Newsletter 09 by Warren Huff

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Cincinnati, Ohio Permit No. 133

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Letter from the Department Head...................................................... Page 2 Faculty & Staff News.. .............................................................. Pages 3 - 15 Tribute to Kees DeJong.. .........................................................Pages 10 - 11 Student Awards.............................................................................. Page 13 Alumni News..........................................................................Pages 10 - 47 Cincinnati Center for Field Studies - Opening..........................Pages 32 - 33 Geology Colloquium 2008 - 2009.................................................... Page 34 3-Day Field Trip - Carter Caves, KY................................................. Page 44 Geology Alumn in Afghanistan.. ....................................................... Page 46

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Dear Alumni,

hope this newsletter reaches you in good health and that you are all doing well in these hard economic times. For me it is difficult to believe this academic year is almost over. It has been a very busy one with its fair share of ups and downs. As you probably know, I took over from Professor Arnold Miller as Head of Department last September while we searched for an external Head. Arnie led the Department to great heights during his short five years as Head, culminating with our paleontology program being ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as seventh in the nation! Furthermore, Arnie was fundamental in helping us focus and develop our strengths in Quaternary geology and geomorphology, and in stimulating and encouraging everyone he interacted with during his tenure as Head. Arnie spent this year on sabbatical, but he was as busy as ever in the department, spending much of his time helping to organize the 2009 North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC), which will be held on our campus in late June. The NAPC is a quadrennial event that will likely be attended by some 700 paleontologists from around the world this year. Sadly, 2008 ended with the loss of our dear colleague Dr. Kees DeJong. Kees joined our faculty in 1970. He was a valued and loved member of our department,

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college and university, and will be greatly missed by all. He will always be remembered for his continuous support of students and colleagues. In remembrance, we have dedicated our student study room to Kees and have planted a tree (tulip poplar) in front our building that can be viewed from his office. Last year we saw the official retirement of Professors John Grover and Madeleine Briskin. Fortunately for all of us, John and Madeleine are still very active in our department and continue to teach their core courses and participate in many of our activities. Our graduate program continued to flourish this year and the quality of the graduates just seems to get better each year. Most of our graduates have received external funding for their research and many have published their research in international peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, our graduates help drive our research and teaching program and they stimulate much of what we do in our department. This year our graduates helped drive the development of an undergraduate-graduate mentor program to encourage our majors to become more involved in our department’s activities and to aid them in their academic studies. Our undergraduate program is thriving, and we have increased the number of our majors from ~25 to ~75 over the last three years. We attribute this to the revived interest in geology as a consequence of increased awareness and the importance of environmental geology, a new freshman seminar series that we have recently developed, and the increased academic and social involvement of graduates and faculty with undergraduate students. Our research is flourishing. There is rarely a week that goes by when we have not published at least one paper in an internationally peered reviewed journal such

Departmet Head (continued) as Science, Nature, Geology, GSA Bulletin, Quaternary Science Reviews, Journal of Geophysical Research and Paleobiology. We have also been very successful in obtaining funding for our research from external funding agencies, with several of us receiving significant grants from the National Science Foundation in the past year. Our research activities continue to take us to distant parts of the world, which this year has included fieldwork in Alaska, China, Atacama Desert, Andes, Venezuela, Himalaya, Iceland, Death Valley and wild Kentucky. We terminated our search for an external Head of department in March. This was because we realized that it would be more beneficial to seek an internal candidate for the position and search for assistant professors to help address the skewed age distribution of faculty within our department. For my sins, the department nominated me to continue for another five years. I consider this a real honor and look forward to working with colleagues, staff, students, alumni and friends to continue to develop our teaching and research programs in the coming years. This is a daunting task. I will have a lot to live up to given the extremely high caliber of my predecessors. I am very fortunate, however, to have extremely supportive colleagues and students to work with in the coming years. This will make my job much easier and a pleasure to undertake. I am also pleased to report that this year we established the Alumni Advisory Committee to help us become more active with our former students, and specifically to gain advice on our programs and job opportunities for grad-

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C raig D ietsch I would like to express my sadness upon the death of Kees last November. Kees was a great colleague and I am grateful for all he taught me in the field about structural geology, deformation fabrics, regional geology, and tectonics. Kees was happiest in the field and he had a keen eye for seeing essential features in rocks and a quick mind for getting to the essence of a geologic problem. I so enjoyed talking — and arguing— about hard rock geology with him in the field. Particularly memorable for me were our first Petrology/Field Methods (or as Kees would have it, Field Methods/Petrology) Fieldtrip to western New England; a trip to northern Maryland and the Baltimore Gneiss Domes, including a wonderful dinner at a little crab house near

uating students. We are honored and very grateful to have Tim Agnello, Wayne Goodman, Tom Klekamp, Ed O’Donnell, John Rupp, Todd Stephenson, and Steve Wells as our first Committee. The Committee will be rotated every few years. Please feel free to contact the Committee members and/or any of our faculty to help keep in touch and relay your advice to us. We really look forward to working with the Committee in the coming years. In the coming year, we look forward to searching for new faculty, and hope to be able to appoint three assistant professors. These will likely be in the broad areas of isotope geochemistry, biogeochemistry/biodiversity/ paleobiology and process geomorphology. You might like to look at our web page link to Rolling Rocks (http://www.uc.edu/geology/rrarchive.html) if you would like to learn more about our activities and achievements. Rolling Rocks is our informal newsletter that I circulate every week to our students, staff and faculty. But, please excuse its informal nature and grammatical errors; it is written late at night and I have no formal training in journalism. Please keep us informed of your activities, which we will add them to Rolling Rocks and/or next year’s edition of this newsletter. I should like to thank Warren Huff for his extraordinary efforts to maintain contacts with all of you, and together with Tim Phillips the hard work of compiling and drafting this newsletter. Best wishes, Lewis Owen

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Port Deposit, Maryland; and a couple of trips we did together to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (perhaps some you reading this were on one of these and can remember them…). Kees, you are missed. My collaboration with Lewis and our group of grad students continues to be productive, interesting, and fun. Byron Adams’ (M.S. 2007) research is out. The full reference is, Adams, B., Dietsch, C., Owen, L.A., Caffee, M., Spotila, J. and Haneberg, B., 2009. Exhumation and incision history of the Lahul Himalaya, northern India, based on (U-Th)/He thermochronometry and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating techniques. Geomorphology, 107, 285-299. I was back in Spain with Paco Martinez last September, and our work on synorogenic Variscan flysch is turning into a very inter

C raig D ietsch (continued) esting project on exhuming middle crustal rocks during compression…more tectonic geomorphology. Paco spent another two weeks in the Department in February and I spent another two weeks of my life running the Stanford-USGS SHRIMP on the overnight shift (UPb geochronology and trace element/REE geochemistry in zircon). In teaching, I had my freshmen seminar students reading McPhee’s Annals of the Former World (all 696 pages of it), which I (alone?) enjoyed. 503 is an elective course nowadays and 7 students and I are keeping thin section petrography alive in the Department. DCNY sections, anyone? q

W arren H uff This past year has seen the continuation of three project areas that I’m involved with. Brian Nicklen is making good progress on his dissertation research in the Guadalupian Series in west Texas. The three Global Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs) for the Middle Permian (Guadalupian) are located in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas and are contained within one of the most one of the most frequently researched carbonate margins in the stratigraphic record. However, time control for the type sections remains poor and key stratigraphic relationships are still debated. To address these problems, a tephrochronological framework for several layers of bentonite beds that occur throughout the Guadalupian type area will be established. Brian is generating U-Pb age data with the very helpful cooperation of the Park geologist, Dr. Gordon Bell and also Dr. Scott Samson at Syracuse University who has made his isotope lab available to Brian. Work continues with colleagues Carl Brett and Pat McLaughlin on our NSF-funded Silurian project. This work involves a test of conceptual models for the Silurian period (443-417 million years ago) in three disparate, although related areas that have potentially broad application throughout geologic time, namely: a) the linkage of sea level cycles between active foreland basins and continental platforms; b) timing, dimensions, and geographic span of migrating depocenters, foredeeps and forebulges in response to tectonic flexure; and c) the synchronous or asynchronous behavior of shallow marine biotas in response to these processes. We are addressing these issues by: a) documenting

sequence stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and newly discovered Silurian K-bentonites (volcanic ash beds) in eastern North America; b) testing for patterns of connection between groupings of K-bentonites and other tectonically related features; c) developing a high resolution integrated allostratigraphy for eastern North America in both the Appalachian foreland basin and the mid-continent stable platform; and d) examining patterns of thickness and litho- and biofacies change along tightly constrained cross sections from foreland basin to platform and if possible making comparisons of patterns between the Appalachian and the AngloWelsh Basin in the British Isles. Our work to date on Silurian sections in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana has confirmed the presence of thin K-bentonites at several levels within the late Llandovery to Wenlock age strata in each of these states. Preliminary analyses of the clay layers collected indicate the presence of volcanic apatite and zircon crystals in most samples. These crystals will provide unique morphologic and chemical fingerprints for identifying equivalent ash beds in other locations. My Ordovician-related activities during the past year have focused on a collaborative project with one of my former PhD students, Funda Inanli. We have used crystal size distribution theory to examine the eruption dynamics of the Late Ordovician Millbrig K-bentonite in North America. A brief summary of our activities can be expressed as follows: Crystal size distribution (CSD) analysis has been applied to quartz crystals of the Ordovician Millbrig K-bentonite, which represents one of the largest known fallout ash deposits in the Phanerozoic Era, to establish crystal growth histories and conditions in the magma chamber prior to eruption. Specific CSDs were examined for crystal growth conditions. All Millbrig samples exhibit lognormal concave-down shapes in agreement with previously reported CSDs on large silicic systems but in contrast to more mafic systems characterized by linear CSDs. Concave down CSDs are possibly an intrinsic property of phenocryst growth in large volume silicic magmas as documented in the literature. Quartz crystals of the Millbrig must have been produced by surface-controlled, size dependent growth with a minor Ostwald ripening component, which could have easily changed to supply controlled growth due to a limited supply of nutrients, as the crystals grew larger. CSDs were also used to examine the possible origin of multiple ash beds in the Millbrig. These ash beds appear to be a product of a series of separate eruptions that represent separate magma layers or batches, each with slightly different crystal growth conditions. A

paper describing this research is in press in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. Beyond this, I continue as an associate editor for both the American Mineralogist and Clays and Clay Minerals as well as serving as Secretary to the Clay Minerals Society. Finally, on a personal note, I get together with some friends once a week to play bluegrass music. We have played a few gigs around town and will do more of the flea market and festival circuit next summer. You can see us at http://myspace.com/pinemountainhighway. It’s fun. q

L ewis O wen

glacial geology. Venezuelan is an amazing country, and our work involved trumping through tropical forest with chocolate tree orchards to alpine meadows. Oh and the gas prices are 5 cents a gallon. In October, I was invited by the Wadia Institute for Himalayan Geology to give a keynote lecture on the glaciation of the Himalaya at a conference they organized on Himalayan Geology in Dehra Dun in the foothills of the Himalaya. Following this, I had a brief trip to Woodstock in England to work with colleagues and Elsevier on a treatise on Geomorphology, which will probably end up being 12 volumes with over 10,000 pages. At the end of the year, I ran a fieldtrip to Southern California with Alex Carrillo and Scott Reynhout, where we work on the Death Valley and San Andreas Faults.

During 2008-2009, I continued my work on paleoenvironmental change and landscape evolution in active mountains and their forelands. It has been a busy and To start 2009 off, I left on extremely fun year, especially since I January 1 for a few days took over as Acting Head of Department fieldwork in the Fayum Bain September. Before taking on this adsin in Egypt, where I worked ministrative duty, however, I had the opwith archeology professor portunity took undertake two fieldtrips Willeke Wendrick (UCLA) on in South America. The first was in June, paleoshorelines to underwhen I spend a couple of weeks in the stand thepaleoenvironments Atacama Desert in Chile with Jason for the study of Neolithic culRech (Miami University), Rick Allmendtures. In February, I joined inger (Cornell University) and their stuMaria Luisa Arboleya, Antodents. This was an amazing experience nio Teixell and Julien Babault working in the driest place on Earth, in Morocco to continue our where the surfaces are literally millions work on active tectonics in of years old and have undergone virtualthe Atlas Mountains. This ly no change during that time. We were was an extremely fun trip focusing our research on fissures protraversing the Atlas Mounduced by great earthquakes to undertains from Fez to Ouarzazate stand the nature of subduction related This coming summer, I plan earthquakes. As you probably know the to spend a week in Argentina largest earthquake ever recorded was working on active tectonics focused in Chile. We also spent time in the Precordillera as part working on aspects of landscape evoof a new project we just had lution to help understand how these extremely old and dry landscapes evolve Julien Babault having fun on our field trip in funded by the NSF. Later in the summer, I will attend the with time. Following this trip, I went to the High Atlas Mountains. 5th International Meeting on the Venezuelan Andes with Marc Caffee the Tibetan Plateau in Beijing and will take a short field (Purdue University) and Steve Wesnowsky (University trip to western Tibet. continues on page 6 of Nevada, Reno) to examine strike slip faulting and

L ewis O wen (continued) Over the last year, my students, colleagues and I have published over a dozen papers, which have appeared in Geomorphology, Boreas, Tectonics, Nature, Geological Society of America Bulletin, Journal of the Geological Society of London and Journal of Quaternary Science. We have several papers in press at present and the one that I am most proud of is titled “Quaternary glaciation of Mount Everest” in Quaternary Science Reviews. This paper presents the first numerically dated reconstructions of glacial advances across Mount Everest and is a culmination of work we have been doing in the region over the last decade. If

you would like to check out this and/or any other of our papers, they can be downloaded on my web site at: http://www.uc.edu/geology/profile_details.aspx?ePID=MTA5NjI3&username =owenls This year we have had several visitors to our geochronology laboratories, including Amanda Baker (Cornell University), Sean Bevis (Oregon State University) and Chaolu Yi (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research) who are working on collaborative projects. I look forward to more visitors, more fieldwork and lots more fun next year. q

