Inside Geology & Environmental Science
It’s an exciting time in the department, as students and faculty fill their lives with activities and accomplishments. Incoming freshmen have their eyes wide open as they experience college life for the first time. Sophomores are all engaged in Seminar, with exposure to the learning process at a new level. Our juniors are totally immersed in their discipline now, having solidified their foundation, and seniors have started their independent research projects that allow them to ask and answer questions no one has addressed before.
- Exceptional Student Activity
- Faculty Awards
- Promotions and Honors
- New Faculty
- Professional Faculty Activity
- Field Trips
Exceptional Student Activity
The past couple years have been characterized by the usually high level of activity of our students both in and out of class. Stacie Craver (GL ’07) led the charge last year with an NU Student Research Fellowship in Greece with Prof. Dunn, and she presented her work, Targeting areas for archaeological excavation through the characterization and distribution of colluvium: an example form Kenchreai, eastern Korinthia, Greece, at the national meeting of the Geological Society of America.
In April 2007, Greg Stewart (GL ’07) and Caitlin Hall (ES ’07) were among the students from our department inducted into Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society.
Both Geology and Environmental students were well represented during summer 2007 as NU Student Research Fellows. Larry Master (ES ’08) worked with Prof. Seth Frisbie, and he will be reporting his summer research results this fall at GSA in Denver, Colo. in a paper titled: A study of variables affecting toxic elements in well water from four western Bangladesh villages, with implications on drinking water use and policy. Clark Filip (GL ’08) and Johnathon Miller (ES ’07) also worked as research fellows, Clark being designated a Weintz Fellow. These guys mapped granite intrusions in northern Vermont, and then, working with Prof. Westerman, they did petrographic and geochemical analyses to determine the origin of those granites.
Faculty Awards
Prof. Rick Dunn recently joined the tenured ranks of the faculty with his promotion to associate professor, and was immediately tapped to serve as interim chair of the department while Prof. Westerman went on Independent Study Leave (ISL) for the 2006-2007 school year.
Promotions and Honors
While on Independent Study Leave for the 2006-2007 school year, Prof. Westerman was selected as an Associate Editor of the prestigious international geology journal Terra Nova. On his return, Westerman was appointed as associate vice president for research for the university, a position that includes the responsibilities of faculty development coordinator and director of student research.
New Faculty
Paul Low joins the department this year as a lecturer in geology, coming from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he completed his Masters and is looking forward to defending his PhD dissertation. Prof. Low’s area of specialization is the behavior of the densest and darkest magmas to form on Earth. In addition to geology, Paul brings a second passion to Norwich; he's a world-class mountain runner, having won the USA Mountain Title for running the 7.6-mile route up Mt. Washington in just over an hour, among other achievements.
Professional Faculty Activity
Prof. Low spent much of the summer searching the rivers of New England for rare freshwater mussels as a consultant for Biodrawversity LLC. In addition to working as an aquatic field scientist, he also served as the company’s cartographer, illustrator, and GIS specialist. In his spare time, he worked on his dissertation at UMASS as well as a few manuscripts about the peridotites of the Grand Canyon.
Prof. Rick Dunn spent the summer as an NU Faculty Research Fellow studying geology and geomorphology at a Bronze Age site at Korphos, on Cape Trelli, Greece with a consortium of scholars from Florida State University and the University of Pennsylvania. Rick was awarded an Independent Study Leave for fall 2007, during which he intends to complete a set of manuscripts based on the results of several recent projects.
Prof. Dave Westerman was on ISL for 2006-2007 when he traveled extensively to work in the field and at a number of universities and government organizations throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His research on granites in Italy during the past decade is expanding, and this past summer he worked as an NU Faculty Research Fellow with two students studying granites of Vermont.
Research Associate George Springston spent the summer on natural hazard investigations and geologic mapping for the Vermont Geological Survey. George worked with the staff of the Vermont's Rivers Management Program to investigating landslide processes throughout the state and the geomorphic impacts of the July 11th flash flooding in central Vermont. He also continued a study of rock fall and debris flow hazards in Smugglers Notch, and is currently mapping the surficial geologic deposits in Williston, Vermont.
Field Trips
In addition to the many day-long trips throughout the year, the big annual field trip took a vanload of students and faculty to western Maine for three days in fall 2006 where they joined several hundred other geologists and environmental scientists for the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference. The two big trips planned for the coming year are NEIGC Quebec, Canada in October and a spring break trip to the American Southwest in the spring.