Note from the Undergraduate Program Director
Dylan Ward It’s hard to believe I’ve been here at UC for a decade this August. In that time I’ve graduated five individual graduate students with four M.S. and two PhDs awarded between them, working in the Teton Range, the San Rafael Swell of Utah, the central Kentucky karst, and the Andes of northern Chile. These landscapes provide exceptional examples of landscape evolution: by glaciation, by stream incision through layered rocks, by dissolution. They are all great landscapes for adventure.
ongoing climate change in Earth’s long history. This has created an opportunity for us to communicate beyond the classically geologically-oriented students, and also a challenge. How do we use our limited number of credit hours to develop students who have enough technical depth in one or a few narrow fields to call themselves experts, yet are broadly trained enough to work effectively with interdisciplinary teams, and to act as independent and flexible problem solvers?
Taking over as Undergraduate Program Director this past year has been a different kind of adventure. I’d like to start by saying that I got off to a good start thanks to Carl Brett; we have all benefited from all his years of service in the role and his deep care for and personal investment in our students. Carl showed me all the things he was doing for our students over the years and I was amazed, many that are well beyond the defined scope of the job, but, I think, vital to the community of the department. Carl, and Krista Smilek, always have the answer when I get in too deep. Thanks to Krista, too, who is always in touch with our students and makes this job possible, and irons out all the technical lumps that come up along the way.
Looking to the future, we would like to maintain and strengthen the core Geology BS program, including a rigorous field component and a high co-required science and math requirement, while broadening the appeal and reach of the geosciences to students with interests in other sciences and engineering, planning, business, and even arts and music. We have noted a strong student interest in working on research projects, and in learning not just background knowledge, but how to do things. The ongoing development of the geochemistry teaching lab, the TEMMS groundwater research station, and the reintroduction of the departmental, alumnisupported undergraduate research grants program are all contributing to a reinvigoration of undergraduate research in the department. In addition, we are gearing up to re-envision our BA program to serve a larger number of interdisciplinary dual-majors who would like to gain the unique deep-time perspective that our department provides.
I come into this position as the department is going through a transition of sorts, (although such change is perhaps the more typical state of affairs). Our name change to the Department of Geosciences reflects the field of Geology outgrowing its name, or at least the common perceptions of its name. The geosciences comprise a broad and interdisciplinary field which is inclusive of classical geological methods and knowledge but is no longer defined by them. The relevance of the geologic deep-time perspective and systems-level understanding of the Earth to current societal needs and challenges has never been greater: from environmental protection and restoration, to a changing landscape of energy resources, water availability, natural hazards, and the context of 20 | The Upper Crust
And finally, I am always happy to hear what folks in various industries are seeing with regards to incoming employees, and how our program can help to make sure key hard and soft skills are in place. Dylan Ward dylan.ward@uc.edu
