her retirement, andexpress how grateful I am forall the friendly help and littlepush on the back she gave tome and all the other studentsduring my years there.

Kenan

Peter Holterhoff (PhD ‘93)Texas Tech University is pleased to announce the

appointment of Dr. Peter Holterhoff to the College ofArts and Sciences. He will begin his duties as AssistantProfessor of Petroleum Geology in the Department of

Geosciences in the fall.

Holterhoff received his B.S.in Geology from OhioUniversity, and then earnedhis M.S. in Geology from theUniversity of Nebraska. Hethen returned to his home-town to earn his Ph.D. inGeology from the Universityof Cincinnati. Heading westto Tucson, he then accepted apostdoctoral fellowship with

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90’s

Two photos of the Old Tech building taken by SezginAytuna when he was a graduate student here.

the Research Training Group in the Analysis of BiologicalDiversification at the University of Arizona. During thisacademic period, his researchinterests focused on pat-terns of paleocommunity and evolutionary ecology aspreserved in the rock record.After several years atArizona, Holterhoff joined Exxon Exploration Companyas a Petroleum Geologist. During his nine years withExxon and ExxonMobil, he worked in all phases ofupstream geoscience, from regional exploration tomature field production. However, most of his tenurewas spent conducting research on petroleum reservoirswith the Upstream Research Company. As aresearcher he also taught corporate technical courses invarious geoscience disciplines and in 2005 earned anOutstanding Instructor Award. His current researchinterests involve integrating elements of paleontology,stratigraphy, and sedimentology to better understandthe sedimentary rock record and to fully describe andmodel the distribution and character of hydrocarbon andaquifer reservoirs.

Holterhoff is also quite interested in science educa-tion, and was very active in the ExxonMobil FoundationScience Ambassadors Program. This is a communityoutreach program that teams ExxonMobil scientists andengineers with K-12 science and math teachers.

Holterhoff is fortunate to have found a vocation that isalso his avocation, and will head out into the field withvery little prodding. His wife, Jennifer, and children,Erich, Andrew, and Rachael, join him in the field when-ever they can – needless to say, he has been blessedwith a wonderful family. He also enjoys music andplays bass and guitar when he has the chance. Heenjoys reading, and recently has been working on hisdisc golf game.

Ben Dattilo (PhD ‘94)Letter to Warren Huff

For the pasttwo years I havebeen teaching(geology ANDcollege algebra!)at Alice LloydCollege, just eastof Hazard in theeastern coalfieldsof Kentucky.During that timeSheri and I havelearned lotsa b o u tAppalachian cul-ture and history, and learned what it is really like to getaway from it all!

As some may know, my sister, Molly has been miss-ing from Indianapolis for about 3 years. After a rather har-

rowing time dealing with apathetic law enforcement, ourfamily has lobbied for laws to help families of missingadults. Recently we have had significant success in thepassage of "Molly's Law" in Indiana, which requires lawenforcement to take certain measures when adults arereported missing.

It has been good to get back east, and finally pick up onsome old projects in the Cincinnatian rocks. After gettingsome Great Basin work out of the way, I have been work-ing with Carl Brett Pat McLaughlin and Brian Kirchner get-ting some old data published. Over the last summer,Dave Meyer and I worked on his Rafinesquina moats, andI think we made some serious advances in understandingthem, which we presented at the NC/SC section GSAmeeting this spring, and these should soon be incorporat-ed into a paper or two.

Next fall I will be starting a tenure track (finally!) positionat Indiana U.-Purdue U. at Fort Wayne (IPFW), Indiana. Iam really looking forward to it!

Note: email for the summer will beben.dattilo@gmail.com. It is permanent (as emails go),but I will be using the professional email from IPFW assoon as I get one.