A ttila K ilinc The 2008/2009 academic year was a very active year for me. Last December, I was invited to visit the Istanbul Technical University in Turkey where I gave a talk entitled “A Thermodynamic Model for Explosive Volcanism,” and conducted two seminars. One of my graduate students, Tracy Brockman successfully completed her MS thesis and accepted a position with the Schlumberger Company in Texas. My other graduate student, Gokce Ustunisik, is in the final stages of completing her Ph.D. Gokce and I had a joint presentation at the AGU meeting last December. A visiting scientist from the Istanbul technical University, Ms. Demet Kiran-Yildirim is working in my lab and another visiting scientist from Pakistan, Dr. Abdul Tawab Khan, is coming next August to work with me and with Lewis Owen for a year. I continue serving as the Press Office of the American Geophysical Union’s Volcanology-GeochemistryPetrology section and enjoy it very much. Soon I will be on my way to the AGU Joint Assembly meeting in Toronto, Canada where I will give a talk on thermodynamic analysis of plagioclase zoning, which is jointly authored with my Ph.D. student Gokce Ustunisik. I will also serve as the Co-Chair of the Daly Lecture and the Volcanology, geochemistry, and Petrology session at that meeting. q

C arlton B rett I am presently very busy trying to co-ordinate and organize several field trips that will be run in conjunction with the North American Paleontological Convention to be held in June, 2009 here at UC (see contribution of Arnie Miller and visit www.napc2009.org). We will have at least ten different field trips, highlighting the classic Ordovician to Pennsylvanian sections of the Cincinnati Arch and also the classic Pleistocene fossil site at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky. I will be helping to run pre-mid- and post-meeting field trips. Much to do; it will be a very large meeting. During 2008 I continued to work on several projects related to Ordovician stratigraphy and paleoecology with present and former students. Coworkers include Patrick McLaughlin and McLaughlin (Wisconsin Geological Survey) and Ben Dattilo (Indiana-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne, Indiana). We continued to work on microstratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician in the Cincinnati region. Masters student, Nathan Marshall and I have begun systematic sampling of the geochemistry and silt content of Ordovician shales to determine patterns of siliciclastic input to the basin as a partial test of previous hypothesis of formation of limestone-shale cycles by alternating periods of sediment starvation. I am now working with Pat McLaughlin and Ben Dattilo on sequence and event stratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician Richmond Group. With several graduate and undergraduate students I am working on comparative taphonomy and sedimentology of meter-sale cycles in the Kanosh Shale (Middle Ordovician) of the Confusion Range, Utah vs. those in the Late Ordovician Kope Formation in KentuckyOhio.

Above: photograph of double-peaked Hasan Dag volcano. Dating from about 6200 BC wall painting showing the erption of Hasan Dag volcano.

Also, graduate student Trisha Smrecak completed a masters thesis on encrusting epibont facies on Ordovician brachiopods and doctoral student Sean Cornell, completed a dissertation titled: “Last Stand of the Great American Carbonate Bank: Activation of the Late Ordovician Passive Margin, Eastern North America. Professor Kaus Vogel (University of Frankfurt) and I have completed research on microendoliths in Upper Ordovician brachiopods. I also received a grant from National Science Foundation for collaborative research with Steve Westrop and Lisa Amati for study of eustasy, foreland basin devel-

opment and biotic change in Late Ordovician trilobite faunas of eastern North America. We will initiate field study during the summer of 2009. Finally, a book on the sequence and event stratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati Arch Region has just been published by the Cincinnati Museum: McLaughlin, P.I., Brett, C.E., Holland, S.M. and Storrs, G., (eds.) Stratigraphic Renaissance in the Cincinnati Arch: Implications for Upper Ordovician Paleontology and Paleoecology. Cincinnati. Museum Center Special Publication 2. This book represents largely papers and field guides produced for IGCP 503 Field conference in June 14-16, 2005. For the last three years I have been working with Warren Huff and former PhD student Pat McLaughlin on an NSF funded project that is examining Silurian sequence and event stratigraphy of southern Laurentia. This work has focused on the Cincinnati Arch and northern Appalachian Basin area. We highlighted part of this work on a field trip and accompanying guidebook article with Brad Cramer and Mark Kleffner (McLaughlin et al., 2008) during the North-Central Geological Society of America meeting this past June. The field trip had good attendance, including many Silurian and Ordovician workers from across North America. This project also included comparative study of the mid Silurian strata of Gotland, Sweden with Pat McLaughlin, Lennart Jeppsson (Lund), and Mikael Calner (Stockholm). I spent a very enjoyable week with Pat and Susie McLaughlin on Gotland measuring spectacular cliff sections of the Silurian. Many of the results of this analysis will be submitted to a special volume of Palaeo-3 edited by Munnecke and others. My research on Devonian sequence and event stratigraphy during 2008 was focused in three distinct areas. Studies of the Mid Devonian successions in the Eifel area of Germany with Senckenberg colleagues, Eberhard Schindler, Rainer Brocke, and Peter Königshof. We have continued field study of the sedimentology, paleoecology, and palynology of meter-scale peritidal cycles. The latter are particularly rich in non-marine plant spores, whereas offshore micrites are rich in marine algal spores. Regular alternations of these facies may represent high frequency sea level oscillations in the Milankovitch band. We hope to publish results of these studies in forthcoming papers in Palaeo-3. conitnued on page 10

C arlton B rett (continued) I also participated in the final meeting of IGCP 499 Devonian Land-Sea Interactions and 20th International Senckenberg Conference in Frankfurt and the postmeeting fieldtrip on the terranes adjacent to the Rheic Ocean suture in central Germany: a very interesting and informative trip. A second project with University of Cincinnati PhD student James Zambito and Gordon Baird (SUNY College, Fredonia) is examining the aftermath off the Taghanic bioevents in the latest Givetian-early Frasnian Genesee Group in central New York. Fieldwork during summer of 2008 extended correlations from the central Finger Lakes area eastward into the Tioughnioga Valley in the vicinity of Cortland and Homer New York; Jay was able to correlate major cycles into this region. The third research program involved further analysis of material gathered during our 2007 fieldwork on the Hollardops beds in SW Morocco. In conjunction

with this study, I also examined sections of the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) Birdsong Shale Member (Ross Formation) near Paris Landing, Tennessee, together with Paul Potter and Pat and Susie McLaughlin and sampled trilobite beds with taphonomic and sedimentologic features closely analogous to the Moroccan Hollardops beds. I am planning to collaborate with Joe Devera (Illinois Geological Survey) and Michael Gibson (University of Tennessee, Martin) in documenting these beds. Eberhard Schindler, Peter Königshof and I are compiling and editing a special volume of Palaeogeography, Palaeoecology, Palaeoecology dealing with level, climatic and biotic events in the Middle Devonian. As of this writing, most papers are in hand and are being reviewed or revised. We hope to have the volume ready for submission in 2009. q

D ave M eyer The Tri-state region of southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana, is world-famous as a rich source of fossils of marine animals that lived when a shallow covered most of North America during the Ordovician Period, about 450 million years ago. There has been great interest in these fossils since the early 1800s, and many naturalists, geologists, and paleontologists have come to this region to study the Ordovician fossils and rocks, and the region nurtured many native Cincinnatians who became amateur paleontologists and professional paleontologists. Hundreds of papers have been published about these fossils and the local geology, but there has never been a comprehensive synthesis of the entire Ordovician fauna, the nature of the Ordovician environment, and

the evidence for our knowledge of this ancient time. Richard Davis (College of Mt. St.Joseph) and I wanted to write a book that would provide this synthesis for readers with a general interest as well as those with some background in paleontology and geology. We wanted the reader to understand what kind of marine life populated this ancient sea, what the environment was like, and how these animals made their living. So a broad theme of our book paleoecology, and the evidence from the fossils and rocks that enable us to reconstruct it. Many who have grown up around here know that fossils are abundant in our local hillsides, and take them for granted, not realizing that the region is uniquely endowed with fossils treasures that are rarely as common elsewhere across the country. q

P aul P otter

B arry M aynard We finished up the lead pipe project this year and presented results at the Water Quality Technology Conference. Lots of interesting stuff about how lead travels from plumbing components along the way to lodge in your faucet. Then when you turn it on the first time in the morning to make coffee or take a groggy drink you get a blast of metals -- lesson learned is to run the tap for a few liters before you use the water. Carafe filters work great, too -- see figure. We are also moving along with Paul Potter and Mark Bowers on a series of papers about the interface between geology and civil engineering. Any interesting anecdotes from your experience would be welcome. q

The 2008-2009 school year was most gratifying to me because several long-term research projects come to conclusion. “Steps in the History of Mudstone Investigations – a Timeline, 1556 through 2007” was published with Barry Maynard and Warren Huff. This was started in 2—6. The other was a collaboration with Brazilian geologists entitled, “Age and Autochthonous Evolution of the Sunsas Orogen in West Amazon Craton Based on Mapping and U-Pb Geochronology.” This took some four years of actual work although the fieldwork started 30 years ago. Needless to say, U-Pb geochronology is not my main skill, so my contribution was providing stratigraphic insights and discipline (the first attempt at a comprehensive stratigraphic table for the western part of the Amazon Craton is contained in this paper). Coming up in the 2009-2010 school year is another U-Pb comparative study of zircons from the Neoproterozoic Middle Run Formation and the Middle Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone from a deep well near Cincinnati with the same group. Again, I am not the principal here.

This summer the Kentucky Geological Survey will publish (Map and Chart Series) on a Middle Mississippian carbonate section along the Cumberland River near Lake Barkley in Kentucky, a section that was long forgotten. Finally, Barry Maynard and I have been helping Dr. Mark Bowers of the UC Civil Engineering Department prepare a paper entitled, “Improving Communication between Engineers and Geologists.” This is close to completion and a most important topic. Meetings and talks were more numerous this year than in the past. Barry, Warren and I presented a talk on the history of mudstones in the History of Geology section at the 2008 GSA Annual Meeting in Houston, and I gave a 45-minute talk on the same topic at a twoday session on gas shales in February in Houston. I also attended two regional GSA meetings. My other two projects are what I would term “fun projects.” I am helping Stephen Greb of the Kentucky Geological Survey prepare an electronic field trip (website) (continues on page 15)

Paul Potter grilling at the Geology Picnic.

In Memoriam

Kees A. DeJong 1939 - 2008

D r . K ees D e J ong , professor in the Department of Geology, died November 6, 2008 following a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. He joined the University of Cincinnati faculty in 1970 after receiving his doctorate from Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands. He specialized in structural geology and tectonics and conducted research in the Western U.S., South America, Europe, and the Himalayas, but was particularly interested in the geology of Northern Mexico and of Pakistan. He directed an NSF-funded project with the Pakistan Geological Survey preparing a geologic atlas of the country based on satellite imagery. Numerous masters and doctoral students worked with him on the fault dynamics of Northern Mexico and in Pakistan. He was a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher and an innovator; the first member of the faculty to bring a PC into the Geology Department and use web-based imagery in his classes. He incorporated web-page preparation training and projects into his courses. Kees held numerous positions in the department during his tenure and was instrumental in efforts to incorporate computer-based learning in its programs. He led the effort to establish the electronic database of the Willis G. Meyer Map Library. He initiated the purchase of the department’s first data server and established its first teaching computer lab. He worked with the College of Education to establish a set of courses for teachers of geology. Kees was an active and proud member of the AAUP. He was co-founder of the informal “Dutch lunch” program that brought Dutch speakers from around the campus together for a weekly luncheon at which Dutch was spoken. Inspired by the Rev. Maurice McCracken, Kees worked actively on a number of social justice and peace projects, including Justice Watch and programs promoting home ownership in poor communities. He was an active member of the PCNG, the Prostate Cancer Networking Group, establishing its website as a vehicle for mutual support and information. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. Kees was a dear and valued colleague in the department of Geology, the University of Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati community. He will be sorely missed.

D avid N ash Kees DeJong died yesterday. It was his oft-repeated and expressed wish that he not be eulogized in our department. He told Becky Reverman and me during one of our last visits with him that all he wanted was the college to send out a message saying “Kees DeJong is dead.” Given his iconoclastic inclinations, Kees was averse to ceremony… though he enjoyed celebrations. I hope we have the opportunity to celebrate his life in the near future. It was Kees’s goal since last summer to live long enough to see Barak Obama elected president. Those who loved Kees, whether or not they shared his opinion of Obama, can take comfort in knowing that Kees did indeed live long enough to see him elected president. His sons tell me that they got him up in his bed to watch Obama’s Tuesday night acceptance speech. Kees was conscious throughout it and afterwards said “Good Speech!”. Although not a religious person, at least in a traditional sense, Kees was a great admirer of the late social and peace activist, Rev. Maurice McCracken. McCracken became his mentor and helped Kees become deeply involved in social justice issues. Kees was fond of McCracken’s admonition that “Jesus came not to make us feel good but to help us do good.” Kees did a great deal of good. “His wit, energy and on so many levels our department, university, and community will miss Kees and his many contributions”. We have all benefitted and will cherish his time with us.

R ebecca R everman Kees made me promise to not make a fuss about him, so I will keep this short and sweet. Kees taught many of us skills that not only aid us as geologist, but in all aspects of life. I will only share a couple that I have found most helpful. Without Kees I would not be able to “Shoot from the Hip” with a Brunton, nor could I correctly identify the many varieties of cows in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Without his tutelage I would not be able to drive down I-75 during rush hour looking only at my GPS or realize the simple pleasure of a 5 o’clock sherry. I would have never been able to thank him enough for everything he taught me. He first terrified me as an undergrad, then later inspired and encouraged me in my studies. His guidance while writing my thesis was invaluable. He was always honest with me, usually brutally honest, never sugarcoating his opinion of my work. He made me a better student and teacher. He was, in short, my Dutch Uncle.

W alter H ermann B ucher Dr. Walter Hermann Bucher (March 12, 1889 – February 17, 1965) was a GermanAmerican geologist and paleontologist. He was born in Akron, Ohio of Swiss-German parents. The family then returned to Germany where he was raised. In 1911 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Heidelberg with a focus on geology and paleontology. The same year he returned to the U.S. and joined the University of Cincinnati as a lecturer. By 1924 he was a professor of geology at the institution.

