2015 Newsletter - esci.umn.edu · study to determine the conditions, mechanisms, timing, and consequences of flow of partially molten crust. We have proposed that domes represent

to immobilize manganese and iron, and the readiness with which methane outgasses (Figure 1A). The implications of our study extend beyond Bemidji. Intentional biostimulation of anaerobic degradation, similar to that occurring with the oil at Bemidji, is increasingly applied to remediate dangerous groundwater contaminants such as chlorinated solvents. The Bemidji site is an intensively studied analogue that allows us to address secondary water quality impacts potentially caused by new water resources management practices.

Another water quality project that adopts a multi-pronged data and modeling approach is newly underway with masters student Amanda Yourd (who just joined us this Spring semester!). Minnesota has a unique 10 mg/L sulfate regulation aimed at preserving wild rice lakes and streams. This standard has been the center of much attention in recent years, because of its implications for the mining industry, and because of its

N.H. Winchell School of Earth SciencesCollege of Science & Engineering

University of Minnesota

2015 Newsletter

Hydrogeochemical Modeling for Minnesota’s Water Resources

by Crystal Ng, Assistant Professor

As the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota seems relatively safe from many water resource availability problems, but the quality of our groundwater and surface waters is nonetheless vulnerable. Complicating our management of these threats is that they are not usually restricted to when and where con-tamination occurs, nor are the problems necessarily limited to the substance directly released. This means that, although water quality monitoring is important, computational models that can represent complicated effects from water transport and geochemical reactions are imperative for understanding and predicting risks to our environment. Bringing together field observations and modeling tools to investigate water and ecological vulnerabilities is a central theme in my research, and already, after less than a year here, I am finding that Minnesota offers problems to work on that are both of urgent resource concern and of broader interest in hydrogeology.

One of my in-state projects focuses on a crude oil spill site near Bemidji, MN. Groundwater monitoring since the 1979 spill has generated significant understanding about natural hydrocarbon attenuation. US Geological Survey collabora-tors and I have been tackling a more subtle question about “secondary water quality impacts” - other groundwater impairments, such as elevated concentrations of manganese, iron, and methane, that are triggered by biodegradation of the primary oil contaminant. Although we were motivated by water quality concerns, we brought together diverse data types using a hydrogeochemical model and found that the secondary plumes were strongly controlled by the com-plex make-up of the oil, aquifer minerals and their ability

Figure 1A. Model simulations of the Bemidji oil spill site resulted in this conceptual diagram that demonstrates the complex involvement of groundwater transport, distinct oil constituents, outgassing, and sediment reactions for drivig “secondary” water quality impacts.

continued on pg. 4

Page 2 Department of Earth Sciences

Greetings from the HeadDear alumni and friends,

In the last two newsletters, I have written about possible plans for the School of Earth Sciences to move out of Pillsbury Hall and into a renovated Tate Lab of Physics. This plan is now real, and we are scheduled to move into Tate in the summer of 2017. Tate will be familiar to those of you who took physics classes while at the U, but in case you don’t remember the building, the map on p. 16 shows you the location of Tate as well as all the buildings that we are leaving when we make this move. Also on p. 16 are architectural drawings of the “new” building, showing a large sunny atrium and a new entrance on Church Street (replacing the giant empty tank that now resides there).

Planning for the move to Tate has already been a long pro-cess, as it started with the initial calculations of space needs in spring 2012, then continued with a year of “pre-design” (2012-2013), a year of activities related to requesting fund-ing for the rest of the project (2013-14), and now a year of working with the design team to create the actual building plan. As I write, we are very close to having a final plan that shows where exactly in Tate each of our classrooms, labs, and offices will be, and that also has the interior design of each space organized, including where every fume hood, sink, power outlet, and cabinet will go. It is an amazing process – complex, stressful, and fascinating.

Many of us will be sad to leave Pillsbury Hall, our historic and beautiful home, and I know that many of you feel a con-nection with the building. Nevertheless, this move is a great opportunity for us. We will have new, flexible teaching labs and classrooms, and research labs with modern and reliable utilities. And, perhaps most remarkably – much of the School of Earth Sciences will be in one building for the first time. The Institute for Rock Magnetism and the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore)/Continental Scientific Drilling Coor-dination Office will join almost all of the department research groups. Not moving into Tate (owing to lack of space) are the Polar Geospatial Center, which will remain in its luxurious quarters in St. Paul, and the Minnesota Geological Survey, which is located a couple of kilometers to the east (although they recently moved – see p. 17 for details). In addition, our ESCI 1001 teaching labs will remain in Ford Hall. All the rest of the N.H. Winchell School of Earth Sciences will be in Tate, sharing the building with part of the School of Physics and Astronomy (the part that has not moved to the new Physics & Nanotechnology Building).