Tony Pace (BS ‘96)Hi Dr. Huff,

I've been at Parsons (http://www.parsons.com/) now foralmost nine years now! Over the past five years, I wasworking full time at the former Gulf Refinery here locallyoverseeing the construction and managing the operation oftheir constructed wetlands. It was a great experience andcontinues to offer various opportunities in site remediationand wildlife habitat restoration. I'm currently there one ortwo days a week managing the wetlands and assisting in

the installation of abarrier wall along theGreat Miami Riveramong other things.Hopefully, that littleproject will helpmaintain the riparianzone and reducebank erosion alongthat stretch of riveradjacent to the facili-ty. I'm also manag-ing several formerand active servicestations for BP, sothat keeps me busywhen I'm not at therefinery. As always,

I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for any opportunity inthe petroleum industry. I'd love to get back home to Texasand be nearer my parents in Dallas.

Ben Dattilo, wife Sheri, son Daniel, daughter Amanda at the home of the first (?)American paleontologist.

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Tony Pace (continued)Since the last time I wrote, I've been divorced and

have since remarried a wonderful gal from Canada.Having no children of my own, I was thrust into father-hood kicking and screaming! Actually, both of Randy'skids are good kids. Deanna gave us our first grandbaby(the best part of the deal) last April. Little Maranda isnow walking and talking (although she's the only onewho knows what she's saying!). She does know C-A-Tand says it with authority andhas begun mimicking Pa-paw asshe learns what the animals say.Michael has just graduated fromColerain, completed two APexams in Biology andPsychology and is planning onattending UC in the fall in thepre-pharmacy program. Randyand I bought a camper last falland hope to put it to use thissummer. She's never seen theRockies, so hopefully we'll beable to get out to Wyoming witha couple of stops along the way.

Terry Acomb (MS ‘97)Letter to Barry Maynard

Barry - I'm back fromVenezuela, it went great. Spent20 days shooting scene afterscene in the "observational docu-mentary". Cast is 2 geologistsand 1 (college educated) indianguide. Had 3 helicopter days fly-ing around and landing on theTepuis. The object of that stageis to get as much raw footage as possible to edit andconstruct the episode.

Series is to be broadcast next fall (?) on the discoverychannel. Series title is "Natural Wonders". There are 6one hour episodes. Episodes are: Grand Canyon, GreatBarrier reef, Angel falls, Sahara, Hawaii andAlaska/Northern Lights.

UC geology was mentioned by me in an "interview"scene. It may or may not get used.

Thank you sooo much for all your help.

Terry

Mark Krekeler (MS ‘98)From George Mason University

The Oct. 26 Mason Gazette carried a number ofadvertisements for GMU - this one featuring MarkKrekeler and student - was sent out as picture ads innational magazines.

At a special dinner on June 6, 2006, Matt Kluger, vicepresident of research and economic development,acknowledged the achievements of Mason inventorsand licensed technology creators. He cited MarkKrekeler, assistant professor, Environmental Scienceand Policy, and Cynthia Tselepis and Stephen Elmore,Mason alumni, for their licensed patents pending,“Counter Weapon Containment Process for Small ScaleRelease of Radioactive CsCl, and Related Materials,”“Synthetic Soil Material System for Improved CreatedWetland Performance, ” and “Secondary Process forRadioactive Chloride Deweaponization and Storage”See http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/8518/

And also see http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/6934/

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Here is a recent photo of Jim Pfeiffer, Terry Acomb,Jon Jasper, and a non UC geology guy (Jon's friendTim), Hiking Bluejohn slot canyon in SouthernUtah in May of 2006. We hiked the right hand fork.OK that was bad.

00’s

National Park Service News Release,April 5, 2007

“Natural Bridges named the world'sfirst international dark-sky park” –Terry’s photos were used in theannouncement and Terry is quoted inthe article.

http://www.nps.gov/nabr/parknews/news040507.htm

Nicole Yarger (Class of 2000)Letter to David Nash

Dr. Nash,

I just wanted to drop you a line to say hi and see howeveryone is doing back at UC. I'm still out in Denver,working as a pharmaceutical sales rep, which is incred-ibly fun! I absolutely love Colorado and am workinghard to recruit other Ohio natives to move to this beau-tiful state....believe it or not, I may have actually suc-ceeded in one case! There are a couple of other Cincygeo grads out here that I know of: Dave Mixon andTodd Roberts. Hope everyone's doing well, talk to yousoon! Nicole