GraduatING

a C as ter Award : Jac kie W it t m er

a Alu mn i Grad u ate F ello wsh ip F u n d :

Gok c e U s t uni s i k (P hD )

Jaso n Do rt ch

J us t i n S t roup (MS )

In 1935 he became president of the Ohio Academy of Sciences. In 1940 he joined the Columbia University, specializing in structural geology. In the same year he joined the National Research Council, serving as chairman of the Division of Geology and Geography. In 1946 he was elected president of the New York Academy of Sciences, and from 1950 until 1953 he served as president of the American Geophysical Union.

R y a n W i l s on

a Ta ny a D e l Va l l e Me l i s s a Mc Mul l e n Me gha n We l c h

J e s s a Mos e r E mi l y We nd l e r Mi k e Oe s t re i c h A nd y Me a d ows

200

J o h n L. Ric h Outstandi ng Seni or Aw ard: Melissa McMullen

J oa nne B a l l a rd (MS )

Un dergr aduate Stu d e n ts

Grad u ate Teac h in g Award s :

Upper Lev el: Jay Zam bit o

D e v i n B ui c k (P hD )

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT HONORS:

J a c a l y n W i t me r (MS )

GRADUATE STUDENT HONORS:

L ower L ev el: Jo anne Balla rd

J e re my H a t f i e l d (MS )

TUDENT Awards for

Graduate Student s

His early works were on paleontology, and he performed studies of stromatolettia, oolites, and rippleshaped markings. Walter Hermann Bucher’s primary contribution to geology was his work on tectonics of the Earth and the major structural features of the Earth’s crust. The numerous elected memberships in scientific societies, medals, awards, and honorary doctorates he held reflect the high esteem his peers bestowed on him.

From 1920 onward Dr. Bucher was noted for his studies in cryptovolcanic structures, significant deformations of the crust of the Earth, and structural geology.

Re c o gn it io n s Grad u ate S tu d en ts : St ay in O hio Aw ard: K a t e Hedric k Univ e rsit y R ese arc h Co unc il G ra nt s: Sa ra h K o lbe a nd Zhen Zhu Wa n

a Cook Scholarships to Rising underclassmen: Rising sophomore: Elena Kellerhouse Rising junior: Adam Leu Rising senior: Sara Oser

a C o o k F und f or Undergraduate sc h o larshi ps f or summer camp Aaron Asher: Indiana University McKenzie English: Indiana University Jeff Hannon: Southern Illinois University Joel Hecker: Cornell University (Argentina) Matt Jones: Southern Oregon University Derek Lester: Indiana University Megan Moore: Southern Illinois University Sally Scott: Western Michigan University camp Emily Wendler: Southern Illinois University Ryan Wilson: Indiana University

2 0 0 9 Art hur D. Ho w ard Aw ard:

Myles Redder Aw ard: Ryan Wilson

Sc o t t Re y nho ut

Recog nitions Un d ergraduate Students: Keck Program: Jessa Moser and Sara Oser Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa: Melissa McMullen Wayne Pryor-Mary Lou Motl Scholarship: Christine Rahtz

Depa rt m e nt a l G o o d Spirit Aw ard: Dev in Buick

Departmental Good Spirit Award: Mike Oestreich

Justin Allen

Bucher was elected president of the Ohio Academy of Sciences in 1935. He was chairman of the Division of Geology and Geography of the National Research Council from 1940 to 1943. The New York Academy of Sciences elected him president in 1946. He was president of the American Geophysical Union from 1950 to 1953.

Understanding Surficial Processes in the Himalayan Orogen

Jason Dortch (continued)

is the dominant driver,” Dortch explains. “Did glacial incision cause the mountain peaks to uplift or did the uplift cause the glaciation? We don’t know which one caused the other, but they’re definitely related.” These questions are what got Dortch interested in tectonic geomorphology, a relatively new field that will bear key information about the effects of climate change on landscape evolution. “It’s complicated,” Dortch says about his interest in the topic. “If I can sit for five minutes and not wrap my head around a subject, I’m intrigued by it.”

Graduate student Jason Dortch

or geology graduate student Jason Dortch, work is play. Considering how he became interested in the field, it is no surprise. When he started his undergraduate courses at Riverside Community College, he only knew his direction in life would take him into the sciences. Then the hiking aficionado came upon a geology class description about learning how to read maps. “I like to go hiking, so I figured learning how to read a map might be a good idea,” Dortch says. When the professor showed a video on the first day of class that featured a geologist climbing up the rim of a volcano to collect lava samples, Dortch was hooked. He enrolled at University of California, Riverside where he received his BS in geology. Now, Dortch is a PhD student studying mountain landscape evolution at University of Cincinnati under Professor Lewis Owen, whom he followed from UC Riverside to continue collaboration. He received his master’s here in 2007 while studying glacial geomorphology in Alaska. Dortch hopes to obtain his PhD by next summer in tectonic geomorphology and paleoclimatology, a topic that puts the self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie into hair-raising situations all in the name of research. He has dangled off cliffs, motorcycled over mountain peaks and cross-country skied 450 miles in the Alaskan and Himalayan mountains for his passion. “In simple terms, I’m trying to link processes that operate on the Earth’s surface to the processes that operate in the

Takes on Earth’s various terrains in the name of research. By Kim Burdett

data... I get “to...collecting access areas that aren’t easy to get into at all. ”

Earth’s interior,” he says. “My backcountry skills and ability to be comfortable in traversing various terrains, in addition to main roads, helps me spread out the spatial distribution of where I’m collecting data, so I can learn a lot more. I get to access areas that aren’t easy to get into at all.”

Though he has a year left in the geology program, Dortch has already been offered a few postdoctoral fellowships. While not sure of his ultimate plan, he learned about an opening in Argentina that would include scaling a volcano for data collection—a feat that would whet his adrenaline whistle and help him explore tectonic geomorphology on a new continent simultaneously. “My colleague, Lindsay Schoenbohm, is doing work on the Puna Plateau in Argentina. When she asked two students if they wanted to go up a 17,000 foot volcano to collect samples, they passed on it,” he says. “You’re kidding me, right? I can’t wait to do that kind of stuff.”

Dortch has spent the past four summers working in the Ladakh region, a collection of high altitude mountain ranges in the Indian Himalayas. Utilizing thermochronology and cosmogenic dating on rock samples, he analyzes the rate, magnitude and timing of landscape evolution. Two mechanisms are known to increase the height of mountains: tectonic convergence and incision. Dortch has a particular interest is what is referred to by geomorphologists as the chicken or egg question regarding these mechanisms: did uplift of the Himalayas cause global cooling and increased glaciation, or did global cooling and subsequent glacial incision induce the uplift of the Himalayan peaks? “We know that the Tibetan Plateau was created by the Indian plate colliding with the Eurasian plate—but it was followed shortly by global cooling; the question is which one

Paul Potter (continued) of the Waulsortian outcrops in six counties clustered around Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. David Meyer and Bill Ausich (OSU) are part of this, as are two professors from Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. The other fun project is contributing to a picture layer for all of the 700-some geologic quadrangles that cover the State of Kentucky. I have learned so much in doing this and have much enjoyed it. It has been a very satisfying experience.

I try to balance my research between local activities around Cincinnati, in Kentucky and the eastern Midcontinent, in Brazil (where I visit once or twice a year and maintain many geologic contacts), and the occasional concept paper – one that is not related to a specific geographic area. In Brazil I spend two weeks on a farm, usually a week in Rio and then two or three weeks in southern Brazil. This type of diverse stimulation (sit in the same place and it is easy to run out of ideas) helps keep me more nimble at 83.8 years. q

Hundar Valley. Me and Scott had to repel ~150 ft to reach the bottom of the strath terraces to collect samples. We ascended back up the rope using a technique called prusiking.

Alumni News

Maurice Gordon Frey (MS ’36 UC faculty member) 1913-2008

and

former

First in exploration — first in teaching — and first in the admiration of his Industry and University compatriots. Maurice Gordon “Doc” Frey, who died at age 95 in New Orleans on September 12, 2008, had a truly remarkable career. Born in Cincinnati, he earned his bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Cincinnati, and his PhD at the University of Minnesota. He joined Chevron (Standard Oil of California) in 1939, and was in on the ground floor of Saudi Arabian exploration and discovery, doing gravity and seismic work there until World War II forced Chevron to return him to the States. Since then, with Chevron, he has been in almost all of Chevron’s (then, The California Company’s) major locations: Denver, Casper, San Francisco, and New Orleans. But, the oil industry was not everything. In 1948 he left Chevron, in San Francisco, to teach for four years at his old alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. In 1952 he returned to Chevron, first in Denver, and then at his final and longest lasting location, New Orleans. In New Orleans he was Chief Geologist for all of Chevron’s operations out of that office, which then included not only Offshore and South Louisiana, but also the Mississippi - North Louisiana Salt Basin, plus the Appalachians, Michigan, the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida Gulf Coasts, and peninsular Florida. In New Orleans his warmth and friendliness made

him the mentor of many young geologists, including the writers of this article. Few in management were as open, approachable, and helpful. His abilities and energy were not confined to Chevron. Always active in the New Orleans Geological Society, he was its President in 1969-70. In 1976, Doc Frey served as General Chairman for the AAPG-SEPM convention hosted by NOGS. His friendliness and interest in others led him back into teaching again in 1976, this time at the University of New Orleans. There he taught geology for 17 years until his retirement in 1993. Those 17 years included five summers teaching at UNO’s extension school in Innsbruck, Austria. As he did at Chevron, he won the affection of his UNO students and faculty colleagues. His life was not all geology and teaching. He married his lifelong companion, Marjorie Wells Frey, of Colfax, Louisiana, in 1945. They had two daughters,Ellen Frey Anderson, now deceased, and Beverly Frey Strange. Ellen and Beverly have borne them five grandchildren, and, to date, seven great grandchildren. “Doc” left his mark on many who were fortunate to have known him. He is admired, and he is missed. Duncan Goldthwaite & Bob Branson From the New Orleans Geological Society newsletter, November 2008

Wayne Martin (Phd ‘55) The following obituary notice (Ohio) Press on April 21, 2009

appeared in the

Oxford

MARTIN, Wayne D. 88, of Oxford, passed away April 17, 2009. Born on November 22, 1920 at Watertown, Ohio, the son of Dudley and Lota McGrew Martin. He is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Helen L. (Kisker) Martin; and daughter, Ann (Mrs. Doug) Crowell. He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, four sisters, and a daughter, Linda Schnipper. Graduated from Waterford High School. He served in World War II from 1940 to 1945. He was a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was stationed as a Machinist Mate aboard the USS Maryland, docked off Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He served in the Navy in the South Pacific for three and a half years before attending V-12 Officers Training at the University of Minnesota, Notre Dame University, and Midshipman’s School. In July 1945, Wayne was commissioned an Ensign and assigned to the USS Idaho. He left active duty and went into inactive Naval Reserve duty in November 1945. Wayne transferred, in 1958, to Retired Reserve status with the rank of Lt. Jr. Grade. Wayne graduated from Marietta College with BS degree in geology in 1948; completed a MS degree from West Virginia University in 1950; and earned a PhD degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1955. He began his teaching career as an Instructor of Geology at Bowling Green State University in 1951. He was a Professor of Geology at Miami University from 1952 to 1986, during which time he directed 65 graduate theses studies. He taught at the Geology Field Station, located at Timberline Ranch near Dubios, Wyoming,

from 1953 to 1959. He was director of the field station from 1960 to 1985. He retired from geology in 1986 as a Professor Emeritus at Miami University. Professional organizations: president of the East-Central Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers in 1957, vice president and president of the Great Lakes Section of the Society of Economic paleontologist and Mineralogists from 1979 to 1981, vice president of the Miami University Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1981-82, a Certified Professional Geologist as well as a Certified Petroleum Geologist. Wayne was awarded the Mather Medal in 1991 from the Ohio Geological Survey in recognition of outstanding contributions to the knowledge of the geology of the state of Ohio. He was bestowed the Outstanding Educator Award in 1992 from the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The Wayne D. Martin Field Fund, an endowment fund, was established in 1992 to provide scholarship assistance for field geology studies to Miami undergraduates. In 1995, he was presented the Distinguished Alumni Professional Achievement Award from West Virginia University, Department of Geology. In 1998, he was named a Hall of Fame-Distinguished Alumnus to West Virginia University. Wayne was a 49-year member of the Oxford Kiwanis Club and was secretary for nine of those years. He was a 63-year member of the Masonic Lodge and was Master of the Oxford Masonic Lodge in 1995 and 1996. He was a 19-year member of VFW Post 9579. He was a member of the Oxford Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers family suggests tributes to Miami University, University Advancement, c/o Miami University Foundation Wayne D. Martin Field Fund, 725 East Chestnut Street, Oxford, Ohio, 45056. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, April 22 at 2:00 pm at the Smith & Ogle Funeral Home, 5086 College Corner Pike in Oxford, Ohio. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the services, beginning at 1:00 pm, Masonic Services will be held at 12:30 pm. Burial will be in the Miami University part of Oxford Cemetery.