As you can imagine, especially if you have ever seen the Pills-bury attic (and the equally impressive subbasement), moving out will be an enormous task. We have already started on the process of carefully sorting through all the items we have stored around the building, making decisions about what to move, what to store somewhere else, and what to discard. We are hoping to come up with a way so that interested alumni and others can view some parts of this process, and perhaps even help us identify some of the objects we uncover. We are also trying to figure out how many of our displays (minerals, rocks, fossils, books/theses) we can bring to Tate, and how they will be displayed in the new building.

In other news, the department has a new administrative direc-tor (Sharon Kressler, familiar to any of you who graduated from 1996 to present), a new Student Services staff member (Jennifer Petrie), and we have continued to hire faculty. In the past 2 years, we have acquired new colleagues Crystal Ng (hydrogeology), Andrew Wickert (surface processes), Maxi-miliano Bezada (seismology), Ikuko Wada (geodynamics), and Cara Santelli (geomicrobiology). A search is ongoing for the Gibson Professor in Hydrogeology. Our new faculty members have already added a lot of energy to the department, and they are busy building their research groups and teaching new and existing classes.

Our students continue to be a motivated and dynamic group – grads and undergrads. You will read about some of their activities in this newsletter, including an account of the spring 2014 field trip to Iceland, led by Carrie Jennings, and the upcoming grad student-organized research symposium to be held in the department in April 2015. This year’s spring field trip will be to eastern California, led by Annia Fayon, and then we will dive into a summer of field courses and research. This year, owing to increased enrollments, we will run two sections of our introductory field course in Montana, one in June and one in August.

We will likely plan a Farewell to Pillsbury event at some point before we move out, and of course you are always welcome to visit at any time, walk the halls, stop and say hello to old friends, help us clean the attic... And it’s always great to hear news of your careers, families, and assorted exploits, so please stay in touch by e-mail <[email protected]> or via our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/groups/81943157076/). You can also keep apprised of news on the School of Earth Sciences webpage (http://www.esci.umn.edu/). Thank you for reading and for your support of the Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota.

Page 3Alumni Newsletter

Hydrogeochemical Modeling ...... 1Greetings from the Head ............ 2New Faculty ................................. 5Alumni Spotlight ........................ 6Gifts ............................................ 8Awards ....................................... 10Degrees Granted ....................... 13Spring Trip 2014 ....................... 14Tate Renovations ...................... 16MGS Has Moved ...................... 17Where the Buffalo Roam ......... 17Alumni Notes ............................ 20In Memoriam ............................ 22Missing Alumni ........................ 22

IN THIS ISSue

Field work in central Australia, July 2014. Christian Teyssier, Patrice Rey (U. Sydney), and I are investigating the Entia Dome, ~ 200 km NE of Alice Springs, in a combined field and modeling study to determine the conditions, mechanisms, timing, and consequences of flow of partially molten crust. We have proposed that domes represent an efficient pathway for hot, deep rocks to ascend to shallow crustal levels, traversing the entire orogenic crust, and then crystallizing rapidly. This is a mechanism of heat transfer and, ultimately, crustal differentiation and stabilization.

With the help of electron microprobe manager, Anette von der Handt and former probe manager, Ellery Frahm, professor emeritus Calvin Alexander has positively identified 3 iron mete-orites in the last 4 years.


protection of a plant of ecological and cultural importance. These concerns prompted a recent study by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to clarify a connection between sulfate and wild rice. The lab and field data statisti-cally support a wild rice vulnerability when elevated levels of sulfate converts to sulfide in the porewater of lake and stream beds. The data further show that this effect attenuates where high iron concentrations precipitate out sulfide onto sedi-ments. However, questions remain about the hydrological and geochemical processes that lead to these observations. For example, it is unclear why many of the study’s stream sites with high sulfate concentrations contained healthy wild rice stands and did not exhibit the geochemical conditions associated with impaired wild rice growth.

The MPCA study primarily examined surface water and shallow porewater chemistry – an obvious focus for a surface water quality regulation affecting an aquatic plant. However, water doesn’t stay in any single “container” in the environ-ment, and it can flow between aquifers and surface water bodies through lake and stream beds, wetlands, and springs. Recognizing the movement of water and the inseparability of groundwater and surface water, we are investigating how hydrological fluxes drive sulfate and other water quality im-pacts in wild rice waters. One particular hypothesis that we are testing is that some sites may have groundwater boundary conditions that are just as important as (or even more so than) surface water contribu-tions to stream bed porewater and wild rice growth. We are conducting an in-depth look at Second Creek in the Iron Range of north-ern Minnesota, one of the sulfate-impacted streams in the MPCA’s study that continues to support plentiful wild rice.

