Biographical )iotes 581 Biographical Notes Biographical sketches of contributing authors are included below. The codes and awards that follow the National Speleological Society (NSS) member numbers are explained here: HM Honorary Member of the NSS OS William J. Stephenson Outstanding Service Award RL Regular Life Member eM Certificate of Merit CO Conservation Award LB Lew Bicking Award PH Peter M. Hauer Spclean History Award FE Fellow (lfthe Society James F. Baichtal, NSS #33277 FE Jim Baiehtal has 23 years experience with the U.S. Federal Government as an engineering and resource geologist. He graduated from Washington State University with a B.S. in Geology (1980) and an M.S. in Geology (1982). Since 1990, Baiehtal has worked as the Forest geologist on the Tongass National Forest with responsibilities for developing karst and cave resource managemcnt strategies addressing the efTccts of timber harvest and road construction on the karst systems of Southeast Alaska. He has worked both nationally and internationally on karst resource issues. Baichtal is involved with an active public education program where he teaches about the geologic and glacial history of Southeast Alaska and the karst ecosystem and cave resources on the Forest. Hazel A. Barton, Ph.D., NSS #38864 Hazel Barton received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Following post-doctoral work studying microbial ccology and physiology, Dr. Barton is presently the Ashland Endowed Professor of Integrative Science and an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Kentucky University. Her work includes a National Institutes of Health funded study examining Salmonellae adaptation to starvation, and the interactions of microbial communities in starved cave environments, funded in part by the National Science Foundation KY EPSCoR program. Barton is also a director of the National Speleological Society and the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey. She is an accomplished cave cartographer. Barton's work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Forbes, National Geographic Explore,; Outside Magazine. on National Public Radio, and in an IMAX documentary. Jonathan B. Beard, NSS #21408 RL FE Jon Beard has be{~nemployed as an industrial training designer since 1989. He began caving in 1970 in Kansas and moved to the Missouri Ozarks in 1978. In 1983, vandalized Breakdown Cave was gated by local cavers. Beard directs the management of the cave as a restoration laboratory and classroom. Using many types of adhesives produced at the factory where he works, he has experimented with ways to reattach broken speleo- thems. He uses a variety of methods to remove calcified muddy handprints and graffiti. Beard currently helps manage several gated eaves located on private properties. Thomas B. Bemis, NSS #16184 Tom Bemis has b(~encaving since 1970 and has worked for the National Park Service at Carlsbad Caverns National Park since 1979. He currently works for the cave resources office at Carlsbad Caverns, overseeing cave rescue, recreational caving, cave restoration, and cave impact monitoring programs within the park. Bemis also teaches 582 Cave Conservation and Restoration vertical caving and cave rescue for the National Park Service and New Mexico State University, and teaches cave rescue for the High Guads Restoration Project, National Cave Rescue Commission, New Mexico State Police, and New Mexico Emergency Service Council. lie is past chairman of the Southwest Region of the NSS, past co- editor of the Southwestern Caver, and past editorial assistant for the NSS News. Barbara Bilbo, NSS #39800 Barbara Bilbo attcnded San Diego State and University of New Mexico. receiving a dual B.S. degree in Geology and Geography. She then received an M.S. in Library Sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana. While employed at Texas Tech University as a Science Reference, Government Documents, and Map Librarian, she completed a course of study with the International Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Land Studies (lCASALS) and received her second M.S. Bilbo's principal interests include Holocene and recent environmental development and change. Her research papers have been published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, EI Paso Archaeological Society Bulletin (The Artifact), Southwest Federation of Archaeological Societies proceedings, annual papers of the American Rock Art Research Association (American Indian Rock Art), and the National Cave and Karst Management Symposia. Michael Bilbo, NSS #14994 Mike Bilbo has been a member of the NSS since 1974 and the EI Paso Archaeological Society since 1968. Bilbo served in the U.S. Army Infantry overseas and the U.S. Army Reserve totaling 30 years. He received a B.S. from Texas Tech University in Park Administration. In the early I990s he began working in New Mexico and Nevada as an outdoor recreation planner/cave specialist with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For seven years, Bilbo has managed Fort Stanton and Torgacs Caves National Landmarks and other New Mexico BLM caves. He coordinated initial science and survey trips into the Fort Stanlon Cave Snowy River discovery and wrote comprehensive environmental assessments regarding digging and documentation of resources in Fort Stanton Cave. Bilbo helped found four NSS Grottos, and he has published in many archaeological journals on identifying and restoring dark zone rock art in New Mexico, west Texas, and northern Mexico. Hans G. Bodenhamer, NSS #16668 FE Hans Bodenhamer worked as a cave specialist for the National Park Service and Forest Service for many years. He developed Visitor Impact Mapping in 1985 while working at Grand Canyon National Park. He has a B.S. in civil engineering, but teaches biology and geology at Bigfork High School in northwestern Montana. As a teacher Bodenhamer continues his work in natural resource management by involving his students in numerous projects with local agencies. His students have won national awards for their efTorts to conserve and enhance populations of threatened leopard frogs. Currently his students arc mapping and developing monitoring strategies for caves in Glacier National Park. Bodenhamer enjoys teaching and spends summers mapping and studying the geology of Montana's wilderness caves. Penelope J. Boston, Ph.D., NSS #44478 Penny Boston is Director of Cave and Karst Studies and Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, in Socorro, New Mexico. Boston is also Associate Director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in Carlsbad, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. from University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research areas include geomicrobiology and astrobiology in extreme environments; human life support issues in space and planetary environments; and use of robotics to assist exploration and science in extreme Earth and extraterrestrial environments. Boston is author of over 100 technical and popular publications, editor of 4 volumes, and author of two upcoming popular books. Her work has been featured in over 100 print and broadcast media outlets over the past dozen years. Debbie C. Buecher, NSS #13590 FE Debbie Buecher is a self-employed consulting bat biologist in Tucson, Arizona. She has a B.S. from the University of Arizona in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and is currently completing a Master's degree in Wildlife Ecology in the School of Natural Resources at the same institution. Her research focuses on acoustic monitoring and inventories for bats, particularly emphasizing community ecology of bat populations. She has conducted bat inventories for Bureau of Land Management, National Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, and Arizona Game and Fish. Because bats are highly disturbed by human visitation in their roosts, her v,,'ork emphasizes low-disturbance techniques. As a long-lime member of the NSS and Cave Research Foundation, Buecher supports both cave exploration and science and has been studying caves since 1970. Biographical Notes 583 Paul Burger, NSS #26452 FE Paul Burger has been caving since 1984. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in 1991 with a B.S. in Geological Engineering and in 1999 with a Masters of Engineering, Geological Engineering. Since 1999, he has been the Park Geologist! Hydrologist for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. His main areas of study are the speleogenesis lind sedimentology of alpine caves in the Lime Creek Karst in Colorado and the controls on cave development in Lcchuguilla Cave and other caves of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico. Burger is the co-author of Deep Secrets: The Discovery and Exploration of Lechuguilla Cave and Caw Exploring, an introductory manual on caving. Alvin D. Collier, NSS #14546 FE AI Collier is retired from the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad after working in the mechanical department for 39 years. Al started caving in 1970 in Colorado. He has served as conservation and restoration chair for the five Colorado Grottos, Cave of the Winds, and Glenwood Caverns. Collier has w'Orkedon cave restoration and speleothem repair in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. George M. Crothers, Ph.D., NSS #24150 George M. Crothers is Director of the Museum of Anthropology and Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Washington University in S1. Louis. He has been active in cave archaeology since 1980, and a member of the NSS since the early 1980s. His long-term research interest