Mike Ragsdale (Class of 2000)We are well on the way to Jordan (Navy Seals deployment)

but we had to make an un-official stop totake a dip in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is400m below sea level and is the lowest spoton earth. I knew it was salty and that youwould float due to the density of the saltwater but had no idea. It is physically impos-sible to drown in this water. The picture of uswith our heads and hands out of the wateras though our feet are touching the sea floor- no just floating. And check out the picturewhere we are floating on our stomachs withboth hands and feet out of the water! Acrossthe sea is Israel and we did not have time tostop and see where Jesus was baptized inthe Jordan river (but hey we saw Job's tomb- cant have it all). Here are a few pics from aplace in Jordan called Petra. Anyone whosaw the last scene in Indiana Jones and theLast Crusade might recognize some of thepics, particularly the first few. This sight wasamazing as the people carved these struc-tures from cliff faces and either lived in themor used them for municipal purposes, andeven as burial sights.

We got some good underwater pics inEgypt. We were there to train the Egyptiannavy mine recovery and building ordinance totake care of things underwater. In the picsmy buddy and I are diving on a mine, whichis thirty feet in depth and a mile offshore. Wetook down 15 pounds of C4 and I placedthem on three points to take care of the mine.The det cord coming out of the C4, once lit, travels at 20,000feet a second, so after placing the shots we travel the length ofthe line to make sure all is clear for travel. Once on the surfaceI attach a time fuse to give us time to get out of the water. Withthat much C4, we witnessed a plume of water 30 feet off thesurface, from a shot thirty feet below the surface. Hope youenjoy,

Michael

David Ray (PhD ‘01) Director of Study (Geology, Geography & EnvironmentalScience).

Bexhill College. Penland Road, Bexhill-On-Sea, EastSussex. TN40 2JG UK.

Dear Warren,

How are you? I trust all is going well within the depart-ment. The reports from Carl seemed most encouraging.Things are going well here, particularly as I’m reaching theend of a very busy academic year. I’m currently working ona paper with Ken Dorning and Mikael Calner looking at 3rdorder sequences within the Wenlock of the England andSweden and hope to have it finished soon.

Cheers,Dave

Todd Roberts (MS ‘01)Hi Warren,

All is well in Colorado. I am still work-ing for a geotech engineering company.Recently, I have been assigned to a largedevelopment site in Grand County,Colorado. We are constructing the infra-structure for a 1500 acre mixed-usedevelopment site including an Orvis golfcourse and fishing facility. We are work-ing in wetland environments associatedwith the Colorado River. These Tertiarydeposits are aptly named theTroublesome Formation. The underlyingbedrock is better suited for constructionand is composed of the Morrison andDakota formations.

Well, take care and give my regards tothe staff. Next time you are in theDenver area, feel free to contact me. Iwould love catch up or give a tour of mylast mountainous highway project, full ofmine shafts, metamorphic rocks, andghost stories.

Laura Gilpin (BS ‘02)Letter to David Nash

Hello!!

I am still in the US at the training centerhere in Virginia. Though I am leaving this week forMoscow. All is going well at the moment. I got throughmy language training and tested well at the end (I even getmore money for my score, woo hoo!). And this week I'min security and emergency medical training as my lastclasses before heading out.

I'll be sure to update you guys though once I get to post,I'm really looking forward to it. The nice thing too is that

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Laura Gilpin (continued)there are quite a few ex-NASA people there as well whoare already ushering me into their enclave. And I'll behappy to get out of this DC summer heat. This stuff justkills me, really makes me cranky!

Anyway, more later from Russia!Laura

Janet Bertog (PhD ‘02)I'm just back from field

work in Utah and about tohead outagain. I hope all iswell. Here is a recentphoto of me on my newBMW.

Susan Barbour Wood (MS ’02)Susan earned her PhD from Virginia Tech and has sub-

sequently joined the faculty at Colby College inWaterville, ME, where she is scheduled to teach TheRecord of Life on Earth in the fall term, and bothUnderstanding Earth and an upper-level elective coursein the spring.