As a hydrogeologic modeler new to the setting, I will luckily be able to count on Amanda’s past experience as a field techni-cian with Amy Myrbo of LacCore, who led the field campaign in the MPCA’s study and is continuing to collaborate on this project. I was already caught off-guard on a prelimi-nary trip to Second Creek with Amanda in mid-November, when we were met by snow and temperatures in the teens (see Figure 1B) – welcome to Minnesota! After it thaws out, we will be collecting various groundwater flux measurements to augment the existing surface Figure 1B. For the wild rice and sulfate project, we made a preliminary trip to our Second

Creek field site on November 15. Our plan for an initial wild rice survey was thwarted by ice and cold! We will be back in the summer to collect groundwater measurements.

water and shallow stream bed chemistry observations. We expect Second Creek to have complicated (i.e., interesting!) groundwater-surface water interactions involving wetlands and managed surface water releases. To probe deeper into these complex dynamics that affect sulfate and wild rice, the project requires a suite of different field measurements, which will be integrated with the aid of a hydrogeochemical model.

While our work is motivated by some very uniquely Minnesota circumstances (we are the only state with a sulfate water qual-ity standard for wild rice), this is a quintessential example of when multiple facets of the earth sciences interact, including groundwater, surface water, sediments, geochemistry, mi-crobiology, and plant ecology. We anticipate that our results at Second Creek will not only help address questions about the wild rice and the sulfate standard, but it will also provide insights into hydrogeological intricacies that impact water quality and ecology. We hope to build off of the modeling work at Bemidji and Second Creek to tackle other intriguing “ecohydrogeochemical” questions that affect water resources here and beyond!

Hydrogeochemical Modeling for Minnesota’s... continued from page 1


Additions to the Faculty

Max BezadaOriginally from Venezuela, Bezada obtained his Ph.D. from Rice University in 2010. He then held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Oregon before coming to Minnesota. His research focuses on the dynamics of the lithosphere with an emphasis on subduction processes and delamina-tion, as well as deep-focus seismicity. He develops and applies seismological imaging techniques to understand the interplay between the convecting mantle and lithosphere formation, deformation and recycling.

Ikuko WadaWada received her Ph.D. in Earth and Ocean Sciences from the University of Victoria, Canada, in 2009. She completed three years of postdoctoral work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Virginia Tech and held a position as an assistant professor at Tohoku University in Japan prior to coming to the University of Minnesota. She specializes in numerical geodynamic modeling of subduc-tion zone processes, such as plate subduction, mantle convection, heat transfer, and fluid migration.

Andy WickertWickert received his Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Colorado. He is currently a postdoc at the University of Potsdam in Germany and will be joining the faculty in Fall 2015. His work en-compasses the retreat of late Quaternary ice sheets and glaciers and its impact on runoff and water delivery to the oceans, climate change impacts on rivers and geomorphic systems, global sea level and glacial isostatic adjustment, and field instrumentation development. More generally, he seeks to find better ways to connect diverse geologic data with physically-based models to better interrogate and interpret Earth’s past and present.

Current faculty. Seated on steps- bottom to top: Jake Bailey, Peter Hudleston, Bruce Moskowitz, Harvey Thorleifson, Chris Paola. Stand-ing- bottom to top: Donna Whitney, Emi Ito, Larry Edwards, Crystal Ng, Bill Seyfried, Kent Kirkby, Calvin Alexander, Christian Teyssier, Katsumi Matsumoto, David Kohlstedt, Justin Revenaugh, David Fox. Missing: Josh Feinberg, Marc Hirschmann, Karen Kleinspehn, David Yuen


Alumni Spotlight: Joel Poppert, BS 2004

I am flattered to be in-cluded in this issue of the UMN Earth Sci-ences department’s annual newsletter. I have been asked by the department to share my story, so instead of boring you with line by line of my curricula vitae I will attempt to entertain you with a factual ac-count of how I “even-tually” discovered my number one passion;

leveraging technical, business, and social intelligence to tackle one of today’s most important tasks, fighting climate change!

You can infer from my presence in this newsletter that I was once a student of this amazing program, a proud alumni and aging go-pher! It all started in 1999 when I arrived for my first time in the Twin Cities from rural Wisconsin. Young, ambitious, and totally confused on what I wanted to be when I grew up, a master in the art of having a good time, I spent my first two years majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Why you may ask, because someone told me that with my rebel personality I wouldn’t make it in college. So my reaction, of course, was to enroll to be a rocket scientist, take that Mrs. Teacher I won’t name!

Several years into my undergraduate term as an older and wiser student, I enrolled in Geology 1001 to fulfill the requirements of my bachelor’s degree. At the time I was completely blown away; it was the coolest thing in the world for me to sit there and imagine how the complex systems in our universe, including the rock we reside on, actually function. Someone also told me geologists like to have a good time (I wasn’t wrong), so logically the next semester I signed up for Geology & Geophysics and said good-bye to my dreams of being a rocket scientist!

Early into my new major(s) at the then Geology & Geophysics department, I was quickly taken on as a paid research assistant with the Structure and Tectonics Group serving under the infamous Dr. Whitney and Dr. Teyssier, and was also given the honor of work-ing on a research project with Dr. Banjeree in geophysics. It was this experience and the many other opportunities and challenges presented to me through the department that helped me develop skills I would later master and leverage in my career; a career that thus far has been quite rewarding I have to admit.

