Earth & Environmental Sciences
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Earth & Environmental Sciences 2016 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER Earth & Environmental Sciences Greetings from 2016 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER the Department Chair TABLE OF CONTENTS Regular Faculty to expand our endowments that help We plan three alumni receptions Sean Bemis, Assistant Professor 2 Chair’s Letter support graduate students (see the in 2017 to celebrate the 125th Andrea Erhardt, Assistant Professor 3-4 Degrees and Awards announcement on p.8 for our campaign Anniversary: in Houston at the Annual Frank Ettensohn, Professor for 2017). Convention and Exhibition of AAPG Rebecca Freeman, Assistant Professor April 3; in Crested butte at Cement Alan Fryar, Associate Professor 5-6 New Faculty Sora Kim, Assistant Professor We continue to emphasize field- Creek Ranch on July 2; and in Michael McGlue, Assistant Professor 7 Rast-Holbrook Seminar Speakers based instruction and learning. This Lexington October 5. Please try and David Moecher, Professor past calendar saw major field trips to attend one of these events to show Keely O’Farrell, Assistant Professor 8 Alumni News Maine to examine classic northern your support and catch up with other Dhananjay Ravat, Professor Appalachian stratigraphy and structure, Geology alumni. Ryan Thigpen, Assistant Professor 9-10 Field Trips Dear UK Geology and to the Sierra Nevada range in Kevin Yeager, Associate Professor California to examine Pleistocene We are so fortunate to have a Ed Woolery, Professor 11-12 Pictures Alumni and Friends, glacial lake deposits for environmental supportive group of alumni advocating change research. Both of these trips on our behalf, hiring our students, Staff 13 Distinguished Alumni 2016 was another year of major Rich Dabundo, Stable Isotope Technician were supported by generous donations and providing financial support for our progress for the Department of Earth to the Liz Haynes Field Trip fund and teaching and research mission. There Adrianne Gilley, Dept. Manager 14 2016 Donations and Environmental Sciences at UK. Pete Idstein, Academic Lab Coordinator the Wendell Overcash Scholarship remains much financial uncertainty As 2017 begins we can look back on Joseph Lucas, Lab Manager 15 Support Opportunities fund. Please see the highlight stories in higher education and the state a year of growth and vitality for our on pp. 9 and 10. continues to modify its funding formula. Adjunct Faculty program. This trickles down to undergraduate John Hickman, KGS By the time you read this we will be and graduate support. Fortunately, Jim Hower, CAER Our faculty size expanded by three well into 2017, which is the 125th our endowments help insulate us from Cortland Eble, KGS STAY CONNECTED... this year, returning us to the position Anniversary of the Geology program some of the disruptions that negatively Rick Bowersox, KGS we were at in the mid-1980s (13 Marty Parris, KGS You can keep track of department events, the Rast-Holbrook at UK. That’s a really big deal folks! impact other degree programs at regular faculty, one senior lecturer, Geology has played a major role in UK. Please consider supporting our Tom Robl, CAER seminar schedule, our contact information, and alumni events and two Research Professors). We Jerry Weisenfluh, KGS Kentucky from the early days of the students through donations to one of via the department web page: added Professors Andrea Erhardt, Steve Greb, KGS Kentucky Geological Survey (est. our endowments that we use to recruit, Keely O’Farrell, and Sora Kim (please Zhenming Wang, KGS ees.as.uky.edu 1854) to the creation of the Geology support, and retain top students. Junfeng Zhu, KGS see their biographical sketches on Department (1892) to today. Our Chris Groves, WKU pp. 6-7). Drs. Jim Hower (of the UK alumni play key roles in the public and Center for Applied Energy Research) private sector statewide, nationally, With much appreciation, Part-Time Instructors AND KEEP IN TOUCH! and Bill Haneberg (new Director of the and even internationally. We are Summer Brown Kentucky Geological Survey and 13th writing a department history now, but Dave Moecher Please let us know if your address or contact information State Geologist of Kentucky) joined us just one little trivia tidbit: Prof. Arthur Lecturers as Research Professors. More faculty Dr. Kent Ratajeski changes. Send a note to, email, or call Adrianne Gilley, Miller was the first chair of the Geology Alumni Professor and Chair the EES Department Manager. should translate into more research Department, first dean of the College Emeritus Faculty grants, more graduate student of Arts and Sciences, and the first research opportunities, and more William Blackburn ADRIANNE GILLEY football coach at UK! And they say it’s graduate degrees. To that end, we are Bruce Moore Department of Earth & challenging being a chair today! Kieran O’Hara Environmental Sciences making a fundraising push in 2017 Sue Rimmer University of Kentucky Lyle Sendlein 101 A Slone Bldg. Ron Street Lexington KY 40506-0053 William Thomas [email protected] (859) 257-5568 Cover Photo: Clara Rucker hikes through the High Sierras with the EES 480/730 field trip, fall 2016. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK! @UKEarthandEnvironmentalSciences 2 DEGREES AND AWARDS DEGREES AND AWARDS GRADUATE DEGREES UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS GRADUATE AWARDS (with thesis advisor and placement as of Jan. 2017) PIRTLE OUTSTANDING SENIOR SCHOLARSHIP PIRTLE SUMMER GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS Meredith O’Dell Rachel Durham Cara Peterman Jeremy Eddy William Pierskalla GLENN RICE MEMORIAL TUITION Ann Hislop Clara Rucker SPRING 2016: FALL 2016: SCHOLARSHIP Wei Ji Patrick Ryan Ethan Davis Edward Lo Sean Swick Patrick Baldwin, M.S.: “Lithostratigraphic and Kade Carlson, M.S.: Paleoearthquakes of the Past Adam Nolte Jason Merrick Michael Vadman geochemical characterization of the Upper ~ 6000 Years at the Dead Mouse Site, West-Central Rebecca Smiley Pennsylvanian ‘Wolfcamp D’ shale, Midland Basin Denali Fault at the Nenana River, Alaska (S. Bemis) FERM GRADUATE RESERACH AWARD (USA)” (M. McGlue) (Penhall Technologies) (SLR Consulting) Ashley Bandy Clara Rucker SIGMA GAMMA EPSILON TARR AWARD Kade Carlson Ann Hislop James McCulla, M.S.: “Dating Deformation Brett Howell, M.S.: “Spring Responses to Storms and Matthew Cecil in the Palmer Zone of Transpression, Central Seasonal Variations in Recharge in the Middle Atlas BROWN-MCFARLAN FUND TRAVEL AWARD Massachusetts: Temporal Constraints on Models Region of Morocco” (A. Fryar) ADVANCING SCIENCE FOR KENTUCKIANS Ashley Bandy Joseph Lucas for Progressive Deformation in the Middle Crust” (ASK) SCHOLARSHIP Ann Hislop Zac Perlman (D.Moecher) (Pioneer Natural Resources) Ann Fendick, M.S.: “Denali in a box: analog Darion Carden Rachel Durham Cara Peterman experiment modeled after a natural setting provide Jeremy Eddy Patrick Whalen Fidele Nsonguf Tibouo, M.S.: “Use and Evaluation insight on gentle restraining bend deformation” (S. Wei Ji of LiDAR for Mapping Sinkholes in Royal Spring Bemis) (Quantum Spatial) JAY G. HENTHORNE JR. SCHOLARSHIP Groundwater Basin” (A. Fryar) Thomas Murell OUTSTANDING TA AWARD Paul Rodriguez Asihama, M.S.: Development of Semi-Automated Methodologies for Discriminating Rachel Durham Between Natural and Manmade Seismic Events Using ALUMNI EARTH & ENVIRONMENTAL Michael Vadman SUMMER 2016: the OIINK Seismic Array. (E. Woolery) UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP Holly Young Wei Ji, M.S.: Sedimentary Responses to Growth Ashley Bandy, PhD: “Mobility of Escherichia Coli in Fault Slip and Clay Shrink and Swell Induced Karst Terrains, Kentucky, USA” (A. Fryar) (Part-Time PIONEER SCHOLAR Elevation Variations: East Matagorda Peninsula, Instructor, University of Kentucky) Meredith O’Dell Texas (K. Yeager) Marie Cooper, M.S.: “Investigation of the Claiborne Patrick Ryan, M.S.: Stratigraphic, Geochemical and Aquifer System Hydrostratigraphy Using Integrated Well Log Analysis of the Wolfcamp-D Unconventional Geophysical Methods: Jackson Purchase, Kentucky” Play in the Central Midland Basin, Texas (M. McGlue) UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES Sigma Gamma Epsilon Tarr Award recipient Matt Cecil (right) with (E. Woolery) (Northern Kentucky University) (Matador Resources) past Tarr Award recipient and UK Alumnus Dr. Drew Andrews of BACHELOR OF ARTS the Kentucky Geological Society. Benjamin Currens, M.S.: Deuterium and Oxygen-18 Christopher Bond Diffusion in a Confined Aquifer: a Numerical Model Erika Emrick of Stable Isotope Diffusion Across Aquitard-Aquifer Michael Jax Boundaries. (A. Fryar) (PhD student, University of Chase Lockhardt Kentucky) Sean Rohrer Dominic Sparkling Emma Larkin, M.S.: “Field, Geochronologic, and Geochemical Constraints on the Late Precambrian BACHELOR OF SCIENCES to Early Paleozoic Terrane Accretion in the Sothern Edwin Cheong Appalachian Blue Ridge Province” (D. Moecher) Jason Orr (Kentucky Environmental and Energy Cabinet) Alicia Solomon Darion Carden receiving ASK Scholarship from alumna Dr. Susan Eriksson, who established the scholarship to support female stu- dents in geosciences. L-R: Dr. Dave Moecher, Darion Carden, Dr. Susan Erikson, Dr. Rebecca Freeman. 3 4 NEW FACULTY NEW FACULTY Andrea Erhardt Dr. Andrea Erhardt joined the faculty as a stable isotope geochemist in August 2016. Her overarching interests revolve around understanding how the carbon cycle responds to climate change using isotopic and elemental tracers. Through her experiences at the Colorado School of Mines (M.S.), Stanford University (Ph.D.), and a postdoc at the University of Cambridge in England, she has built a repertoire of isotope systems, including calcium, strontium,