Lisa Fay (BS ‘03)I just posted

some photos,etc., from myrecent trip toKenya.

http://lisafay.googlepages.com

Mike Nicholis (MS ‘03)Hi Warren,

I graduated from Brown in December, and started myjob with ExxonMobil. I have been meaning to contactAttila and inform him of my move, and job. However,things (as you can imagine) at first have been very busy.I have also wanted to contact you as well, since yourwork on bentonites has come up in my project at work.I was very proud to state to my group that I knew you,and that UC was were I did my undergraduate/masters.Thanks for the great education!

Please pass on my best wishes to the Department.

Cheers,Mike

Kimberly Stonesifer (MS ‘03)C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s !

Kimberly Stonesifer and Matthew Magnuson weremarried in Morrilton, Arkansas on May 20, 2006.

Rebecca Hamilton (BS ‘04)Hey, UC Geology Department!

I graduated from UC in 2004 and have since headedwest to the Columbia River Basalt of Portland, OR, whereI work as a geologist/environmental scientist with an envi-ronmental consulting company. It's interesting work; I'vecollected sludge samples, mapped geologic units for multi-million dollar remediation project sites, and next month I'llbe out drilling wells on a barge in the Willamette River. I'malso working on the design of a new sampling apparatusthat will improve the accuracy of dioxin measurements ingroundwater. Other than that, I'm climbing around in theCascades, playing kickball, and trying to figure out what Iwant to be when I grow up (it should involve Antarctica insome way...). Say hi to the Platystrophia for me if you'rein the Ordovician strat - I miss those little guys.

Cheers,'Becca Hamilton

Brian Kirchner (PhD ‘05)Hello all,

I'm enjoying my teaching work immensely - we areabout to start Winter Semester here at HFCC (HenryFord Community College), so as of Monday campus willbe overrun after three weeks of quiet. My kids are now7 and 5 (they were 2 years and 1 month when I startedat UC - how long ago that seems!). My wife Rachel hasbecome an expert in autism advocacy and resources(our son has autism) and is seriously considering acareer in helping other families with autistic kids findthe resources they need. We do miss Cincinnati, butnot the grad student poverty - finally having a decentincome is a good feeling.

I hope everyone there is well.

Yours,Brian

Alejandra Bonilla (MS ‘05)Hello Dr. Huff,

I’m still in the middle of the desert enjoying the hotweather and the wild life. Everything is going well hereand I’ve been busy with many groundwater projects inArizona and New Mexico. Ana Londono keeps me up-dated with everything in the Department and I’m happyto know everything is going well.

Regards to all my friends in the department.Alejandra

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Christy Reuter(BS ‘06)Hello All -

We said good-bye to Africa andare back in theStates. I wantedto let everyoneknow, we arrivedhome safely andhad a great timewhile we werethere. So, soonyour inboxes will be overwhelmed by the photographicmasterpieces I was able to capture throughout the trip(by masterpieces, I mean snapshots taken while wewere driving at 50 kph on a bumpy, rocky road).Unfortunately, no one was able to get a picture of Chrispunching that monkey or accidentally sneaking up on aflock of birds or getting clawed by a giant cat - and yes,they all happened.

We were able to see so much while we were there.We saw the Snows of Kilimanjaro; we went on safari atthe Mara, the Serengeti, Amboseli, and Tsavo Westparks. We relaxed on the coast and sailed andsnorkeled in the Indian Ocean (which you all shouldsee). We climbed Mt. Longonot and hiked the lowergorge in Hell's Gate National Park. We saw the rift val-ley and made our way to see some rift lakes (one fresh-water and one a soda lake). We spent our money at thelocal markets and we enjoyed the local brew, Tusker.We were able to go to Jill's work and meet her co-work-ers and see what she is doing.

Jill is working in Nairobi with Grass ROOTS (GROOTS)Kenya, which is a non-profit organization that deals withwomen's issues in Africa. Jill is currently involved inimplementing programs in local towns that are combat-ing HIV/AIDS, disinheritance, helping orphans and edu-cating women about sexual reproductive health. My

eyes were opened to the many problems Africans aredealing with and some of the root causes of these prob-lems. It is hard to notice or understand how thingswork in someplace you've never been to, and evenharder to find a way to fix the things that don't work.The work Jill is doing is very important and aggressive.They are identifying some of the factors and the leadingcauses of the problems many are facing in Africa, andare working in those towns, with the people to help andchange it. I feel very fortunate to have had this experi-ence. I'm glad Jill was placed with this organization.