In 2004 after five years as an undergraduate, I graduated with a B.Sc. in Geology and a B.Sc. in Geophysics, and completed my under-graduate research with Dr. Banerjee. Although Dr. Banerjee asked if

I would stay to pursue our research through the Geophysics Masters Program, my number one goal at the time was getting to the mountains as soon as possible. So with the Twin Cities in my rear view mirror, and the wind blowing through my hair (yep, I still had hair in 2004), I put the pedal to the metal and headed west to Denver, CO. Upon my arrival I was incredibly fortunate to have secured a position as a field assistant with the Colorado Geological Survey (CGS). At CGS I was tasked with mapping the Como Quad near Breckenridge, CO. Yep, that’s right, I got paid to climb mountains and map geology. I also got a two-month extension on my contract to map Mt. Princeton, one of Colorado’s elite 14ers, which was pretty cool (ask me sometime how I had to descend 2000’ on my butt after a freak bliz-zard almost blew me off the moun-tain)!

Ok, so I have to admit, it was during my stint with CGS that I realized I was only an average geologist in practice, but it would be several years later when I realized how valuable the skills I developed in the geology program at the UMN really were. See, as geologists we are tasked with taking what evidence remains of the Earth’s distant past and developing defensible theories outlining the processes and environments that left behind this historical record. It’s what I would call “creative reverse engineering”, and requires imagina-tion, intelligence, technical expertise, diligence, and open-minded collaboration with diverse teams of experts. This skill is a serious blessing to us all, and I will never take it for granted and continue to leverage it in all aspects of my life to this day!

After my contract with CGS expired, I decided it was time to get a “real” job. At the time, the young geologist’s choices in the private sector were oil & gas or environmental consulting; I chose the lat-ter. So for several years I succeeded as a Project Geologist in the environmental industry, but I won’t lie it wasn’t really my dream job. See, what I found very early in my career, is that I am a natural born entrepreneur, I don’t like being told what to do, I enjoy taking calculated risks, and love a good challenge. So after only three years in the field, I left the environmental industry and was blessed with the proposition to start a geothermal construction company with a colleague. This moment in my life really was a turning point, and I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t made this move at that point in my life.

So this is the part of the story I will title the “discovery period.” It was a time when I realized that I had some very natural skills as it pertains to business development. I am good with numbers, budgets, marketing, and have a great aptitude for both developing relation-


ships and understanding stakeholder needs. It was also during this time that I discovered the term “triple bottom line,” bet-ter coined “people, planet, profit.” I now owned a business that not only had the potential to make profit, but also provided a service that made the world a little bit better.

This wasn’t enough though, I was now hooked on harnessing my inner hippy and leverag-ing it to save the plant, and also hopefully make some money along the way! A wealthy mentor of mine once said “follow your passions in business, and don’t worry about the money, it will certainly fol-low.” So about two years after launching the first company, Alpine Geothermal, I decided to get involved in as many organizations that were sustainability oriented as possible. I have to admit, I was truly in heaven! I built networks and relationships with some of the most amazing clean energy professionals I have ever met, many of who are still professional colleagues and good friends of mine. We spent long days and late nights working out plans to develop clean energy projects, influence policy, and overcome challenges that face our small and growing industry. Very quickly this became not only my full time job, but also the best marketing strategy for Alpine I could have ever wished for. Even during the recession, which was an awful time for any business owner, contracts continued to line up for our business.

So I will fast forward a bit here, after fully realizing my passion in clean energy and business development I realized that in order for me to really make an impact I needed more advanced business skills to realize my lofty goals in the clean energy industry. So in 2011 I enrolled in a specialized Energy Program at the University of Colorado-Denver Business School. The Global Energy Manage-ment Program (GEM) is a Master’s in Science, but it resembles a tradition MBA curriculum focusing solely on the World’s complex energy industry. The program was developed and taught in con-junction with some of the top CEO’s and Academics in the energy industry, with a mission to be unbiased and inclusive of all energy technologies. It is truly a world-class program and rare in its own right. The competencies that I established through the program and the life long relationships I developed with a cohort of diverse and brilliant energy professionals was really one of the most significant catalysts of my career.

So this leads to where I am today in my career and in life. Before I go any further, I will admit that life is pretty amazing when you have discovered your true passions. I never have a day when I start working where I am lacking motivation, most days I wake up excited to fire up the laptop and start working on a project, and I get amped weeks before a presentation or important client meeting! I have

donated a ton of time to various efforts over the years without any direct monetary profit, all because it is really, really enjoyable and climate change is too serious of an issue for me to ignore!

