UNDER the ROCK SUNY Geneseo’S GSCI Annual Newsletter SUMMER 2018
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UNDER THE ROCK SUNY Geneseo’s GSCI Annual Newsletter SUMMER 2018 Greetings from the chair: Happy end of summer to all of our Geneseo GSCI friends and family. My first year as chair Fall Brook waterfall, Geneseo has been a good one. I find I am very privileged to lead such a strong department On a department level, we have started to dedicate some that continues to inspire and nurture young intentional focus to making sure we are safe when we take geologists as well as make an impact on our students on field trips. To help us learn more about best understanding of the Earth and all its facets. practices regarding safety, we invited Kurt Burmeister (University of the Pacific) to come and present a “field Mineralogy and Petrology continued to serve large numbers safety course” to our department. It was co-sponsored by over the ’17-18 academic year. Mineralogy had a whopping 48 the Provost’s office and our department (thanks to all for students! They brought a zeal and curiosity that made for some your support). This training was attended by a student, all great term paper reading. It looks like this upcoming year will of the GSCI faculty and staff, and faculty from the Bio and be slightly smaller, but that will allow students to have easier Geography departments. It was a transformational event access to instruments such as the X-ray diffractometer. made us think more proactively about field safety, and we have already started to implement changes to our field In the fall, I was delighted to attend the national GSA meeting trips. We now have safety vests for students as well as a in Seattle and was part of three presentations. My sign we can place in the road to warn people when we are presentations covered research involving learning in geoscience studying roadside outcrops. We’ll include photos of the college classrooms, the use of reflectance spectrometry, and signs in the next newsletter! how best to digitize a rock, mineral, fossil and map catalog. Two of these presentations were co-authored with students In closing, I want to thank all of you for being so who did a great job and represented Geneseo well. supportive of our department. We love it when you come and visit and meet with current students and hope we can My own research work in the area of slag also kept going in foster more of those cross-generation interactions in the conjunction with some interesting student directed studies. upcoming years. Please know that your support has made One of these projects investigated samples from a historical a difference for students as they pursued summer research smelter in Delaware. Casey Hoffman ’18 studied the samples to here in the department, attended national geology determine if they indicated a smelting process that was meetings, and even helped to co-sponsor safety courses influenced by techniques brought to the colonies by African here in the department. Please keep in touch and come and slaves. It was a really neat project that mingled anthropology, visit! You can even check out the newly-painted GSCI history and science! walls (including Nick Warner’s office which now looks like Mars with its orange walls!). On a personal level, the family is doing great. Alex will be a 4th grader, and Emma will be a 2nd grader this upcoming year. Keep an eye out in future newsletters for more news They both have a great appreciation for nature and still come regarding your favorite emeriti faculty and some insights home with rocks in their backpacks. Their school folders get on departmental history! beaten up a little more than other students, but I am not complaining! Sincerely, Dori Farthing Welcome to our newest faculty… Dr. Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski! She has joined the GSCI department as our paleontologist who is teaching Basin Analysis, Environmental Geology, Sedimentation, and a climate change course! Here’s her report…. DID YOU KNOW THE DEPARTMENT NOW HAS A DRONE? Hello Geneseo Geologists! I am so happy and excited to be part of the geology department at Geneseo! My husband, Peter, and my two girls, Rose (5) and Abigail (16 months), and I moved here in July 2017 and have been happily adjusting to New York life and Geneseo. In the fall, I taught Paleontology and Environmental Geology for the first time. I was very impressed by the number of students in Paleontology (almost 40!) and the warm of a reception I have received from the entire department. This spring, I learned very quickly about New York winters by breaking my ankle after slipping on ice before the semester started. With the extraordinary and tremendous help from everyone in the department, I was still able to teach my new course, Basin Analysis, with Jeff Over’s help while I recovered. Thermal image of the ISC This summer, I taught at the Wasatch-Uinta Field Camp in (including the Greene Hall wing). Park City, Utah and started my research program with Jake Okun’19 on the conservation paleobiology of macroinvertebrate communities of the Finger Lakes. I’m looking forward to The above image was taken by Amelia Mindich ’18 as part another great year being part of the Geneseo geology family of work associated with her thesis project. Through her (without broken limbs hopefully)! work, she wanted to better understand the heat loss of buildings on campus and used the drone to look at the influence of building age and style on heat loss. This image shows the surface temperature of the ISC in the fall in the early evening. Our drone is a DJI Inspire 1 drone equipped with a Zenmuse FLIR camera, acquired by Dr. Scott Giorgis and Dr. Nick Warner who received an Innovative Technology Instruction Grant (IITG). Dr. Jackie Wittmer-Malinowski and the family (from left to right: Pete, ABBy, Rose and Jackie) 2 MORE FACULTY UPDATES: AMY SHELDON: NICK WARNER: Greetings everyone! Time flies when you’re having fun. Greetings! I’m writing this newsletter entry from Burbank, CA This year, we welcomed a strong group of new majors in where I recently attended the launch of the InSight mission to Physical Geology in the fall. It is fun to work with such Mars. The launch site at Vandenberg Air Force base was foggy enthusiastic students and see their progression through on the morning of the launch so I was unable to snap a picture. the major as they take Isotope Groundwater, or I have included a picture from NASA of the Atlas V emerging Geochemistry as juniors and seniors. from the fog. I am somewhere below those clouds. My research year began with treasures given to us by The InSight mission has involved six years of research effort to alumnus Eugene Gorman ’79 from a decommissioned lab. characterize the geology of the landing site. Multiple Geneseo It was very thoughtful on his part and useful for us. We geology students have been involved including Anthony have already refurbished parts of the equipment in my lab. Pivarunas ’15, Julianne Sweeney ’17, and Anne Kelly ’18. Two Scott Booth ’20 continued working with me along with Geneseo geology students, Alyssa Demott and Megan Kopp, first-year student, Abigale O’Connor ’21. will travel with me to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) on November 26th, 2018 for the landing. Our job is to map the This year, I also assumed the role of Principle Investigator geology of the workspace in front of the lander. (PI) on our NSF grant that provides scholarships to promising geology, geochemistry, and geophysics majors I also continue to develop my three upper level GSCI courses - with financial need. After collaborating with the director Planetary Geology, Remote Sensing, and Geomorphology. This of financial aid, the grants office, and the vice president of is only my second year of teaching geomorph and with the help administration and finance, we were able to increase the of Ben Laabs, Dick Young, and others I think I have the course awards to roughly half of the scholars to better meet their in really good shape. The new course includes several labs that financial needs. This effort highlighted the extremely give our students experience with GIS. This has already paid dedicated, hard-working, and student-centered off for some who have rolled their experience into finding jobs professionals we have here at Geneseo. And, what a joy it that have a heavy GIS component. was to observe student reactions! Tears of joy were shared. Those moments were the highlight of my year. Finally, this summer I am returning to Iceland to run a study abroad program with Lytton Smith in English called “Writing Brian and the kids are doing well. Brian had a much better and Knowing the Land.” I am bringing eight Geneseo geology year than last as he learns how to navigate MS, and he students to do fieldwork in Iceland while assisting creative entered the Old-As-Dirt-Club in March. Brian and I are writers with their landscape-based narratives. I’m really learning that Middle School breeds weirdness in otherwise excited to keep this trip going for years to come. (See page six normal kids. It seems to be a time of testing new and in this newsletter for a few images from Iceland.) highly irritating habits – from bottle flipping and spinners to vocal noises and gestures. Our kids tell us that they don’t do it nearly as much as every other kid in school. Seriously though, the kids are awesome. Nick is on a premier soccer team this year, so soccer is a year-round commitment for us.