2008 GSA Houston Conference

Tom Klekamp, Auriel Cross and Bob Garrsion

Sally Sutton

Rick Fleuglman

Walter Laufer (BS ’56) Dear Warren: Since graduation and finding a job I have lived in Williston, North Dakota, Fort Worth and Midland, Texas. 1 have been employed by Amerada, Union Texas, Champlin Pet, Tomlinson Oil Co. Inc., and since 1983 an independent geologist Several years ago at the AAPG Convention in Houston, I met Paul Potter in a most unlikely fashion. I was standing in the vacated lobby of the hotel waiting for my wife, when in walked this professional looking gentleman. He wore a lanyard around his neck holding several identification cards, one of which spelled out in bold letters The University of Cincinnati. What a coincidence. Needless to say, we hit it off right away because my wife Sylvia is also a 1955 UC grad from the college of DAAP. We went to dinner that evening and have been, for lack of a better word, “pen pals” ever since. Paul suggested I write a brief synopsis of my family life since leaving Cincinnati some 50 years ago. So here it goes. Sylvia, my wife of 52 years and I have three married sons who also have three children each and are married to the same gals they started married life with. My oldest grandchild is 23 and the young-

est is 2 years of age. The threeboys are all in the oil business. Our eldest son, Walter the Aggie engineer, is with Halliburton and has literally been stationed around the world, but is now residing in Midland, Texas. The middle son is a PLM graduate from UT and before leaving Exxon, was Division Land Manager. He now lives in Austin and has his own company named Principal Properties, an oil and gas company. Our youngest son lives in Houston and is also a UT graduate with a major in Geology. However, he saw more opportunities in the Land Leasing business and so is a Senior Landman with Carrizo Oil and Gas, a very successful, independent oil and gas company. Our life today is visiting with grand children (9), and traveling, not as much as we used to, although I still want to go to Argentina and Chili before I end up in the “bone yard”. We still enjoy golf, going to Colorado during the summer and Florida in the winter. Every once in a while I still do some Geology for myself and some consulting work for a long-standing client of 22 years. Best Regards, Walter Laufer

Dave Lienhart (BS ‘61)

Jim Teller (BS ’62)

Warren,

Hi Warren:

I have attached a photo of the most outstanding piece of artwork to ever grace the walls of Old Tech. This mural was created by Ed O’Donnell during the 1962-1963 school-year (my slides are stamped with a November 1962 date) and graced the north wall of the old graduate room (this was the room just south of the men’s room on the west side of the 2nd floor). During that school year, only Lou Mellinger, Ed O’Donnell and I occupied this room. The room was full of specimen cabinets and several large tables. Ed used butcher paper spread out on one of the tables to create this masterpiece. The subjects of this mural are (left to right): Hans, the Old Tech janitor; Len Larsen; Ron Schmidt; Ken Caster; Bill Jenks; Nevin Fenneman, our founder (in the painting); Harvey Sunderman; and Dick Durrell posting his omnipresent news clippings on the bulletin board. My, what an interesting group!!! Hope you enjoy this work of art.

It’s been a busy year of research and meetings (Paris, Morocco, Quebec City, Toronto, Penn State, etc.), with more to come in Norway (IGC) and eastern Europe n August. However, right now I am en route from the University of Minnesota, where was working on cores all last week that I collected from Lake of the Woods, to CINCINNATI. I arrive late tomorrow (Sunday) to spend time with friends (including a high school reunion with a very big number -- yikes!) and a number of family gatherings. Hope to make it to GSA in Houston. Thanks for the reminder of a UC gathering there. I trust you are well and still enjoying teaching and research. Jim

A lu m n i T r i v i a Q ui z

Who’s Who?

John Pojeta (PhD ’63) Sends this photo of department faculty and students at the 1971 GSA meeting in Washington, DC. Who can you identify? See page __ for a list of names

GSA - 1971. Answers on p. 22.

Lawrence C. Rowan (PhD ’64) Hi Warren, It’s nice to hear from you. Fran and I are fine. I retired in February 2006 but I am a ‘Scientist Emeritus,’ which provides office, computer, etc. Most of my time is spent working on organizing sample collections and a manuscript a colleague and I are assembling. Fran is busy with her painting activities, and we have a cottage and boat on Chesapeake Bay. So there is plenty to keep us busy. I hope you are well and enjoying yourself. Cheers, Larry

John D. Sims (MS ‘64) Hi Warren, Well where to start. After getting my PhD at Northwestern (Larry Sloss was my advisor) I joined the USGS in August 1967. My first posting was to the Kentucky project in Paducah. I was there 3 years and made a couple of geologic quadrangle maps, and co-wrote a professional paper about a fossil Peccary herd we found in the loess bluffs along the Mississippi. I then moved

to Menlo Park, CA and began working in a team on a regional environmental and geologic compilation of the 9 SF bay area counties. Up to this point the work I was doing was staff work on other peoples projects. In 1971 (so long ago) following the Sylmar, CA earthquake I got a break. My Branch Chief sent me down as part of the post earthquake team to look at Van Norman Reservoir whose dam had partially collapsed. I discovered in the lake sediments about a 90-year history of sedimentation 3 zones of earthquake-induced sedimentary structures corresponding to the Long Beach, White Wolf, and Sylmar earthquakes. That got me started on paleoseismology and I pretty much worked in the subdiscipline until 1993. I did both paleoliquefaction studies as well as fault rupture histories and slip rate studies. I was quite fortunate in my years as a paleoseismologist--I got to work on projects in China, Japan, Israel, Turkey, and Alaska as well as many projects in California, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. In1993 I was transferred to headquarters in Reston, VA where I took charge of the NEHRP external grants program which was, at that time, a $15M program giv-

ing grants to universities to study earthquake hazard reduction related topics all over the US. I held that position until 1998 when I voluntarily went back to research. However, in the intervening years budgets had been stagnant resulting in cuts in the research budget. I also wanted to be somewhere other than at headquarters, but again budgets were tight. So in 1999 I retired and I set up a geological consulting business, and my partner Jim and I began purchasing houses to rehab and rent or turn over. My consulting business was a bit slow and I was prohibited from applying for a grant from the USGS for 2 years. This came naturally because we had rehabbed our 2 homes in California and one Leesburg, VA. We did this for a few years until the price of houses went out of sight. But by then I was getting more geological work and I worked on projects funded by the USGS in Oregon, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Dominican Republic, Panama, Illinois and Missouri. In addition I work with several local conservation organizations that oversee Farmland Conservation Easement programs. I do most of the Conservation Easement Baseline reports for them as part of my consulting business. Last fall I decided to go into full retirement, as geological work was mostly small stuff when out of the blue I was contacted by an engineering company to do some paleoliquefaction work on two different nuclear power plant projects. I was able to get one started and the other complete before bad winter weather set in. In late December I was contacted by a Canadian organization to do a full review of four provinces to determine what kind of paleoseismic project could be designed to augment studies of nuclear facilities. I’m in the midst of that now. And I may have a project in Jordan next year. After retirement in 1999 Jim and I moved to Harpers Ferry, WV where we have close friends. We purchased a rather run down stone home built in 1785 and began restoring it (along with rehabbing other places to give us a steady stream of income to put into out place). The house is a Federal style stone with stucco; it has a large barn that I have converted into a woodworking shop. I make a few handmade 18th century reproduction Windsor chairs in it as well as project for our home. We are nearing the end of the restoration and that is

good, our bodies just don’t function as well as they used to. Jim and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in March. My 2 daughters from my former marriage are all grown up and married. Maria, the oldest, lives in Portland, OR with her husband Rich and my granddaughters, Alex and Delaney. Maria is a stay at home Mom, and has an American Sign Language teaching business. Joanna, my youngest, lives in Los Angeles with her husband Tony. Joanna is an actress and Tony is a music producer. We are thinking that we would like to be closer to the kids and grandkids and may move to the west coast to be closer and get away from the eastern winters, but were a bit undecided as to where we want to be. We have considered Corvalis, OR and San Luis Obispo, CA so far.

Edward O’Donnell (PhD ’67) Ed O’Donnell (MS ‘63) Warren: Attached is a picture taken on Caster’s two week trip to Texas (photo). I can identify most of us. Dick Osgood, Tom Farmer, Tom Farmer, Tom Weaver, Jerry Cinnamon, Ruben Bullard, Hank Schock, Norm Hester, Don Ault, John Pojeta, John Grow, Caster, and I are in there. There is only one fellow I can’t identify. His name was “Dave” and he didn’t go on in geology. Ed Tom Weaver Don Ault Dick Osgood Hank Schock Tom Farmer

Reuben Bullard

John Pojeta John Grow

Jerry Cinnnamon Kenneth Caster

Ed O’Donnell

’

Jay Zambito The Geology Club has had a busy, and productive year. During this time we initiated a number of new fund-raising ventures, a web site on the UC Blackboard server, a mentoring program, and continued many volunteer and outreach efforts.

1. Reuben Bullard 2. Ken Shubak 3. 4. Hans Hofmann 5. John Pojeta 6. Rich McCandless 7. Tom Fiorito 8. Ron Parsley 9. Jon Branstrator 10. Bill Van Wie 11. Joe Benson 12. Tom Partin

13. Ralph Ewers 14. Hal Boehmer 15. Larry Drafall 16. 17. Andy Hannan 18. Dick Osgood 19. Steve Warshauer 20. Bill Harmon 21. Annie Caster 22. Tom Klekamp 23. Ken Caster 24. Ruth Carter

SSS 2008-2009 D R ex L. B aum , P h .D. L t . C mdr . A rthur L. K immel D anita S. B randt , P h .D. M r . C harles S. B rockman M r . and M rs . M ark A. C iampone M r . R onald W. C oble M s . E lizabeth A. K rebes M r . J ohn M. M asters M rs . V irginia A. O’N eill F rederick E. S imms , P h .D. M r . E ugene J. A maral M r . D avid W. E llis III L inda P. F ulton , P h .D. M r . R aymond P. K arpovich M r . A nthony L imke M rs . C ornelia K. R iley M r . T od W. R oush D r . R oy B. V an A rsdale M arathon P etroleum C ompany D avid L. M eyer , P h .D.

25. John Carter 26. Richards Rowland 27. Richard Durrell 28. 29. John Warn 30. Larry Lattman 31. Kees DeJong 32. Mrs. Nye 33. Ozzie Nye 34. Gene Simms

o n o r

s t

We had a very successful bake sale earlier in the year that has provided us the capital to purchase custom water bottles, baseball caps, and winter hats. These items will be for sale shortly; look for them at the 2009 North American Paleontological Convention to be held at UC at the end of June, or contact Jay Zambito for more info (zambitjj@uc.edu). We now have a functioning departmental web site that all students, staff, and faculty have access to. The main purpose for the site is to communicate opportunities for student grants, internships, fellowships, credit-bearing research, and scholarships to everyone within the department. This has resulted in a number of students receiving awards, as well as the participation of undergraduates on various research projects within the department. In conjunction with this, Geology Club has helped to oversee a newly initiated mentoring program, in which each

undergraduate now has a graduate student contact to which they can go to for assistance on any educational or departmental related matters. Finally, the Geology Club has continued it’s efforts to serve our community through public outreach and education. We volunteered at the Cincinnati GeoFair at the educational booth and also helped with setting up and taking down the exhibits. We also ran an educational booth at the UC Science Fair, where we cracked, and gave away, geodes to many enthusiastic children. Additionally, we visited a number of elementary, middle, and high schools where we gave short lectures on the local geology. We also counseled Boy Scouts from throughout the Tri-state area in the Geology merit badge. We look forward to continuing many of these programs and volunteer efforts in the future.

SSS

E dison I nternational C ompany M r . L awrence P. K arasevich and M rs . E llen R. K arasevich J ohn L. C arter , P h .D. and R uth C. C arter , P h .D. M s . E velyn M. G oebel A lexandre G. H aralampiev , P h .D. D ry D redgers , I nc . R obert J. E lias , P h .D. M s . A ndrea J. H aas M r . and M rs . M ichael N. F ein M r . D avid A. L ienhart and M rs . D onna P. L ienhart D evon E nergy C orporation BP F oundation , I nc . M r . J. T odd S tephenson M r . W illiam L. M. W ilsey E state of L ucile and R ichard D urrell P aul E. P otter , P h .D. E xxon M obil E ducation F oundation M r . J ohn D. H oholick

Thank You!

June 21-26, 2009 The 9th North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) will be held on the campus of the University of Cincinnati, June 21-26, 2009. The centrally-located Cincinnati region is world renowned for its Upper Ordovician fossils and strata, and has a long-established heritage of paleontological research and teaching. The organizing committee is planning a wide range of activities, including a full slate of regional field trips;

a plenary session commemorating the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin and the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species; workshops on the creationism/evolution controversy and other topics; an evening banquet at the Cincinnati Museum Center, a veritable art-deco palace; and a range of other social and educational activities.

And I snapped this one in 1961 on a trip along Rte 125 to Adams County, Ohio. That’s Joe Springfield wielding the sledge.

Jon Branstrator (MS ‘69) (message to Dave Meyer) Hi Dave: I am enjoying reading about Cincinnati’s Fishless Sea (David Meyer’s recent book), and have recommended that Earlham’s Science Library obtain a copy.

Tom Farmer (PhD ‘68) Hi Warren, I miss the academic world and Cincinnati even though I taught a lot while in the consulting business and managing an office in the Los Angeles area. I retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory and moved to Las Cruces, NM in 2003. I’m really loving the warm climate and the beautiful scenery and geology of New Mexico. After my stint with Texaco in 1961 in West Texas and New Mexico, I vowed to retire someday to the “Land of Enchantment.” It’s a dream come true. I check the UC geology web site on a regular basis and congratulate you on the fine job you always do with the “Upper Crust.” I talked with John Carter and his wife Ruth the other day and they are very happy in South Carolina. Thanks again for keeping in touch. The next time you see Sundy, tell him I said hello. G. Thomas Farmer

A current project involves tracing the faculty of Earlham’s Geology/Soil Science/Geosciences Department since it originated in 1861. I hope all is well there and that you have some good students in the pipeline. I am retired, and can now spend some time doing the things at Earlham and home that I have wanted to do for 30 years. However, the relative young-uns in the department just completed what turned out to be an unsuccessful search for a surface process person to fill a new tenure track position at Earlham. Too bad. I worked for and anticipated that position for about ten years, and now it may be in limbo again. It is hard finding accomplished scholars who really want to teach in a small, liberal arts setting. Maybe next time. Jon Branstrator

From the January 19, 1961 Edition of the News Record

Frank Ettensohn (BS ’69) The department was treated to a colloquium talk on January 23, 2009 by Dr. Frank Ettensohn (University of Kentucky), entitled “ Kentucky Dropstones “Ice” the Case for Late Devonian Alpine Glaciation in the Appalachian Basin (USA) with Implications for Appalachian Tectonics and Black-Shale Sedimentation”

(http://homepages.uc.edu/~huffwd/Alumni/1961_ Koucky.pdf) Dr. Frank L. Koucky, UC assistant professor of geology, will speak On “Mineralogy by X-Ray” at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25 in room 6, UC’s Old Tech building. The meeting is free to the public. Following the lecture, Dr. Koucky will demonstrate the new General Electric-XRD5 diffraction X-ray unit, which the UC geology department acquired in December. Purchase of the $16,000 instrument, which is used for a detailed study of the atomic- structure of minerals, was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is part of the newly-equipped geology research laboratory in the basement of UC’s Old Tech building.