Since graduation from the GEM program in 2013 I left my first company and started out on my quest for something big-ger. I recently launched my second company, GeoCity, LLC, which is a vertically integrated development company with a sole pur-pose to finance, develop and manage geothermal infrastructure assets (much like how SolarCity does for Solar PV). In addition, I am the Director of Business Development and Market-ing for one of the most respected geothermal and controls companies in the United States, Major. It was through this position that I was given the opportunity to consult on the IKEA-Kansas City Project for six months; one of the largest commercial geothermal systems in the Midwest! I have also been given the opportunity through my policy efforts over the years to spend a lot of time working with local and national legislators to push policy that maximizes invest-ments in clean energy!

Some of the high-lighted leadership positions that I have been engaged in over the years as a renewable energy professional would have been the three years I resided as the President of the Geo Energy and Heat Pump Association, working with over 20 amazing clean energy profession-als in Colorado to develop and lobby

for a series of clean energy bills over the past few years (including specific groundbreaking renewable thermal legislation which is being discussed at the legislative level in Colorado and several other states including California), being a liaison for the geothermal industry for multiple public and private utility negotiations, and my current position on the Colorado Office of Economic Development and In-ternational Trade Advanced Industries Association Grant Committee.

In my free time, I enjoy nearly everything outdoors and live in one of the best places in the world for being outside, Colorado!

continued on page 19


*multiple donations

We wish to express our gratitude to alumni and friends who continue supporting the department with generous donations. Your financial support provides scholarships and fellowships enabling students to carry out their studies, conduct field and analytical research, and present papers at professional meetings. Listed on these pages are gifts received during 2014. Many of those listed here have given multiple donations.

Gifts to the Department

Department of Earth Sciences General FundMargaret G. Aldrich Irrevocable Trust U/WCara J. AlfernessBrian C. BagleyWarren R. Beck * Carl S. BensonMichael Berndt Marcia G. Bjornerud Roger L. Born Joy BranlundWilliam & Marlee Brice Keith A. Brugger Paul K. Buchanan Elinor H. Bugli George V. Bulin, Jr.Thomas W. Carlson *Jon A. & Jean Carlson Ronald K. Churchill Brian Cohen Kevin V. Cook Susan Cramer *Fletcher G. Driscoll James J. Dulian Margaretha M. Eckhardt Denis & Karol Erickson Henry T. Erringer *Rudy & Susan Ford Carol & John Freeburg, Jr. *Eldon M. Gath Peter A. Gintautas Jeffrey & Mary Gorski Charles Gruenenfelder Jane Hagedorn Kriste HensonJohn W. Hjerpe Peter J. Hudleston Derek A. Jaakola Hope Jahren & Clinton Conrad*David R. Janecky Robert G. Johnson *Judith Friedman & Scott Rice Kathryn J. Kleiter James A. Knox Bradley J. Korkowski David J. Koubsky Steven L. & Lauren N. Levine Mrs. John A. Levorsen *Ran Lu

Jerry Lucia Seth E. Matters Sanford R. McDonald Reed F. McEwan John R. Moeger Leah Gruhn & Jere Mohr Arthur P. Mordaunt Clarence W. & Geraldine E. Nelson David A. Nemetz Thomas J. O’Neill Jonathan & Janet Pershing Dean M. Peterson and Deborah Rausch Gary & Sharon Peterson Andrey V. Pyatigorets John J. Read Peter & Rebecca Recks Robert H. Rutford Constance J. Sansome Ralph & Sharon Schulz Thomas C. Sersen Bill & Carol Seyfried *Linda & Orrin Shane *Amy & Richard Smith Rebecca Seal Soileau Lyle W. Solie Donald Sprowl Luther & Emily M. Strayer Ryan D. Swanson Richard E. Thill *Edward C. Thornton Leif Tokle Cathy H. Undem James Walker & Randi Nordstrom Shannon E. Weiher Robert F. Werner Lowell E. Wille *Michael A. Young Susan Zerwick & Daryl Scherkenbach

Banerjee Fellowship Fund*Subir Banerjee & Manju Parikh Mike Jackson & Betsy Leach *Ran Lu

Donath Honors Scholarship Fund*Fred & Mavis Donath

Field Experiences FundPaul K. Buchanan *Jon A. & Jean Carlson Dyanna M. Czeck *Christoph Geiss *Donald & Pamela Jakes *Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat *Dale & Michelle Setterholm *Amy & Richard Smith John C. Tacinelli *Edward C. Thornton

Frances A. Gibson FellowshipDerek A. Heinecke

Samuel Goldich Fellowship Fund*Carl S. Benson*Warren C. Day *Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat

John W. Gruner Fellowship Fund*Carl S. BensonTerence T. Quirke, Jr.

Kraft Scholarship FundJ. Chris Kraft

Harold M. Mooney Fellowship FundMuawia Barazangi * Carl S. Benson *Douglas A. Carlson * Graham & Susan Ford Jane G. Iverson Lane R. JohnsonMorris & Judy Kaufman John E. Koss James J. OlsonScott G. Schulz Nigel & Jane WattrusCraig A. Williams


*multiple donations

CSE External RelationsThe next two years present a tremendous opportunity to engage our alumni, industry, and the public with the renovation of the Tate building and new home of the School of Earth Sciences.