If you have the opportunity to travel you shouldalways take it. You'll learn more about yourself, the per-son or people you are traveling with and more about theworld. Africa has certainly secured a place in my heart.I hope you can see from the pictures how beautiful it is.

Love,Christy

Kathryn Pritchard (MS ‘06)Hey Dr. Huff!

I'm living and working downtown (Cincinnati) current-ly at URS Corp with Christy Reuter. We're both hereworking as Field Geologist's, mainly collecting ground-water and soil samples at various sites and providingoversight for monitoring well installation and remedia-tion projects. Then every now and again we're in theoffice writing reports. A lot of former UC grads workhere with us - John Alten, Tom Hudson...It's a fairlymixed bag - and we're both getting along pretty well.

I'll look forward to the newsletter and the CentennialCelebration. Christy has mentioned it to me severaltimes. She's been running into Dave Nash around townpretty frequently and he keeps sending the reminder.

Good to hear from you, Take CareKatie

Christy, Jill Conway (center), Lisa Fayand friends,

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The spring 2006 issue of McMickenMagazine carried a lead article that began,“Last September members of theMcMicken College’s Geology Departmentembarked on a unique expedition to one ofthe world’s most imposing regions.Professors Lewis Owen and Craig Dietsch,along with four undergraduates, nine gradu-ate students, and two alumni, made the 500kilometer trek from the Indian capital of NewDelhi to the northern Indian city of Leh, aroute that took the group into the heart ofthe Himalayan mountain range.

The trip presented an exceptional oppor-tunity to explore the dynamic geology ofthe world’s greatest mountain belt.Perhaps more importantly, it offered thechance to gain a new perspective on lifefrom the other side of the world.” See theadjacent cover photo. You can read the entirearticle and s e e m o r e p h o t o s a th t t p : / / w w w . a r t s c i . u c . e d u/alumni/magazine/mcm_mag.html.

T H E U L T I M A T E R O A D T R I P

LOSTAND (HOPEFULLY)FOUND CORNER

We do not have current mailing address-es for the following alumni.

Can you help?

Mr. Michael Armstrong

Dr. Mary Bremer

Mr. Vernon R. Carr

Ms. Rebecca Carter

Dr. Ping F. Chen

Mr. Martin Clifford

Ms. Krista A. Collins

Ms. Shelly Cooker

Mr. James Devine

Mr. Joseph M. Forgacs

Dr. Maurice G. Frey

Mr. David J. Green

Mr. Michael A. Honnert

Mr. Ben Johnston

Ms. Jessica D. Kelley

Mr. Glenn King

Mr. Andrew Kosse

Mr. Byron M. Lester

Mr. Shuguang Mao

Mr. Robert Rhoades

Mr. Mark Rudolph

Ms. Amy Smith

Ms Ann Smyth

Mr. Kenneth Sparks

Mr. Timothy P. Stevenson

Mr. James I. Streeter

Mr. David Trowbridge

Ms. Kelleen Williams

Mr. Stephen C. Woodward

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Atique A. Baig (Post Doc)Dear Prof. Huff,

Thanks for your last E-mail in January, congratulatingto me for my job in Karachi University. You will bepleased to know that now I have joined Department ofGeology at the University of Karachi as an EminentProfessor/Researcher. The Higher EducationCommission (HEC) Commission (HEC) in Islamabadhas selected me for this assignment. HEC is theCentral Government’s body that takes care of all theUniversities in Pakistan just like the University GrantsCommission. My job wants from me to teach/super-vise research students and deliver lectures to the stu-dents of geology in other universities.

I am keen to undertake a research project on theDSDP samples if you can kindly guide me that to whomI should contact in this regard. I hope that you and yourwife are fine and I wish you sound health.