George Rieveschl Jr. Geo Lecture Series: Interdisciplinary lectures for the physical and life sciences on earth processes and their consequences for humanity. Each lecture is sponsored by two or more disciplines from the physical and life sciences, open an free to all the University community and general public. There will be ample opportunity to meet the speaker. This series is named for Dr. George Rieveschl, Jr., a Cincinnatian, UC PhD in chemistry and inventor of Benadryl.

Barry Hillman (BS ‘70) Hello Warren, Yes, I am doing well. Condor is doing reasonably well despite the dismal reports I’m sure you hear regarding the economy in California. I am now expecting a third grandchild in July via my eldest daughter Danielle. I currently have two grandsons so there is great anticipation of a possible girl this time. I visited Egypt last fall and managed some scuba diving in the Gulf of Aqaba along with a great overview of the wonders of Egypt. I have no complaints. I hope that you are doing well. Best regards, Barry Barry A. Hillman, PhD President bhillman@condorearth.com Condor Earth Technologies, Inc. 21663 Brian Lane Sonora, CA 95370

Tom Klekamp (MS ’71) Tom calls our attention to an April 18, 2008 article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune about harnessing Mississippi River sediment to replenish the State’s disappearing wetlands. It begins, “As it courses through south Louisiana at the highest level in 11 years, the Mississippi River is bringing an estimated 900,000 tons Warren, I shot this photo in 1964 in a valley that ran north off of old Rte 74, east of Newtown. The place was called “Variety Valley,” though I don’t know if this was an official designation. The fellow in the picture is John Bardgett, a geologist working for the Cincinnati engineering firm of Vogt, Iver, Seaman & Associaties. John was a graduate of Tufts and claimed to have been the 3rd person to dive to the Adrea Doria (urban legend? he tended to have rather far-fetched tales). If you look carefully, it looks as though the anticline is faulted and perhaps developing a thrust. I’m not sure if this was one of the structures Hans Hoffman cataloged.

Paul Potter contributed this p h o t o that, according to Tom Klekamp (MS ’71) was taken in that year when the group constituted the Knifley Sandstone Sedimentation Seminar. Tom says, “Paul was still at IU at the time and the four “UCers” flew down to the Campbellsville airport in the department Cessna 180 to meet Paul who drove from Bloomington.” Those shown are, from left to right, Paul Potter, Stephanie Hrabar, Roy Kepferle, Tom Klekamp and Wayne Pryor.

Bob Babbs (BS ’73) Hello Friends and Family, The other day on “bike to work” day, Maryann and I got out to hit some of the free breakfast stops set up around town for bicyclists. One of several stops that had a great breakfast spread was at the New Belgium Brewery North of town. Here they featured chilled raw milk, fresh from the cow parked out front along with other goodies. Delicious !!!! I’m getting a little ahead of myself here chronologically, but had to share this moment with you. This past week Maryann and I went on a hike up in Rocky. It was a great hike

Bob Babbs (BS ‘73) (continued) to Cub Lake and “The Pool” along the Big Thompson River. We sat on an SUV sized rock on the edge of Cub Lake for a snack watching a few ducks across the Lake and a mother duck and ducklings swim by through the Water Lilies. Next thing we knew, the mother duck had climbed out of the water and was crawling up this large rock towards us. She walked right up to us and began preening herself. She didn’t beg for food, just came up to say hello. She stayed for a minute or two then walked partway down the steep side of the rock and flew back onto the water. Moments later, up comes one of her babies. We were surprised that they could climb this semispherical rock so easily. The baby came up to us, looked us over, crawled between our feet, bit my finger, then waddled all the way back down the steep side and into the water. It’s like they both just came up to check us out and say hi. Probably nothing special, but since most animals we see (except the chipmunks and ground squirrels that get overly fed by ignorant tourists and stupid Coloradoans) are afraid of people, we were thrilled. More on this hike in later weeks.

I spend much of my time playing with my charming granddaughter Ruby (nearly three) whom we care for about 10 hours a day while her parents work. Not really my idea of retirement, but.... Anyway, Barbara (my wife) says that if there is ever a contest for kiddie TV trivia, I could be a contender for champion. For your amusement, I’ve attached a picture of the local Groundhog Day festivities this year (photo). The gray-haired (or platinum blonde) handsome devil holding the baby is none other than yours truly. The anxious child is Ruby McKerrow, my granddaughter. The goof in the hat is a local goof-in-a-hat. The stuffed groundhog is Catonsville Catey, the star of the show. Ken

Mike Effler (BS ’73) (In a 4/22/09 note to Mike Fein) The big news with Sandy and me is that we are now living in Hannover, Germany. I took an assignment here with ExxonMobile as of March 1. We just moved out of a hotel and into our flat this past week so if you are ever in the area our guest bedroom is now up and running. Grüße/Regards, Mike

Roy Van Arsdale (MS ’74) We had the pleasure of a visit and lecture by Roy on 5/15/09. Roy gave us an excellent update on current thinking about seismic activity in the Reelfoot Rift (see poster), and he also participated as a member of the doctoral advisory committee for Ron Counts, shown in the photo with Roy.

Bob in Wonderful, Colorful, Sunny Colorado

I hope summer is giving you the opportunity to both stay productive and recharge the battery. Northern Michigan hasn’t really had much of a summer so far this year, but it’s been busy and fun at the same time nonetheless. I enjoyed the current Upper Crust edition as a chance to catch up with the department in some areas beyond what I got to learn during my May visit to campus. So, of course, there was the picture of the old paleontology blackboard! I felt the need to write down some of the particulars of that strange board for department history before pieces of it start falling from memory! So, attached is my twist on that little piece of department history. Feel free to share it with department friends and edit to your wishes. (http://homepages. uc.edu/~huffwd/Alumni/Wayne_Goodman.pdf It was terrific seeing you in May and sharing some of the pictures you took at the banquet. I will probably try to get to campus some time this fall and expect to be back as part of the Pryor-Motl Fellowship Committee in the spring of ‘09.

Ghulam Sarwar (MS ’77)

Indiana Dunes, 1962

Dear Professor Huff,

Ron Counts and Roy Van Arsdale

Ken Beem (PhD ‘73) Warren,

Cheers, Wayne Goodman Northern Lights Energy Gaylord, MI 49734-0218 wrgnle@alphacomm.net

Enjoy and have a good week.

Just a brief update. We are now “wordsmiths” for the Williamsburg Winery. We started with brochures, web pages and room descriptions for the hotel (Wedmore Place) adjacent to the winery, and are now engaged in writing a book about the property. The owner, Patrick Duffeler, was in charge of Marlboro advertising in Formula 1 (he ran Team Marlboro) during the 70’s, so he has many vivid stories to tell. We are nearly halfway through the writing phase for the book after 10 weeks of the project, and hope to have it printed in time for the Christmas season. As an added bonus for us, the first weekend in May at the winery is “Ferraris on the Vine”, with 25 Ferraris, both historic and modern, on display. We look forward to this.

Wayne Goodman (MS ‘76) Hi, Warren, Bellevue Hill from Clifton Avenue looking towards downtown Cincinnati, 1963.

D o you have any recollections of field trips,

social events, classroom experiences or other experiences during your UC days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues? Send them to Warren Huff, email: WARREN. HUFF@UC.EDU or Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincinnati, OH 45221 and we’ll include them in next years’ issue.

Things still continue to be very busy for us, although the economic climate in the energy industry has done a 180 in the past 6 months and many projects are being shelved or deferred. We are very involved in a tertiary recovery project using (and sequestering) CO2 here in northern MI. Adjuncts to this project have included involvement with the DOE on the whole sequestration issue through the Midwest Region Carbon Sequestration Project (MRCSP), which is also very active in yourregion taking a look at the logistics of sequestering the CO2 from Ohio Valley coal plants, most likely in the St. Peter Formation. Interesting stuff.

This morning, it is with a sad heart that I read the news about Professor DeJong’s passage to the world of Spirits. Back in the 70’s, we had done a lot of work together on the Pakistan project. To me, he was a great teacher and a kind human being. His book on the Geodynamics of Pakistan, published in 1979, became the “Green Bible” of the tectonics of South Asia, and will always be regarded as a great contribution to the geology of that part of the world. He had taken Plate Tectonics to Pakistan and helped us reinterpret the western Himalayan collision tectonics in terms of ophiolites, mélanges and mobile belts, instead of geosynclines. Sincerely, Ghulam Sarwar ConocoPhillips Company

W THE LEG END OF T HE PA LEO SEM IN A R BO A RD W By: Wayne Goodman

he spring , 2008 issue of U pper C rust featured the “Trivia Quiz” photo of a blackboard that to all but a few may look as abstruse as the R osetta S tone . F or those of us who were paleo students in the early 1970’ s , it was an evolving log of our journey in T he C aster Y ears .

This ancient tablet used to reside in the grad student office “bullpen” in the back of Old Tech’s museum area, where 4-5 paleo grad students were regularly housed and court was regularly held. At the Centennial celebration in 2007, I had the chance to revisit the board with a handful of current paleo students as well as Dave Meyer and Warren Huff, if I remember correctly. That board has a myriad of stories associated with it! I’ll try and pass along a few that I remember. For those who don’t know much of The Legend, the years when Ken Caster led the department’s paleontology group were trademarked by Paleo Seminar, a regular part of each paleo grad student’s life at UC every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8 a.m. as long as he/ she was in residence (upon penalty of Caster, far worse than penalty of law!). Seminar required each grad student to, on a rotating basis, to make (planned) one-week presentations on elements of that year’s megatopic. Most topics reflected Ken Caster’s major interest area strong suits and were “tip-

“

a regular part of each paleo grad student’s life.... (upon penalty of Caster, far worse than penalty of law!). Seminar required each grad student, on a rotating basis, to make (planned) oneweek presentations on elements of that year’s megatopic.

”

toe through the phyla” subjects looking at the details of systematic paleontology, species by species, using the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology as a starting point but every possible library reference or other source from there. During my time on campus, KEC’s favorite area of study, the echinoderms, were the chief topic, although we spent a little time on some varied topics such as sexual dimorphism in the geologic record and a few other interesting, eclectic subjects, which produced some memorable moments.

Paleo Seminar was at once a required assignment, a ritual, and the Bataan Death March of paleo classes. Only the severest of short-term health problems were an excuse to not show up. Many of us suffered through the occasional Monday morning hangover to at least be physically present. Presenting after a long night of scholarly research and/or a long night at Mother’s Tavern, aka Fries Café, could be the grad student equivalent of hell. Other paleo professors were required to attend and be a regular part of Ken Caster’s opportunity to hold court, opine, and teach. Professor Briskin may have been the first paleo professor to successfully (at least for the most part) avoid it. During my time on campus in the mid-1970’s, Professor Richard A. Davis, aka “RAD,” was in the # 2 paleo chair and was a regular contributor. His acerbic wit and his own allegiance to accuracy and meticulousness made him at times the perfect Ed McMahon to KEC’s Johnny Carson on seminar day. When Ken was on a roll and meticulously dissecting the student presenter of the day, RAD’s smirk of delicious pleasure added to the merriment—if you were not the one at the podium! On a day when Ken might not have his saber fully honed, Dr. Davis could be counted on to come up with the catalyst comment to start his juices flowing! Dr. Wayne Pryor was during that time also a regular attendee, and many of his sed/strat graduate students spent at least one quarter in the seminar as students and had their opportunity to be the “Celebrity Roastee of the Week.” Paleontology alumni occasionally made visits to campus and returned to Seminar as guests for a day or two. Professor Caster was particularly on center stage on such days, and the presenter knew he/she was in for a rough time. Seeing a John Pojeta, Jon Branstrator, or Ron Parsley in the halls of Old Tech meant that Seminar was going to be a challenge for the presenter, and a chance for some high-level entertainment for the rest of the audience! Seminar was something one prepared for with a certain degree of trepidation, and the presenter tried to envision the “killer questions” of KEC in advance during his/her presentation. There was a concern of not finding that “smokinggun” paper in KEC’s library on the topic of the week that Ken would wave in the face of the presenter. Trust me, it happened… It was graduate school’s true Best Dose of Humble for the paleontology student. At gatherings 30+ years later when I meet up with an old colleague, the first phrase uttered continued see Legend Mill Creek Valley and the construction of I-75, 1962.

might be the “NO-NO-NO-NO-NO…” that Ken would use to break a silent, contemplative moment during a student presentation. We all have our favorite old pet Caster phrases committed to memory. One of mine remains, “Goodman, that comment is highly filled with so-whatness.” Another that comes to mind is, “Harmon, there is no such thing as ‘rather unique.’ Something is either unique or it is not. There can be no modifiers for this word…” So, from all of this evolved the “Seminar Scoreboard.” We students started treating each seminar as a competition between the presenter and KEC. One or more of the non-presenters was designated as the day’s scorer. Like a football game, touchdowns were awarded for “big slams” by KEC or successful escapes of same by the presenter, field goals for lesser levels. A newspaper-like recap appeared on the board right after most seminar days. The seminar was routinely recapped over coffee, donuts, and an occasional hearts or euchre game during the 9-10 a.m. hour in the Tangeman Center. Stories quickly got embellished. For the first year or more that we “scored” seminars, Prof. Caster was undefeated. With KEC being the reputed Godfather of Echinoderm Paleontology, we all took it in the ear during seminars on that topic. Some of the episodes were famous, at least to we few. Guest Sedimentology student E.J. Webb, one of Dr. Potter’s Ph.D. students in the ‘70’s, returned to school for his doctorate in his middle 50’s. (Thus his team nickname of “Grandpadres.”) He tried to slug his way through a presentation on the blastoid Pentremites in his inimitable southern drawl and nonchalant style, and his one-week seminar seemed like it went on for a month of bloody KEC tirades. (We paleo

Portland, OR

2 0 0 9

students enjoyed the delay in preparing our own upcoming topics, so for the rest of us, this was a strangely ugly vacation of sorts!) But during our sojourn away from systematic paleontology and into assorted paleoecological topics one year, KEC may have occasionally lost interest and presenters actually got through relatively unscathed once in a while! In another fabled moment, colleague Bill “Strata” Harmon gave a presentation on sexual dimorphism in the fossil record. For whatever reason, a focus of his presentation was numerous pictures of dimorphism shown in modern dogs! KEC was speechless for perhaps the only time I can ever recall. Professors Davis and Pryor sat in the room only shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. The students in class spent the hour throwing goofy facial expressions at each other, shaking their heads, maybe smirking a little…OK, a lot. For the rest of us, this was a truly surreal moment. And the scoreboard reported it as an earth-shattering upset victory for Harmon! (You will note on the board that Bill’s team nickname was the “Browns” in part as a commemoration of the content of some of his presentations, in our opinions! Other nicknames, besides E.J. Webb’s “Grandpadres,” were Steve Meyers’ “Triplets”-he was studying the possibility of triradial symmetry in some echinoderms, Gary Taylor’s “Jets”--always quick on his feet during the Caster Q&A time, Bob Elias’ “Packrats”--on field trips, he never met a fossil he didn’t like, and my “Crusaders”-after all, each seminar presentation was one!) The Board became somewhat legendary in its own very local way. Other students outside the paleontology discipline started coming by to read the daily chronicle. KEC, who Conitinues on pg. 30, see Legend

G S A t i o n

The Annual Meeting this year will be in Portland, Oregon and we will host an Alumni Reception on Monday, October 19. We will meet from 7:00-9:30 pm. Specific hotel information coming in July, 2009. Keep an eye out for your invitation!

