Fall 2005 Newsletter (PDF)

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS Department of Geoscience FALL, 2005 Geoscience Newsletter Committee: Jean Cline, Ganqing Jiang, and Catherine Snelson Remarks from the Chair and reputation nationally, limited expansion in the number of faculty including a geophysicist and a geomorphologist, and It is wonderful to have this opportunity to tell you what increasing the numbers of students in our undergraduate and has been happening in the Department of Geoscience. It has graduate programs. been a few years since our last newsletter, but we will make Some of our other faculty also have new administrative it an annual event in the future. We hope the newsletter will duties. Michael Wells is now serving as Associate Chair and keep you up to date with our undertakings and accomplish- is doing a great job with tackling schedules, projecting ments. As usual, the Department has undergone many schedules into the future, and all of his other sundry duties. changes in the last couple of years. As many of you know, the previous Chair was Rod Metcalf. Both Dave Weide and Fred Bachhuber recently retired He is now serving as an Associate Dean of the College of and they both were awarded the position of Professor Science, but continues to have a constructive and productive Emeritus. We are always glad to see them show up on cam- teaching and research presence in the Department. Jean Cline pus and they both continue to be sources of knowledge and is now Project Manager for the Walking Box Ranch, which is history for the Department. to be a field station and museum near Searchlight, NV. We are pleased to mention the promotions of some fac- Our state-of-the-art equipment list keeps growing! ulty. In 2004, Brenda Buck earned tenure and promotion to Recently we purchased new XRF and XRD equipment. Clay Associate Professor and I (Wanda continued on page 2 Taylor) netted promotion to Professor. In 2005, Zhongbo Yu earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor and Michael Wells was promoted to Professor. We are excited to have hired new faculty in the last couple of years: Matthew Lachniet (Paleoclimatology), Michael Nicholl (Vadose Zone Hydrology), Patrick Drohan (Soil Science), Ganqing Jiang (Carbonate Sequence and Chemostratigraphy), Kimberly Johnson (Sedimentology) and Adam Simon (Economic Geology/Geochemistry). Each of them and their research specializations bring much needed expertise and capabilities to our course offerings and research programs. I have been Chair for about a year and am still figuring out how to juggle administrative duties with both teaching and research. My goals as Chair Faculty at the 2005 retreat on Lake Mead. Left to right, row 1: Michael Wells, Adam Simon, Patrick Drohan; row 2: Catherine Snelson, Kim Johnson, Andrew Hanson, Matt are to shepherd the Department Lachniet, Rod Metcalf; row 3: Zhongbo Yu, Gene Smith, Ganqing Jiang, Wanda Taylor, through continued success in enhanc- Jean Cline. Faculty not present: Brenda Buck, Dave Kreamer, Mike Nicholl, Steve Rowland, ing our teaching and research abilities and Terry Spell. Remarks from the Chair continued from page 1 wonderful trip it has been. Numbers of students during 31 years? Yes, I kept a record: total number of students, 5,279; Crow has that equipment up and running and it is exciting to Geography 101, 4,022; Geology 101, 748; Geomorphology, have and use this equipment for both teaching and research. 306; plus about 500+ in 15 other courses. It is no wonder I The differences in capabilities and technology are huge in cannot enter a supermarket anywhere in town without some- comparison to the equipment we had 10 to 20 years ago. one saying…. “Hi! I had you as a teacher at UNLV back in Matt Lachniet and Ganqing Jiang recently were awarded 1976……” So what does the future hold? NSF funding to purchase and bring on-line equipment for I plan to remain with the UNLV Geoscience Department stable isotope measurements and more equipment for NIGL on an “Emeritus basis” and I will continue to teach courses (the 40Ar/39Ar lab). as the Department wishes, as a Part Time Instructor. There Our students are doing well in terms of getting jobs or will be time for travel: I have a list of places to visit that I going on to graduate school, which is the ultimate measure have kept since I was 12 years old. The first destination, the of success. In addition, during fall 2004 eight undergraduate Panama Canal, will be followed by New Zealand and and graduate students presented at the GSA meeting and five Australia. With that, thanks to all of you. You have made presented at the AGU. The students also formed several new teaching most exciting and rewarding! clubs and chapters including student chapters of AAPG, AEG, and SEG. Also, the more-or-less annual canoe trip through Black Canyon was a roaring success. Please stop by and see us sometime or drop us an email ExxonMobil and let us know where