With regards,

Dr. Atique A. BaigEminent Professor/ResearcherDepartment of GeologyUniversity of KarachiKarachi, Pakistan

A l u m n i / a e R e p o r t s

At the 2006 GSA National Conference, Philadelphia TracyBrockman (above). Jay Zambito IV (l), Kate Bulinski (c) andAlex Barthlomew (r) below.

We were pleased to welcome back Dr. Barbu "Bobby" Lang of theGeological Survey of Israel who visited recently and is shown inthe accompanying photo with Prof. Attila Kilinc. Bobby was avisiting scholar and lecturer at UC in the early 90's and hasremained a close friend of the department ever since.

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Shannon Mahan, USGS DenverNew advances in the application of luminescence dating in the Western USA

Paul Koch, University of California, Santa CruzEcological and Evolutionary Responses of Terrestrial Animals and Plants to Paleogene Warming

Ken Hinkel, University of Cincinnati - Department of GeographyEnvironmental change in the Arctic

Tom Algeo, University of Cincinnati - Department of GeologyEvidence for recurrent upwelling of sulfidic deepwaters at the Permian-Triassic boundary

Stephen Reidel, Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryThe Geologic Evolution of the Columbia River System - how flood basalts, tectonics and ice age

cataclysmic flooding shaped the rivers of the Pacific Northwest

Isabel Montanez, University of California - DavisCO2 - Climate - Glaciation Linkages during Late Paleozoic Deglaciation

Arun D. Ahluwalia, Panjab UniversityGeological history (Proterozoic to Holocene) and landscapes of Himachal Himalayas

Phil Novack-Gottshall, University of West GeorgiaLong-term ecological trends in Cambrian/Devonian marine assemblages

Linda A. Hinnov, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Assembling an Astronomical-Calibrated Time Scale for Earth History

Lewis Owen, University of Cincinnati - Department of GeologyQuaternary glaciation of the Himalaya and Tibet

Denny Hubbard, Oberlin CollegeHolocene Coral-Reef Development: A Changing Paradigm?

Dan Smith, University of VictoriaHolocene dendroglaciology in the British Columbia Coast Mountains

Jason P. Briner, University of BuffaloFjords and ice sheet dynamics: Lessons learned from applying cosmogenic radionuclides to

the northeastern Canadian Shield

Richard Law, Virginia TechInternal flow and extrusion of the Greater Himalayan Slab, Mount Everest Massif:

a Cook's tour of the world's highest rocks

Michael J. McPhaden, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental LaboratoryGeorge Rieveschl Geolecture

El Nino: Causes, Consequences, and Misconceptions

Sally Walker, University of GeorgiaTaphomy and Vrabs

Dave Moecher, University of KentuckyMelting of wall rocks by frictional heating during earthquake-generating fault rupture: How hot, and how wet?

Steve Wells, Desert Research InstituteDesert Pavement Development and Landscape Evolution: Long-term Surficial Processes

at the Atmosphere - Soil Interface in Aridlands

Greg Retallack, University of OregonGlobal greenhouse crises of the past

Markus Fuchs, University of BayreuthLuminescence dating application for studies of paleoenvironment change

Attila Kilinc, University of CincinnatiA thermodynamic model for explosive volcanism

C o l l o q u i u m L e c t u r e S e r i e s 2 0 0 6 - 2 0 0 7

Many thanks to al l l ec turers for an interest ing year !

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2 0 0 6 G E O L O G I C A L S O C I E T Y O F A M E R I C A A N N U A L M E E T I N GP r e s e n t a t i o n s 2 0 0 6 - 2 0 0 7

BUICK, Devin P.When Is a Species Not a Species? Quantifying Regional and Evolutionary Differences in Morphology for the Genus

Cucullaea [Bivalvia]

BULLARD, Reuben G. Jr, and NASH, David B.Three-Dimensional Modeling of the Degradation of Civil War Earthworks

SMITH, Colby A., Department of Geology, and LOWELL, Thomas V.,Evidence of Changes in Glacial Thermal Regime: A Test Case from Nevado Sajama, Bolivia

LONDONO, Ana CristinaErosion Evolution in Arid Environments Derived from the Study of Pre-Columbian Agricultural

Terraces in Southern Peru

HENDY, Austin J.W., BUICK, Devin P., BULINSKI, Katherine V., FERGUSON, Chad A., and MILLER, Arnold I.,