As a prominent building on the Mall, Tate will be a showplace and important campus destination for the sciences. The renovated building will bring together Earth Science research groups from across campus. State-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories will greatly impact research, opportunities for grant sup-port, and recruiting top faculty and students.

We look forward to working with our alumni and friends to support the Tate renovation with many outstanding naming opportunities throughout the building. To learn more about ways you can support the School of Earth Sciences, please contact me.

Shannon WeiherCSE External Relations

612.624.5543 [email protected]

Rita Paquette Memorial Scholarship FundRene M. Averett Michael W. Block Linda B. Bruemmer Caroline Chinquist Michael & Lynn Convery *Judith Friedman & Scott Rice Donald & Pamela Jakes Elizabeth M. Kilanowski Marguerite M. & Robert J. McCarron Scott L. Murchie Frederick Swain Fellowship FundBeltman-Miller Foundation Richard N. BensonDonald L. Hansen, Sr. Larry J. Nutter Michael Paisner & Sarah Charnes Kenneth & Marilyn Quarfoth

H. E. Wright Footsteps Fund* Carl S. Benson * Christoph Geiss Dora & Noah Hanft * David R. JaneckyAllan & Betty Schneider *Linda & Orrin Shane Craig ZumBrunnen

Zoltai Fellowship FundDavid S. O’HanleyThomas C. Sutton

Corporate DonationsBoeing Company, matching gift of Mi-

chael Paisner Chevron Humankind Foundation, match-

ing gift of Thomas and Rebecca Carlson ExxonMobile, matching gift to Andrey

PyatigoretsLake Shore Cryotronics, toward 2015 First

Order Reversal Curve (FORC) Work-shop, organized by Josh Feinberg

Schlumberger Company, geofluids soft-ware

Shell Oil Company Foundation, matching gift of Jerry Lucia

United Technologies Corp, matching gift of Steven Levine

Wells Fargo Foundation, matching gift of Sharon & Gary Peterson

“Tate Science and Teaching”


Awards & Other Noteworthy Events

Jake Bailey received the UMN Gradu-ate and Professional Student Assembly Outstanding Advisor Award in 2013 and taught at a three-week summer program in Namibia titled, 1st African Discovery Camp for Research-based Training Science for the Sustainable Use and Management of Marine Ecosystems and their Resources. In addition, Jake became a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fel-low and recently received a 2015 Simons Early Career Investigator Award in Marine Microbial Ecology & Evolution.

Research associate, Hai Cheng, was elected a Fellow of the Geochemical Society.

Larry Edwards presented the National Academy of Sciences sponsored Arthur L. Day Lecture Series: Deciphering Climate Chnage from Underground at Oberlin Col-lege.

Both Larry Edwards and Hai Cheng were recognized as “Highly Cited Researchers” in the Thompson-Reuters 2014 assessment, which covers highly cited papers published in the last decade.

Josh Feinberg was a keynote speaker at the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Annual Conference held in November 2014 in Honolulu, HI. In addition, Josh took 16 CSE freshmen to Venice, Italy as part of an international outreach course titled, Natural Hazards of Climate Change, funded in part through a donation from 3M.

David Kohlstedt received an Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Gradu-ate and Professional Education Award from UMN, in recognition of his many excellent achievements in graduate education through teaching, advising, and service.

History of Science & Technology professor Sally Kohlstedt received the President’s Award from the Council of Graduate Stu-dents.

Graduate student Dan Maxbauer was awarded a Stanwood Johnson Fellowship for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Graduate student Cameron Meyers received a DOE-NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship, a three-year fellowship admin-istered by the Krell Institute.

Paul Morin, director of the Polar Geospatial Center, is slated to recieve an honorary degree from Colorado College this spring.

In April 2014, astronaut and geologist, Dr. Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt presented a talk, “Geology of the Moon” in our department. Dr. Schmitt’s father, Dr. Harrison ‘Ashley’ Schmitt, recieved his MS and PhD from our department in 1922 and 1926 respectfully. We were pleased to be able to pull those theses from our cabinets in the reading room! This photo is of Jack (right) showing his father’s theses to friend and physics emeritus professor Bob Pepin.

In January 2015, the Department of Earth Sciences, in partnership with the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geological Engineering (CEGE) and with the backing of CSE Dean Steven Crouch and Provost Karen Hanson, set up a formal program for exchange of students and faculty with the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP). IPGP is one of the largest Earth-sciences insti-tutions in Europe, with strong research programs spanning a wide range of fields. The new exchange program will allow us to offer our own students a new and exciting international dimension to their programs, and will bring students from Paris to Minneapolis to participate in research and coursework here. In addi-tion, it opens the way to share courses and other collaborative activities. Initially, the exchanges will center on magnetics and sedimentary processes but we hope to see it grow in breadth in the years to come. A hearty ‘Congratulations and Thank You’ to Chris Paola and Vaughn Voller (CEGE) for spearheading this endeavor!