you are and what you are now doing. Investing in the Be sure and update your contact information so that we can make sure the newsletter reaches you. The general department future of our email address is [email protected]. Do check the students department website as it has lots of interesting information In 2002, Bob Stewart, about what we and former members of the Geoscience depart- Manager of ExxonMobil ment are up to - http://geoscience.unlv.edu/. We always enjoy recruitment, contacted the hearing from our friends and alumni! Andrew Hanson (Petroleum Geology), UNLV Geoscience Bob Stewart (ExxonMobil), and Cheers! Department because he Wanda Taylor (Department chair, Wanda J. Taylor was interested in poten- Structure) relaxing during “Beer on the Balcony” during Bob’s recruiting visit tially hiring some of our to the department. graduate students. After an initial assessment, official recruiting visits began and, Dr. Dave Weide since then, Bob has interviewed numerous students in the past and present... department. Recent alumni who were hired with full-time status by Once upon a time back in the fall of ExxonMobil include: Holly Langrock (now Holly Novak), 1973, a new Geoscience faculty member Ilsa Schiefelbein, Eric Fossett, and Tandis Bidgoli (M.S. stu- arrived on campus and was assigned four dents of Wanda Taylor), Jonathan Zybala (M.S. student of new courses, no start-up funds, no Andrew Hanson), and Darlene McEwan (M.S. student of release time, and a tiny cubicle in the Cathy Snelson). And, Jill Hammond—one of our former third oldest building on campus; then undergraduates—is also employed full-time at ExxonMobil. shared with the Biology department. That Other UNLV Geoscience Graduate students who were new professor was Dave Weide. At the start of that Fall hired for internships include Leigh Justet (Ph.D. student of semester in 1973, the geoscience faculty consisted of 3 peo- Terry Spell) and Melissa Hicks (Ph.D. student of Steve ple: John Wilbanks, Chairman; Bill McClellan, paleontology Rowland). Several other graduate students have been invited and “soft rocks”; and Anne Wyman, mineralogy and petrol- to attend ExxonMobil fieldtrips and short courses. This past ogy. For Weide it was to be a brand new adventure! spring Amy Brock, Joe Kula, Robin Howley and Kati On the first day of the first meeting of my first class I Gibler—all current graduate students—attended EM field calmly announced to the 105+ students who had signed up courses. for Geography 101: “This will be an adventure for all of us; ExxonMobil is a valued partner in our efforts to provide not only have I never taught THIS class before; I have never a promising future for our graduates—not only by hiring, taught anything to anybody before this! We shall learn recruiting for internships, and inviting our students to learn together.” from their staff—but they continue to invest in our students’ On July 1, 2004, Dave Weide; older, grayer, somewhat education. We thank ExxonMobil for funds donated to the wiser, but in no way more subdued, retired from the Faculty UNLV Geoscience Department to help finance our educa- of the Geoscience Department. What a long, strange, but tional student field trips. 2 Student Clubs Alumni The UNLV Geology Club encourages undergraduate stu- Byron W. Cork, BS 1980: I am currently a math and sci- dent involvement in departmental activities and other geo- ence teacher at Pathways Secondary School in Pahrump, NV. science-based organizations although membership is free Jerry W. Baughman, BS 1986: I am doing well and am and open to anyone who is interested. We sponsor educa- managing a mineral exploration company based in Reno tional field trips and social gatherings through fundraising Nevada called Nevada Eagle Resources. From 1990 to the and donations. Our current fundraiser is a canned present time, I have been based in the Reno area. During soda/bottled water sale in the main office. Please email 1990, I worked as a consulting geologist for Cambior [email protected] for more information. (U.S.A.) Inc. conducting numerous property examinations. From 1991 to 1994 I worked as an exploration manager- The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) UNLV USA for Southwestern Gold involved in precious metal Student Chapter has been recognized by our parent exploration and oversaw all exploration and development organization the Society of Exploration Geophysicists for projects and evaluated all property submittals for the United two years as well as on campus by CSUN (Consolidated States. Since the fall of 1994 I have been acquiring gold Students of the University of Nevada). We are a pre-pro- properties in North and South America for myself and have fessional organization designed to introduce student mem- leased properties to most of the major mining companies and bers to the careers in and practices of the petroleum to a host of juniors.

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