Latitudinal Diversity Gradients and the Cenozoic Fossil Record of the Western Atlantic: Consideration of Spatial Scale and Sampling Issues

BULINSKI, Katherine V.Sample, Locality and Regional-Level Biodiversity: Implications of Aggregating

Paleontological Data at Multiple Spatial Scales

USTUNISIK, Gokce K.The Role of Low Pressure Fractionation in the Differentiation of Calc Alkaline Ankara Volcanics

MILAWSKI, James E., DENDRAMIS, Nancy C., MCFADDIN, Jared, MICHAELS, Joshua A., REDDER, Myles,

LOWELL, Thomas V., and HUFF, Warren D.Sedimentary Processes Associated with Deglaciation near Sioux Pond Lookout, Northwest Ontario

BARTHOLOMEW, Alexander J., BRETT, Carlton E., DESANTIS, Michael K., and BAIRD, Gordon

Coordinated Faunal Turnover in the Middle Devonian of Eastern North America

ZAMBITO, James J. IVA Test of Ambocoeliid (Brachiopoda) Spinosity as an Adaptation for Soft Substrates

Using Abundance Patterns Through Transgressive-Regressive Cycles and Within Pyritic Shale Beds

FERGUSON, Chad AllenEcosystem Dynamics and the Sedimentary Record: Assessment of Faunal Patterns and Environmental History

from Cross Bank, Florida Bay

BROCKMAN, Tracy L.Size Distributions of Plagioclase Crystals in Lava Samples from Kilauea

SOLPULKER, Utku and KILINC, Attila I.Modeling of Alkaline Rocks: Kula Volcanics

R e c e n t S t u d e n t A c t i v i t i e s

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T H E S E S D E F E N D E D

2006 - 2007

Adams, Bryon - MSExhumation and incision history of the Lahul Himalaya,

northern India, based on (U-Th)/He thermochronometry and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating techniques.Craig Dietsch, 2007

•Barthlomew, Alexander - PhD

Middle Devonian Faunas of the Michigan and Appalachian Basins: Comparing patterns of biotic stability and turnover between two biogeographic provinces. Carlton Brett, 2007

•Bonilla Ramos, Alejandra - MS

Geochemistry study in bedrock, outwash fill material and groundwater from a buried valley aquifer in SouthwesternOhio: The uses of sulfur isotopes for identifying the source of arsenic. Barry Maynard, 2006

•Deline, Bradley - MS

Inter- and Intraspecific Morphological Variation of Crinoid Columnals in Relation to Water Depth in the Type Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician). David Meyer, 2006

•Dortch, Jason - MS

Defining the timing of glaciation in the central Alaska Range. Lewis Owen, 2006•

McLaughlin Susie Taha - MSSequence Stratigraphy and Faunal Patterns of the Middle Lexington Limestone

(Upper Ordovician) in Central Kentucky. Carlton Brett, 2006•

McLaughlin, Patrick - PhDCratonic Sequence Stratigraphy: Advances from Analysis of Mixed Carbonate-

Siliciclastic Successions. Carlton Brett, 2006•

Merk, Brendan - MSGround Water Flow Modeling and Transient Particle Tracking, Applications for the Transport of

Cryptosporidium parvum in an Unconfined Buried Bedrock Valley Aquifer, Springfield, Ohio. David Nash, 2006•

Pritchard, Katherine - MSRelationships and Patterns of Channel Formation During Deglaciation of the Miami Lobe, near Piqua, Ohio.

Thomas Lowell, 2006•

Seong, Yeong Bae - PhDQuaternary Glaciation and Its Role on Landscape Evolution of the

Muztag Ata-Kongur Shan and K2 Regions in the Westernmost Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen.Lewis Owen, 2007

•Toprak, Funda Ozlem - PhD

Constraining The Potential Respiratory Health Hazard From Large Volcanic Eruptions. Warren Huff, 2007•

Solpuker, Utku - PhDPetrology of Kula Volcanic Province, Western Turkey. Attila Kilinc, 2007

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Congr atu la t i ons!