Bill Seyfried was a keynote speaker at the 2014 Goldschmidt Conference in Sacra-mento, CA: Geochemical controls on the composition of hydrothermal vent fluids at mid-ocean ridges.

In November 2014, graduate student Mi-chele Stillinger was awarded the UMN’s Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award for research conducted at the IRM, Archaeo-magnetic Dating of Bronze Age Pottery from Tell Mozan, Syria.


Departmental Fellowships, Scholarships, and Awards 2014-15Fellowship and scholarship support has grown significantly over the last decade because of our alumni. Your generosity has been the tipping point in many cases, in which better financial packages enable us to attract and retain the best under-graduate and graduate students to the University of Minnesota and to the department.

GRADUATE STUDENTS UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTSSubir Banerjee Fellowship

Evgeniya Khakhalova

Dennis Graduate FellowshipsMellissa CrossMegan KorchinskiDan Maxbauer

Warren Fisher Memorial FellowshipsAdam SchaenBecky Strauss

Forrest FellowshipMichele Stillinger

Francis Gibson FellowshipKathleen Wendt

Samuel Goldich FellowshipBrandi Cron-Kamermans

John Gruner FellowshipEvgeniya Khakhalova

Kerry Kelts Travel AwardCindy FrickleAndrew HavelesMichele StillingerKathleen Wendt

Allan and Eleanor Martini FellowshipMichele Stillinger

Harold Mooney FellowshipJake Tielke

V.R. Murthy/Janice Noruk Fellowship Evgeniya Khakhalova

V.R. Murthy/Janice Noruk Fellowship for Women Graduate Students

Michele Stillinger

Quaternary Paleoecology FellowshipsAndrew HavelesDan Maxbauer

H.E. Wright “Footsteps” AwardMellissa Cross

Zoltai Graduate FellowshipCindy Frickle

Thomas & Margaret Aldrich AwardMathieu PythoudKatie Rempfert

Robert R. Berg ScholarshipJohn Swiecichowski

Dennis Undergraduate ScholarshipsWilliam CallebertBen HeinleMatt Matko

Fred Donath Honors ScholarshipEmily Falksen

Chris Kraft ScholarshipAlec Schubick

McMillen Undergraduate ScholarshipsMicaela BrevigAdam KubatAmy Sullivan

Rita Paquette Memorial AwardSophie Kasahara

Sidney A. Parkans ScholarshipAlec Schubick

2014 Field Camp ScholarshipsMicaela BrevigWilliam CallebertJeremiah HamlinMeagan HaroldSean LindenAlex LudwigMatthew Porter

Sasha RyanJacob ShayZachary SkellyMabel SmebakkenAnthony SourdifAmy SullivanJohn Swiecichowski


Departmental Student Awardees: Bottom to Top: Cindy Frickle, Katee Wendt, Mellissa Cross, Becky Strauss, Roxanne Renedo, Evgeniya Khakhalova, John Swiecichowski, Mathieu Pythoud, Ben Heinle, William Callebert, Adam Kubat, Micaela Brevig, Amy Sullivan, Dan Maxbauer, Jake Tielke, Will Nachlas, Ben Tutolo, Adam Schaen, Matt Matko, Emily Falksen, Michele Stillinger, Megan Korchinski, Johnny Zhang

Outstanding TA Awards for 2013-2014

Rachel Bain Mathieu Pythoud Roxanne Renedo Johnny Zhang

College of Science & Engineering Graduate School Fellowship for 2014-2016 -Gerard Salter, 2 years (Chris Paola, advisor),

University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships for 2014-2015 -Chris Crosby (Jake Bailey, advisor) -Will Nachlas (Donna Whitney, Christian Teyssier, advisors) -Drew Syverson (Bill Seyfried, advisor)


Degrees Granted Fall 2013 - Fall 2014

Graduate Degrees

Spring 2014Nicholas J. Borchardt, MS, Earth Sci-

ences, Hydrogeology Track, Janu-ary 2014, Plan C, Advisor: Calvin Alexander

Palmer S. Fliss, MS, Earth Sciences, Bio-geology Track, Plan B, January 2014, Advisor: Jake Bailey

Theodore K. Fuller, PhD, Geology, January 2014, Field, Experimental and Numerical Investigations into the Mechanisms and Drivers of Lateral Erosion in Bedrock Channels, Advi-sors: Chris Paola and Karen Gran, Duluth

Erkan Toraman, PhD, Geology, Febru-ary 2014, Late-Stage Exhumation of Metamorphic Core Complexes and Landscape Development during Oro-genic Collapse of the North American Cordillera, Advisors: Donna Whitney and Christian Teyssier

Summer 2014Rachel L. Bain, MS, Earth Sciences,

Geology Track, August 2014, A Com-parison of the Planforms of Meander-ing Tidal and Fluvial Channels on the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Jamuna Delta, Bangladesh, Advisor: Chris Paola