D o you have any recollections of field trips, social events, classroom experiences or other experiences during your UC days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues? Send them to Warren Huff, Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincinnati, OH 45221 and we’ll include them in next years’ issue.

Legend (cont.)

tive knowledge of the fossil record explodes. (By the way, loved the opportunity to have his ego stroked, finally figured I continue to be impressed with the outstanding work beout that the competition was being scored and started ocing done by our present students and faculty every time I casionally leaving the citadel of his Old Tech office to make come to visit. My own research of a generation ago seems visits to the museum student office and read the chronicle. Neanderthal by comparison, and I’m so pleased to see the (These were dubbed “Holy Visitations” department continuing to grow at such a and a tally of those was kept, too. Other high level.) For those of us that went in paleo faculty visits were merely “Unholy ... a part of me is still different directions, the lesson of seminar Visitations.”) At times, news of genuine waiting to hear the “NO- was meticulousness of preparation, clarsignificance to the students found its way and confidence in presentation. Many NO-NO-NO-NO…” litany ity to the board, but tended not to last long. of Ken’s students went into the energy inOther sidebars of our paleo student life at the end! But the disci- dustry and other assorted fields, and the often started here, too. One was a hier- pline and habits of scholar- lessons still got applied. Having sat in the archical listing of the “pecking order” of ly research taught by KEC boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, paleontologists. I think that one survived always felt that I still take a little of Ken in seminar still are a guid- I’ve in paper form and is a part of the Caster Caster with me when I prepare for and commemorative showcase in the Geol- ing force in my professional make a major presentation. When I get ogy & Physics Building. Ken labeled his career. to the concluding remarks, a part of me is top contemporary colleagues and a few still waiting to hear the “NO-NO-NO-NOof his predecessor mentors as “Giants” NO…” litany at the end! But the discipline or “Titans.” (Citing one of them in seminar was regularly and habits of scholarly research taught by KEC in seminar good for a long diversion from the Mentor.) They got to be at still are a guiding force in my professional career. the top of the food chain (right below Ken, of course). Then So, there you have it. A small, and almost forgotten, part came a declining list of lesser icons, the “Greats,” “Nearof the Geology Department’s lore. But it’s all as fresh as Greats,” “Awfully Good Paleontologists,” etc., down to the yesterday to the handful of us paleo student iconoclasts who bottom of the barrel where we students sat. That little opus started it and lived it some 35 or so years ago. I’m sure there got its start back on the old board at some point. are some other great old traditions of the department from

“

”

Paleo Seminar took on a legendary level in our then student society. We cowered when it was presentation time, and often wondered at the time what value it had besides a chance for Ken to keep us humble. Well, for those that went on in “traditional” systematic paleontology and adjunct disciplines, it was truly invaluable. The roots of that element of the science are diminishing each year even as our collec-

UC CAMPUS TODAY!

other disciplines and other generations as well. I’m sure we old codgers would enjoy hearing about them! Wayne Goodman (M.S., 1976) July, 2008

the opening of the

Cincinnati Center for Field Studies By: Wendy Beckman

A multidisciplinary and multigenerational crowd gathered at a former Shaker Farm in Miami Whitewater Forest to celebrate the opening of the Cincinnati Center for Field Studies (CCFS), a research station partnership between the University of Cincinnati Shaker Farmhouse , and the Hamilmain building at Center ton County Park District. McMicken students explained current research through poster displays in one room while another room contained models by DAAP students showing future possibilities. Senior Vice President and Provost Tony Perzigian opened the proceedings, thanking the donors for their support and their vote of confidence. Perzigian also noted that the field station was a major step forward in the university’s commitment to science

By: Wendy Beckman

education and the STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine) disciplines. Valerie Hardcastle, dean of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, expressed her deep appreciation to David Lentz. Lentz was hired by the McMicken College for the express purpose of being the executive director of the Cincinnati Center for Field Studies. Hardcastle said that she couldn’t imagine a better person for job, a man whom Provost Perzigian had previously described as a “visionary leader.” “He is a kind, gentlemanly, upright, forthright bulldog,” she said. Lentz has said that he sees the Center for Field Studies as “an important component of our abil- David Lentz and Jack Sutton conductig CCFS Opening. ity to train the next generation of environmental scientists and draw in research funds.” CCFS Director David Lentz and HCPD Director Jack Sutton unveiled the sign, which will be posted on Oxford Road. UC signed a 35-year lease with HCPD earlier this year. The field station will be the site of research for UC faculty and students and will be used as a stepping stone for students wanting to become environ-

mental researchers and scientists. It will provide opportunities to students from preschool through high school, and from undergrads through graduate school. CCFS’s open house started with words of welcome and concluded with a tour of the barns and farmDavid Lentzin the field in house, where postCentral America. ers of already-ongoing student research were on display. Also in the farmhouse were posters and 3D models showing future building concept models by architectural students from UC’s top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Jack Sutton, director of the Hamilton County Park District, noted what a tremendous occasion the opening was for Hamilton County. He welcomed the guests, including Chris Dole, candidate for Hamilton County Commissioner. The property, acquired 19 years earlier, will now further enhance the mission of the HCPD: to protect and preserve natural resources. Once and future scientists gathered at the opening of the Cincinnati Center for Field Studies at Miami Whitewater Forest. The field station will be a living lab for students, teachers and scientists to conduct hands-on re-

Dear Friends of the Geology department I propose to build an obelisk of rocks of Ohio in front of the Geology-Physics building. The idea is to collect oldest to youngest rocks in Ohio and build a small monument with tags showing the age and the type of rock. This stratigraphic column made up of real rocks will not only be interest to geologists but also to

search in biological science, anthropology, geography, archeology, geology and environmental studies. But the research won’t stop there, as Sandra Degen, UC vice president of research, noted in her remarks. “When the word catches on, I’m sure we’re going to have engineers out here and life scientists out here,” she said. Degen thanked Hamilton County Park District Director Jack Sutton, saying that she especially appreciates the opportunity for undergraduates to conduct research at a true field station. “I was given the opportunity to do research at a field station,” she told the crowd. “That opportunity changed my life.” As many speakers noted in their remarks, the weather for the open house couldn’t have been bet-

ter and showed nature in its glory. Vice President Degen concluded her remarks by saying that as an eastsider, she didn’t often get to sample Miami Whitewater Forest and had packed a change of clothes for the occasion. “I’m going hiking,” she said. “And I hope you join me!”

people of Cincinnati and visitors of the department. To do this we need to collect the rocks and hire a stonemason to build the monument. If you think this is a good idea, please let me know so that our Geology Club can start the project. Attila Kilin c

2008

2009

Richard Allmendinger, Cornell University “Neogene tectonics of the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile”

Larry Wickstrom, Ohio Geological Survey “Geologic CO2 Sequestration in Ohio – Who, Why, Where, When, & How”

William Stein, SUNY Binghamton “The ancient forests of Gilboa”

Ronald L. Richards, Curator of Paleobiology and Chief Curator of Natural History Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites “The Bothwell Mastodont Locality, Lake County, Indiana“

Lee Kump, Penn State University “End-Permian Mass Extinction by Hydrogen Sulfide: Birth (and Death?) of a Good Idea” Linda Hinnov, John Hopkins University “Dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the past 20 M yr: new perspectives from the Antarctic Drilling Program” Dale Elifrits, Northern Kentucky University “Landslide Mass Drainage Using Wick Drains” Mark Krekeler, Miami University “The Environmental Geology of the Yucatan Peninsula” Jonathan Levy, Miami University “Exploring Water Resources in the Developing World” Erik Venteris, Ohio Geological Survey “Mapping of reservoir bottom sediments using sonar, geostatistics, and field geology for fish habitat characterization” Frank Ettensohn, University of Kentucky “Kentucky Dropstones “Ice” the Case for Late Devonian Alpine Glaciation in the Appalachian Basin (USA) with Implications for Appalachian Tectonics and Black-Shale Sedimentation” Michael Foote, University of Chicago “The evolution of geographic range in animal species and genera” Brook Brosi, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “Foundation Remediation of Wolf Creek Dam, Kentucky” Alejandro Carrillo-Chavez, University of Mexico “Inorganic Geochemistry of Petroleum Systems” J. L. Rich Lecture Kevin Peterson, Dartmouth College “The deep evolution of animal phyla: insights from molecular clocks and microRNAs” Dennis Hubbard, Oberlin College “Can We Quantitatively Compare Modern and Ancient Reefs? Insights from Holocene Exposures in the western Dominican Republic”

Barry Maynard, University of Cincinnati “The History of Oxygen in the Atmosphere and Oceans Revealed by Manganese Ore Deposits: Being a Voyage Through Time and Space” J. David Rogers, Department of Geological Engineering Missouri University of Science & Technology “The 1928 St. Francis Dam Failure and Its Impact on American Civil Engineering”

John (Jack) Wunder (MS ’79) Hello Warren, I hope you enjoy the clay conference while you are in Billings in June, and get a chance to visit some of this part of the country. I like Billings (close to Yellowstone Park, mountains, overall quality of life, etc.), and I moved here 7 years ago for the quality of life after retiring from a 21-year international career with ConocoPhillips. I was deeply saddened upon learning of the recent death of Kees DeJong. I fondly remember playing chess with him in the Fenneman room in the Old Tech Building. Best regards, Jack Wunder Geologist Reservoir Management Operations Section BLM Montana State Office

Asuman (Gunal) Türkmenoglu (PhD ’79) Dear Warren,

B. Brandon Curry, Quaternary Section. Illinois State Geological Survey “Snack-Time! 14 C-Datable Tundra Plant Fossils and other Edibles preserved in Glacial Doughnuts” Hans J. Hofmann, McGill University “Deformational Structures in the Cincinnati area (with Reminiscences of UC Geology in the 1960’s)” Tammie Gerke, University of Cincinnati “Toxic metals in drinking water pipes: New insights from synchrotron studies” Sara L. Rathburn, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University “Channel Stability within a Changing Landscape: Planning for Restoration of Lulu Creek and Colorado River, Rocky Mountain National Park” Roy Van Arsdale, University of Memphis“The Mississippi Embayment and its Earthquakes: 3D Mapping and Characterization of Sistema Zacatón from DEPTHX (DEep Phreatic THermal eXplorer)”

It is a wonderful feeling to become a grandmother (photo). His name is Alper, now he is 5 months old. I am sending few photos. He has blue eyes, like the eyes of my father and I hope that it will not change. Alper is a very cute and lovely baby boy. In Ankara we didn’t have too much snow this winter, which is not good. Today it was rainy and windy. We are enjoying the semester break. The classes will start on 19th of February. I am trying to finish writing of project reports, and getting ready for the coming semester.

We are going to have 14th National Clay Meeting on October 1-3, 2009, at the city of Trabzon, located at the eastern Black sea coast of Turkey. Karadeniz (Black Sea in Turkish) Technical University will be the hosting University. Perhaps you remember Dr.Emel Abdioglu, from Euroclay Meeting at Modena, She is the secretary of the Symposium. We (The Turkish National Committee of Clay Science) have more difficult job of organizing the next EUROCLAY Conference in 2011. This time we selected Antalya as the host city. Antalya is located at the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Meanwhile, Hale and myself are trying to edit a Special Issue of Applied Clay Science on the occasion of the Fourth Mediterranean Clay Meeting held in Ankara (2006). I thank you very much for your contribution by carrying out the reviewing of the manuscripts for this purpose. I will be at Italy for the coming ICC. Ceren, my Ph.D. student and Nurdan will join me. So, I am very glad that we will meet each other this year at Italy. I have some good news about Ho Shing Yu, my classmate (Tom Yu, PhD ‘79) at UC. He visited Turkey last year for a week and gave several seminars in our Department (photo). He also invited me to Taiwan, so I am planning to go if I can manage my schedule. Yours sincerely, Asuman

Honoring Madeleine Briskin

Lisa White, San Francisco State University “Cold Seep Limestone Deposits: A New Locality in the

Mesozoic Great Valley Group in Northern California” Jim Dinger, Head of the Water Resources Section, Kentucy Geological Survey “GPR and Groundwater Chemistry Investigations of Roadway Subsidence in the Cumberland Gap Tunnel” (R to L) With Madeleine, the Meyers, Mellisa McMullens and the Huffs.

