HOMECOMING SPIRIT The Homecoming door decorating competition provides LSU students, faculty, and staff a creative venue for showcasing the 2014 Homecoming theme, “Louisiana State of Mind.” Geology & Geophysics’ design won the door decorating competition at the department level.
DR. GARY BYERLY RETIRES The summer of 2015 brought with it the retirement of Gary Byerly, dean of the LSU Graduate School and the Richard & Betty Fenton Alumni Professor of Geology & Geophysics. Dr. Byerly is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of American, and the Geologoical Society of South Africa. Dr. Byerly has been granted Emeritus status by the university. He will continue to advise students and work in South Africa. His contributions to LSU and the Department of Geology & Geophysics along with his leadership of the Graduate School will continue to be felt for many more years to come.
CAROL WICKS NAMED A 2014 AAAS Fellow Congratulations to our department chair, Carol Wicks, on being named a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society. Dr. Wicks was one of three LSU faculty who were named to the list of Fellows for 2014. Each Fellow is elected by their peers for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
DENOMMEE’S DYNAMIC DISCOVERY Research conducted by PhD student Kathryn Denommee, her advisor Dr. Sam Bentley, and Dr. Andre Droxler of Rice University made national news headlines on the insights their findings may have on the disappearance of the Mayan Civilization. The trio’s research involved analyzing core sediments taken from the Lighthouse Reef in Belize including some from the famous “Blue Hole” - a popular scuba diving location. The team analyzed how the layers of sediments compiled within the Blue Hole keep a natural record of climate events from thousands of years ago. Through their study the group discovered indications of a period of drought that can be linked to the approximate time of the Mayan decline. The group plans to study the records found in Belize to extract as much information from them as posssible. Denommee, originally from Canada, joined Dr. Bentley at LSU in 2011. She is currently finishing her PhD with a focus on sediment transport, the study of how sediment moved around, and paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate patterns. Department of Geology & Geophysics
Above: Dr. Bentley explaining the readings on ocean sediment. Below: Dr. Bentley and Kathryn Denomme stand in front of infographics that explain their recent studies.