Jeff Spencer (BS ’80) Hi Dr. Huff, I may be in Ohio in September and will try to stop by, and will also try to plan on the alumni reception at GSA. Thanks, Jeff Black Pool Energy 12012 Wickchester, Suite 140 Houston, TX 77079

Joe Fernback (BS ’83) stopped by for a chat on 11/11/08. He is a TEM specialist with CDC in Cincinnati and works a lot on asbestos and nanoparticle detection. Michael Roberts (MS ‘84) Hi all, I am very sorry that I will not be able to attend the alumni dinner and reception. I will be out of country in a government dataroom, doing what I normally do, which is looking for exploration opportunities. Lots of great stories to tell... Unfortunately, we can’t always pick and choose the timing of these visits. I was very much looking forward to seeing old friends (Hi Dr. Huff!) and making new ones. I do have a lot of passion on the subject of earth science training and education and am interested in helping open up additional opportunities for students or providing guidance/opinions if I can. Please let me know if I can do anything to help UC Geology prosper. Hope everyone has a great meeting. Best wishes, Mike Michael Roberts, Area Manager Chevron Global Exploration and New Ventures

Tom Klekamp an Dave Leinhart at Houston GSA 2008.

Mike Trippi (MS ’86) MIke Trrippi is a co-author of the newly published USGS Scientific Investigations Map 2985, Geologic Cross Section E-É through the Appalachian Basin from the Findlay Arch, Wood County, Ohio, to the Valley and Ridge Province, Pendleton County, West Virginia. He writes: Hi Dr. Huff, Nice to hear from you. I received the newsletter last week and enjoyed reading your section and seeing the old photo from Tim Tharp. Although I wasn’t in that particular class I knew almost everyone in that picture. It’s amazing I can still recognize them after more than 20 years! I guess that proves I haven’t lost (all of) my memory yet! Bob Ryder is pleased that you are interested in the Silurian report. He did the lion’s share of the work, obtaining the samples, sending them to a chemistry lab, and writing the text. I just made the maps and charts for the report, based on his ideas. Glad you find it interesting. Not much is new with me. Still working with Bob and Jingle Ruppert here at the USGS in Reston. Good to see all of your photos and read about you all in the newsletter each year. I remember when I first moved here in 1988 you mentioned that you had lived in Centreville (VA) during the war. I’m sure it was much different then. In fact, during the past 20 years it has changed a lot with shopping centers and housing projects filling most of the undeveloped spaces that were still pretty plentiful in 1988. They’ve even built an interchange where Lee Highway used to meet Sully Road. Most of the outer suburbs of DC are now being heavily developed from Leesburg down to Manassas and even down to Fredericksburg. I don’t recognize some of these places because they are developing so quickly that if you don’t drive through an area for a couple years it will be all changed the next time you go through. I suppose the same thing is happening in the suburbs that surround Cincinnati, also. I lived in Centreville for the first five years I was down here. Then I moved north to Chantilly for a couple years and then to Reston for 7 years, and for the past 5 years I’ve lived just east of the City of Fairfax. They have a set of satellite images near the cafeteria here that show the Reston area in 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990 and you can see the progressive development taking place, especially during the last 20 years. I can’t imagine what it will be like in another 100 years. Probably like that planet in the Star Wars movie with a worldwide city! I hope not.

Andrea Haas (BS ‘86)

Almério Barros França (PhD ’87)

(In a note to David Nash)

Hi Prof. Huff,

Good morning and I hope you had a pleasant holiday. Imagine my surprise when I opened the daily email with stories about the electric industry and saw a story about Hamilton Ohio. I didn’t know Ford had a hydroelectric plant on the Miami River, score one for life-long learning! All the Best, Andrea Southern California Edison Operations Support Supply Chain Management, Logistical Analysis Manager

Please I would like to send some news and pictures. Are you still in charge of the newsletter? Please say hello to everyone. I’m including a picture from Iceland All the best Almério Barros França E&P-EXP/GEO Modelagem de Sistemas Petrolíferos Av. República do Chile, 65, Sala 1401. Centro. 20031-912. Rio de Janeiro - RJ. (21) 3224-1168; (21) 8162-0770

From left to right: Bill Jenks, Len Larsen, Richard Durrell and Reuben Bullard.

Our best guess for this photo was that it was taken in the mid 80s. Some of you might be able to be more specific. Kees DeJong had it on his office wall.

Michael H. Trippi

Hey D Nash, How are things? Things are cold and white up here. We have 18+ inches of snow on the ground at home. I hear you wimps in Cincy have no snow. I have a question about your WHP Study for LeCI (my boss loved it). Where did you get Figure 6? Is it from ODNR or did you guys come up with it? We may want to use it (if you don’t mind). It was so nice seeing everybody at the Centennial (I can’t believe that it has been almost two years already). It was very interesting and somewhat humbling to hear what everybody is doing these days. I am still plodding along in the environmental field. I would have never guessed back in 1980 that there was enough soil and groundwater contamination to keep me employed for 25+ years. I guess I owe a debt of thanks to those U.C. grads working in the petroleum industry. Thanks Pete (just kidding-no nasty e-mails please). I changed companies last year and (thankfully) I don’t have to travel as much as I did with my last employer. I do have to say that I do miss traveling to other countries. I can’t believe the places where I have had the opportunity to work and visit (Central and South America, Africa, Australia,

Joe Forgacs (BS ‘89) Greetings Dr. Huff,

Bruce Patterson, Manager ENVIRON 13801 West Center Street, Suite 1 PO Box 405 Burton, OH 44021

We plan on keeping Houston as home base for another year and a half so my older daughter can finish high school and his youngest will be closer to finishing. I’m still working as a project manager at ERM. Although they have an office in Denver I see this as a chance to perhaps get back to “real” geology and will definitely be researching other opportunities once we move.

Jennifer Loos (MS ‘88)

Best regards, Jennifer

Hi Warren, Peter (Purrazzella) has just accepted a position as Manager of Petrology and Sedimentology services with Weatherford Labs in Denver and has been commuting for about 6 weeks now. Omni Labs, where he’s worked here in Houston for the past 9 years, was purchased by Weatherford over a year ago. Weatherford also bought Ticora, a service company located in Golden that specializes in coal bed methane studies and measurements. Peter is heading a new petrology group linking the two former companies. Right now he’s doing fun stuff like training petrologists and ordering new petrology scopes and photographic equipment. He’s planning to attend the HGS Mudstones conference in early February and is looking forward to seeing Drs. Potter and Maynard and any other UC faculty that might be attending. Unfortunately, much as I’d like to be there, I don’t think I’ll be attending the conference.

W e d o n ot h av e c ur r en t m a i l i n g a d d r e s se s for the following alumni. C an you help?

Jennifer Loos (MS ‘88) (continued)

New Zealand, and Europe). My travels for work allowed me to catch the end of Carnival in Rio and make a side trip to the Galapagos Islands. I just wish I had paid more attention in Spanish class. Adios.

Bruce Patterson (MS ‘87)

James Alpha

David Green

Robert Russell

Michael Armstrong

Michael Honnert

Paul Schuh

Dennis Bassarab

Ben Johnston

Danny Sims

Kelleen Beach

Jessica Kelley

Amy Smith

Rebecca Carter

Glenn King

Ann Smyth

Ping Fan Chen

Andrew Kosse

Kenneth Sparks

Martin Clifford

Byron Lester

Timothy Stevenson

Krista Collins

Shuguang Mao

James Streeter

Shelly Cooker

Susan Parrett

David Trowbridge

Paul Court

Robert Rhoades

Benjamin Uhl

James Devine

Terry Rowekamp

Kelleen Williams

Maurice Frey

Mark Rudolph

PS: By the way, Dave and Sylvia Jennette (MS ’86) just transferred to Perth, Australia last Saturday. He is still with Apache although I don’t know his job title. Their daughter Sydney is a freshman at University of Oklahoma. She’s the same age as my son Jonathon, who’s a freshman at Trinity in San Antonio.

Bill Harrar (MS ‘89) (Note to David Nash)

Thank you for the Upper Crust alumni newsletter. I know it has been a while since I last corresponded with you, like years. I have been with Kentucky State Government since 1989, shortly after graduating from UC. I do appreciate your letting me know about the position that started me in State Government, with the Division of Waste Management in the Florence Regional Office. I was involved with fieldwork involving soils and groundwater for about 3 years. In 1992, though, I switched my environmental focus and have been involved with air quality ever since. My wife and I enjoy the outdoors and live in Central Kentucky. I hope all is well with you! Joe Forgacs, Environmental Technologist III   Kentucky Division for Air Quality   Program Planning & Administration Branch   Evaluation Section

Hi David, How are you David? I was thinking about you not long ago and was wondering what you and your family are up to. I am doing well, as is my family. I made a career change a couple of years ago and am now working as a reservoir engineer working on a variety of projects in the North Sea (mainly exploration), gas storage and CO2 storage. Most of my time is spent doing multiphase flow modeling, combined with some well test analysis and oversight of a couple of research projects.

Portland, OR

Regards, Bill Harrar Reservoir Engineer,Petroleum Engineering Department DONG Energy Agern Alle 24-26 2970 Hørsholm

o you have any recollections of field trips, social events, classroom experiences or other experiences during your UC days that you would like to share with your alumni colleagues? Send them to Warren Huff, email: WARREN. HUFF@UC.EDU or Dept. of Geology, UC, Cincinnati, OH 45221 and we’ll include them in next years’ issue.

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Carl Scharpf (MS ‘90) Warren, It was great hearing your voice on the phone message. Please give my regards to Arnie and Dave and let them know I am still alive and well almost 20 years post-UC. I have moved companies yet again. I recently departed Jakarta Indonesia and have taken up the post as General Manager for Gulf of Mexico Exploration at Murphy Oil Company in Houston, TX. I am looking to cut down on International travel for a while and get the family a bit more settled. This new job is quite interesting as it is my first time to work North America. I hope all is well at UC and the Geology Program is still running strong. We do hire entry level geologists from time to time. So if you know any one interested in heading to Houston, please let me know. Thanks and best regards, Carl Carl D. Scharpf General Manager GOM Exploration Murphy Exploration and Production 16290 Katy Freeway, Suite 600 Houston, TX 77094

Mark Dubois (MS ’96) (email to Tom Lowell)

Mark Krekeler (MS ’98)

Warren,

Hey Tom,

Hi Warren,

Hi! I hope all is well with you, your family and friends in the department. Very recently, I came across a website when I was skimming through the latest (March) issue of Microscopy Today that I thought you would Kenan and daughter, Kezban. find it good to share with your students, coworkers, and other faculty when you need arises. I found it very informative and interactive, and potentially incredibly useful since it spans all the possible fields of application.. It is http://temsamprep.in2p3.fr (it has reportedly been translated to English recently).

I’ve been looking forward to catching up with you some year in Maine and also chatting on the phone sometime. Hope your summer is going well. We are wet here in Maine and drying out a bit latetly. The water is high and cold.

Attached is the latest Krekeler newsletter. Hope everyone is doing well. Please pass this along to others. http://homepages.uc.edu/~huffwd/Alumni/ Krekeler_2009.pdf

As for me, I have been well, keeping busy with work and trying to weather this pretty tough corporate environment brought about by the economic downturn, and helping Kezban grow (photo). Not that she asks for any help; she is incredibly, 4 now. I am attaching a recent photo. Wishing you and everyone in the department a very pleasant spring! Kenan

I was surfing around the web to see if I could find your website on the Iceland trip, but no luck. Do you have a website or file for this trip handy? A co-worker is headed there next Friday. No big deal if you get this late or if you simply can’t send anything from your current location. If you ever want to get a sailboat in the water some year, let me know, and maybe I could help if you retained the boat. I’ve taken up sailing as of late, but I’m years away from purchasing a boat of my own... Looking forward. Mark

Blaine (MS ’97) & Debbie (Yost BS ‘97) Watson Hello Friends,

Evelyn Goebel (MS ‘93) Hi Dr Huff,

Please send my regards to Dr Potter (and the rest of the UC gang). Evvy Senior Geologist   Thunder Horse ~ One Team One Goal

This is just a short note to update you with our new e-mail address information. For personal correspondence, you can reach us through watsons@super-oil. com.

Mark

Leonard (Tony) Pace (BS ‘98) Hello Dr. Huff, Greetings from Canada! I’ve finally landed in Ontario and looking forward to my new adventures here with AECOM. I got here just in time to experience winter at its best! I was falsely under the impression that Canadians could drive in the snow, but they drive just as well as those in Cincinnati. It’s strange that a transplanted Texan can actually maneuver better than most in such conditions. We are still trying to get the house in order to put up for sale in Cincinnati. Randy, my wife, is still there and chomping at the bit to get home to the Falls. She reminds me daily about how that seems backward, but I guess I’m blazing the trail for her and Michael.

Take a deep breath and look at what Terry Acomb (MS ‘97) does in his spare time (for fun!).

Things are going pretty well even with the wild swings in the trading price of petroleum during 2008. With our motor oil being capable of extending drain intervals (up to 25,000 miles within 1 year) and improving fuel economy, while providing better protection of their vehicle so they can keep it longer, it’s definitely an area people have been looking into as a way to stretch their money further. We provide people a chance to save money when oil prices are high, but can also help them in the poor economy when they have to watch every expense. We continue to add new dealers and customers pretty regularly and are looking forward to more growth in our new location for 2009.

I’m learning that the Niagara Region and southwest Ohio have a lot in common. Both are on the cusp between Ordovician and Silurian and both were heavily glaciated, so that makes life easier. The suspects are the same, but the names were changed to protect the innocent.

Please send my regards to all in the department and have a Happy Holidays! Tony Pace

Our best wishes to everyone for a great year during 2009! Blaine, Debbie and Audrey Watson www.Super-Oil.com

Kenan Cetin (PhD ‘92)

Thanks for tracking me down on Linkedin. Kevin Svage found me too.   All is well in Houston. So far, no layoff announcements at BP. I’m still working on the Thunder Horse project. Deepwater turbidites in subsalt setting. We have started up production and all is well so far.   I was in Columbus and Athens last weekend. I wish I could have had (made?) more time to visit Cincinnati. We have to come back in late April for family thing in Wooster. Maybe we will fly into Cincinnati and do a road trip to Columbus/Wooster and fly back from Cleveland. Bye for now

GSA , 2008 Houston, TX. L to R): Kate Bulinski, Lisa Fay. David Meyer, Alex Bartholomew, Karen Layou and Jocelyn Sessa.

Arnie Miller at 2009 Geology Picnic.

Adam Flege (BS ‘99)

Kris Fields (MS ‘00)

(In a note to Barry Maynard)

Hello to my former committee members (and the guy who left me permanently scarred chasing that little blue ball around)! I hope you are all doing well and surviving this lovely political season. I am still with a small consulting firm in Louisville, still happily married, and still hoping to outlive the three cats that came with the wife. Best wishes,

Dr. Maynard, Consulting is going well, though very slow with the economy. I am teaching part time evenings at Miami University Hamilton (OH). Teaching is going well and is something I hope to end my career as a geologist with, once the kids are all paid for, of course. We have three now, Katherine is 5 years old and is in Kindergarten, James is 2 and a half and is quite the bruiser, hopefully a future linebacker in our midst, and Rachel, born this year, is the calm one of the three. I have included a picture of all three. Erin is doing well, working from home and raising three kids. Not quite sure how she does it, but she does it very well. Adam

Kris Fields, P.G. Senior Hydrogeologist Linebach Funkhouser, Inc. 114 Fairfax Avenue Louisville, KY 40207

Alan Turner (BS ‘01) Hi Warren, I’m disappointed that I will again miss the GSA alumni gathering (I swear I will make it one of these years). I haven’t talked to folks from UC in quite a while, although I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Margret Smart (Dascenzo now I guess) after she had seen me on the History Channel over the summer.

Katherine, James and Racheal Flege.

My past year has been quite busy. I finished my PhD this summer and started my job as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University. It is a truly amazing group of people that work there so I’m very exciting about being a part of the faculty there. As an added bonus, I will remain on at the AMNH as a Research Associate, which is great because I still collaborate with a lot of folks there. I’ve moved out of Manhattan (unfortunately, I miss my old neighborhood) and now live (albeit in a much bigger apartment) in Queens to get me closer to my job. Also, just last weekend my girlfriend and I got engaged which is very exciting. Hope things are going well for you and everyone else in the department. Let me know if you are still handling the Newsletter info, that way I can send you a little blurb to include in the next one. Take care, Alan

Tim Agnello (MS ’02)

Rich Krause (MS ’02)

Tim and Dr. Barry Maynard have developed a successful collaboration in offering workshops and field trips for engineers, realtors, and other interested group on the identification and mitigation of landslides in the Cincinnati area. See Tim’s website at http://www.ohiovalleylandslides.com/.

Hi Warren,

Laura Gilpin (BS ‘02) Hi Dr. Huff, Dr. Kilinc and Nash! So, I’m no longer in Moscow. I’ve moved to Phoenix. I know... what the heck, right? Well, I spent the last 2 years in Moscow and that was enough of both Russia and the State Department for me. It’s a really tough environment to live in, and ultimately, I decided that I was done a) moving every 2 years and b) living outside of the US and that c) I could use some semblance of privacy. I love the US, and ironically, that’s why I did what I did, to serve my country overseas. But I decided I’d rather be selfish and soak up America by living in it. I just wanted to let you guys know... I got some exciting news today. I got my dream job! I just got hired at Nammo Talley (Talley Defense Systems). Nammo is a defense contractor that makes rocket propellants and explosives. So they make everything from shoulderlaunched rockets and warheads to ammunition and missiles. It’s a very cool place. They have 550 acres in the desert to the north of town. The job is a chemist position in the analytical unit (so I’ll get to work with a little of everything). I’m really excited though. Talley is just a great company and it’s exactly the position I wanted with a lot of room for advancement as well. Anyway, I just wanted to update you and let you know the good news. Otherwise, Phoenix is still great. It’s almost Thanksgiving and it’s still been blue skies and 80 degree weather. Hehehe. I hope everything is good with you guys and the department. Happy Thanksgiving!!! Laura

I’ve been in Berlin for about a year and a half on an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship. I’m working on Jurassic bivalves in the Natural History Museum. Berlin is a great city but unfortunately my fellowship runs out in the fall and I’ll have to find a job. In fact, the job hunt has consumed much of my time lately. I’m afraid that many academic positions in the US may not go through because of the economic crisis. Hopefully I’ll get lucky and find something. I’ll be in Cincinnati this summer for the North American Paleontological Convention. In fact, I’m organizing a session for the meeting. Maybe I’ll see you at the meeting or on a field trip. Take care, Rich

Lisa Fay (BS ‘03) Hello Friends, I just wanted to let you know where I’m at & what I’m doing; but mostly, I you to know that you are in my thoughts. The government insists on giving me a different email address each time I switch agencies or renew my contracts, so I’m not exactly sure of when our most recent correspondence took place. I haven’t let any grass grow under my feet, so here’s a summary of my recent undertakings: Summer, 2007--Denali National Park: Beautiful, intense, and humbling...also, as it turns out, infested with grizzly bears. I have posted a couple of pictures here: http://lisafay.googlepages.com/*new*denali Autumn, 2007-spring, 2008--Klamath National Forest: Remote and geologically complex. Among other projects, my primary objective was to create a series of interpretive brochures highlighting Geologic Special Interest Areas on the forest. After 6 months, I produced 13 final products, and uncovered-and-resolved numerous impeding issues (including, but not limited to: tribal affairs, GIS data mismanagement debacles, gross miscommunications across the agency, recreational use guidelines, inconsistencies in “planning” parlance, oppressive bureaucracy, and the nuances of navigating 4 separate public affairs offices). I am proud of the challenges I overcame while undertaking this project, and that I laid solid groundwork for the next person who wants to venture down this path. It hasn’t even gathered dust: Just this week, I learned that one of my favorite sites (Crater Glass Flow) will be the subject of an Environmental Assessment, scheduled for later this

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month--this is for an interpretive trail & signage that I proposed--if they don’t find any arrowheads, etc., the project will probably move ahead as planned. I also learned that a trial batch of 3 different brochures will be published (--the printing office is so excited, they’re offering to run the initial printing free of charge!), pdf’s of the brochures will be posted on the web. I’ll send you the link when it goes live. Any technical questions you received from me over the last 9 months were probably related to this project--I, on behalf of Klamath National Forest and Region 5, thank you so much for your counsel. People on the forest are very enthusiastic about the series and it’s potential. I am very proud that I could bring some energy to this.

Greetings, Dr. Huff! I’m wrapping up my current contract with the Geologic Resources Division of the NPS (helping to administer the Geoscientists-In-the-Parks Program--the NPS side of GSA’s GeoCorps America program). Also, I just signed another 3-month contract with the NPS: Beginning in January, I’ll write a “Paleontology Resource Inventory Report” for National Park Service units in Washington-state. By the end of April, I should be the lead author on a technical report published through the gov’t; this report will help guide resource management decisions for 7 or 8 national parks. I hope you are enjoying your winter break, and are ready for a sublime 2009! Lisa

Spring, 2008: I really needed a vacation, so I spent about 2.5 Patrick Applegate (BS ’03) months road-tripping from the PaDr. Huff, cific North Coast, through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, (back to Utah) AriI just got the latest edition of the zona, Florida, Mississippi, Louisi“Upper Crust.”Thanks for your efana, and New Mexico. I went rock forts in putting it together. It is climbing, visited the Goosenecks easily the best thing I get in my of San Juan (just for you, Carl!), work mail. got WAY lost on the Navajo ResI’m glad to see that your online ervation -maps of native lands are course is going well. We have grossly inadequate-, rode horses, something similar for our “Geology soaked in hot springs, visited fam- Ana Londono, Kelly LaBlanc and Sarah of the National Parks” course at Penn ily, built sandcastles with my neph- Derouin. State; it’s been interesting to see that ews, saw Tony Bennett in concert, develop. visited Nawlins, kayaked on the Rio I’ll be teaching during a one-semester sabbatical reGrande, and visited with lots of friends. placement this fall at SUNY-Geneseo. The summer has Summer-winter, 2008: Currently, I’m in Denver, staybeen busy; I went to Peru with Tom, then came back ing with Kathy (Bremer) Hollis until I find a place that and left immediately for Wyoming, and now I’m leaving I can afford. Three weeks ago, I joined the Geologic tomorrow for Utah. I’m traveling a lot, but I think I’m Resources Division of the National Park Service, where making progress toward starting my dissertation. I’ll play small roles in a variety of projects. I am helping Take care. to restructure the Geoscientists-in-the-Parks program Patrick (similar to GSA’s GeoCorps interships), developing a couple of websites, data mining for a benthic habitat papplega@geosc.psu.edu mapping project, unofficially collaborating on an EnviDepartment of Geosciences ronmental Assessment for a beach nourishment proj532 Deike Building ect at Padre Island National Seashore, TX, writing case University Park, PA 16802 studies (and protocols?) for various geologic monitoring projects; and I’ll be developing an Inventory & Monitoring database for geologic resources, serviceo you have any recollections of field wide. That should take up most of my time until midtrips, social events, classroom experiDecember; then, where I’ll be is anyone’s guess! ences or other experiences during your UC That about covers it. I hope your summer is going days that you would like to share with your well, and that it is full of facsinating field excursions. alumni colleagues? Please remember me, if you are planning a trip to DenSend them to Warren Huff, email: WARver. REN.HUFF@UC.EDU or Dept. of Geology, Cheers! UC, Cincinnati, OH 45221 and we’ll include Lisa them in next years’ issue.

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G eology A lum to P ut S kills to U se in A fghanistan Article in McMIcken Monthly by Matt Cunningham

Alexander Stewart (Geology BS ’00, PhD ’07) will take part a U.S. A rmy agribusiness mission underway in A fghanistan .

lexander Stewart’s adult life has followed “My impression is that the U.S. Army and two paths. On one hand, the Oak Hills High U.S. government will assist in funding these School graduate followed an interest in new farms only if the farmers and community Geology to McMicken College of Arts and do all the ground work and get the project Sciences, from which he earned a BS in started — this is not a welfare situation.” that discipline in 2000 and a PhD in 2007. Stewart said that despite his degrees, this He now works as an assistant professor of will be the first time his civilian occupation will geology at Angelo State University in San be applied to a military mission. Angelo, Texas. Alexander Stewart, shown here in “This mission will be quite different from my But Stewart also chose to serve his coun- Alaska, will deploy for Afghanistan previous missions,” he said, “primarily bein early 2009. try in addition to his scientific interests. He cause I will be deployed as a geologist rather enlisted with the U.S. Army at age 17 and than my military specialty, communications. served as a radio operator for the past 18 I will also be an adjunct with Ghazni University, years. His military career took him to Alaska, so the opportunities for professional development Central America and Iraq, all while he worked on are there, too.” his degrees. According to Department of Geology ProfesNow, the Army is capping his military career sor Thomas Lowell, the divide between Stewart’s with a final mission, one that will allow him to military and scientific interests did not hold him put his geological knowledge to use in a peaceback from pursuing his own research, even when keeping role. Stewart will be deployed for one deployed. year to Ghazni, Afghanistan, in early 2009 as “Alex is eclectic in his whole range of interests, the geologist member of a 12-person agricultural but once he starts on something he follows up on Alexander Stewart plays development team. with a Kashmiri girl dur- it,” said Lowell, who recalled informally advising “I was recruited from the State of Texas Army ing a 2005 University of Stewart while he was deployed in Iraq. Stewart National Guard having been here for only five Cincinnati research trip had taken an interest in scorpion behavior, said months,” he said. “Apparently, word got around to India. Lowell, and the soldier collected enough data that I had certain qualifications as a geologist. to publish a number of articles on the subject. From the federal or state level, they hunted me down and “Here’s this kid in a war zone, and in his spare time he’s recruited me.” looking at scorpions,” said Lowell. “He’s a self-starter and The team, which also includes experts in topics such as isn’t scared to get into his interests.” animal husbandry, business development and farming, will Stewart, in turn, credited his open perspective to what he build off work started by a team deployed last April. That learned from Lowell and the rest of McMicken College’s gefirst team established experimental farms, bee hives, dams ology faculty. “Science is a way of thinking,” said Stewart, and even demonstration farms to show Afghani farmers “not of gathering or storing facts, data or knowledge. Dr. subsistence farming as an alternative to opium farming. Lowell taught me to be philosophical and to make good ob“We also have to convince local bankers that economic servations as a field geologist, things that seem to be slipfarming is worth their investment,” he said. “Currently, they ping by the wayside as technology increases.” don’t like to lend money to farmers.

Christy Reuter (BS ’06)

Yeong Bae Seong

Sarah Derouin (PhD ‘08)

Hello Dr. Huff,

Hi Friends,

It’s so nice to hear from you! U of L is going well. But things certainly work differently across the River. It sure makes me miss UC. I will be done with my program in May 2009, then I’ll be teaching next fall.

I recently got a Quaternary geology job with the Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, CO. I’m really excited about the new job and am really loving the area and the people I’m working with.

Christopher has left Alt & Witzig and is now working at URS, as so many of us UC geology graduates. He loves it and he gets to work with Katie, Teresa, and me - on the rare occasion.

Bureau of Reclamation Seismotectonics and Geophysics P.O. Box 25007 Denver, CO 80225-0007

Take care, Sarah

Yeong Bae Seong (PhD, ’07) Yeong Bae Seong has been appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Korea University in Seoul. He’s continuing his research program in mountain glaciation and landscape evolution. He has written 6 papers (in top journals) from his PhD work, plus another two on the Antarctic work he did while here, and he is co-author on another paper with Lewis Owen reviewing glaciation throughout the Himalaya.

We plan on staying in Louisville for another two years, at least. Let me know how things are in the department. Take care, Christy

Alejandra Bonilla (MS ‘05) Congratulations to Alejandra and Michael Casson on their marriage in Amatlán, Morelos, Mexico on Novembr 29, 2008.

Sean Cornell (PhD ’08) Carlton Brett and Sean Cornell.

Shaun Becker (BS ’08)

Sean Cornell successfully defended his PhD dissertation on August 27, 2008. Here is a photo of him with his advisor, Carl Brett. Congratulations, Sean!

I got the job at URS, as a graduate geohydrologist. Hooray!

Last year Kate Cosgrove, our Financial Administrator, gave birth to their new son Jack!

Here’s Jack! 47