Jonathan E. Dyess, PhD, Geology, Au-gust 2014, Multi-scale Structural and Kinematic Analysis of a Neoarchean Shear Zone in Northeastern Minne-sota: Implications for Assembly of the Southern Superior Province, Advi-sors: Vicki Hansen, Duluth and John Goodge, Duluth

Fall 2014Chao Qi, PhD, Geophysics, October

2014, Stress-driven melt redistribution in partially molten rocks deformed in torsion: from pressure shadows to base-state segregation, Advisor: David Kohlstedt

Adam T. Schaen, MS Earth Sciences, December 2014, Plan B, Advisor: Bill Seyfried

Undergraduate Degrees

BS Earth Sciences Fall 2013 Brian Demet Wey Yi Foo Megan Horst David Humphrey Michael WeinachtSpring 2014 Hifzhul ‘Arif Ahmad Munif Caitlin Castner Darren Cheah Michelle Chmura Robin Feakins Stefanie Mayer Jackson Mitchell Christopher Novitsky Mathieu Pythoud Kaitlin Rempfert Brittany Wagner Jacob Zahn Brian Zemaitis Summer 2014 Meagan Harold Matthew PorterFall 2014 Alec Schubick

BA Earth Sciences Fall 2013 Scott Bergquist Noah KellerSpring 2014 Sarah Austin Jeffrey Erickson Rachel Laughon Catharine McCook Brandon Mutschler Alexander SeelingSummer 2014 Collin SauerFall 2014 Aaron Fish Emma Young


Spring Trip 2014: Iceland

by John Swiecichowski, Geoclub president and Carrie Jennings, alumnus & adjunct faculty member

In May 2014, Carrie Jennings led Earth Sciences under-graduate students on a field trip to Iceland. As is typical, students participated in a one-credit field workshop dur-ing spring semester in order to plan logistics for the trip, learn about the geology and cultural aspects of Iceland, and to research the field sites that would eventually be the subject of student presentations once on the island. Topics covered were volcanology, glaciology, mining, geothermal activity, landforms (waterfalls!), and much more. For many of the students, this would be their first trip outside of the U.S., making it a real treat for them.

Upon arrival in Iceland, the adventure began with a trip to the capital city of Reykjavik. It was here that the group got their first glimpse of what geologic features they would soon see, as the architecture of many build-ing reflects the basalt columns found all over the island.

The first few days of the trip were busy which included lunch at the top of volcanic craters, a tour of a large geothermal power station, night hikes on the mid-Atlantic Rift, and students seeing their first of what would turn out to be many waterfalls.

On one of the day trips, the group took a fairy to the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), off the south shore of Iceland. These islands were formed by a series of volcanic events, the most recent of which was in 1973 on the island of Heimaney where Eldfell volcano erupted destroying many buildings and forcing a month long evacuation. During their visit, students hiked to the top of this volcano and, in addition to observing active thermal vents, could see the tin roofs that were added to new and existing homes in order to help protect them from future eruptions.


Back on the mainland the group traveled east to the glaciers of Vatnajökull Na-tional Park. As the students walked on the glaciers, they got a first-hand glimpse of terminal and lateral moraines.

Making their way to the northeast corner of Iceland, the group explored the volcanoes and the extending rift zone while battling off clouds of midges. Continuing west along the northern route, they eventually made their way to Akureyi, the second largest city in Iceland, where students were able to experience the city’s local culture, food, and art.

The last bit of the journey included a good deal of driving and fewer stops. However, the last geologic stop was made in the southwest part of Iceland where a graduate student from a local university shared with us her field area and research. As the trip came to an end, some students were ready to go home while others dreamed about attending graduate school or returning during another season to experience a different Iceland.


Tate Science and Teaching Renovations

TATE SCIENCE AND TEACHING RENOVATIONDesign Development Workshop 1January 7-9, 2015

Architect’s rendering of Church Street entrance of the ‘new’ Tate Science and Teaching building.

TATE SCIENCE AND TEACHING RENOVATIONDesign Development Workshop 1January 7-9, 2015

Section Perspective

East-West Cut, looking North through new construction and atriumWest-East cross section looking north through ‘old’ Tate to the left, new atrium in the middle, and new & renovated construction to the right. Historic Tate will remain as is on the outside but remodeled on the inside and will chiefly house offices for both the School of Earth Sciences and School of Physics and Astronomy. Labs and offices will be in the eastern section.

The graphic to the right shows the movement of Earth Sciences from Pillsbury, Kolthoff, Shepherd, and Civil Engineering into the soon-to-be renovated Tate building. Except for Polar Geospatial Center and Minnesota Geological Survey, all the Earth Sciences faculty and their research groups will be in one place, allowing for more collaboration and interaction. Both research and teaching facilities will be much more modern and efficient.

De-construction of Tate will begin in May 2015; Earth Sciences will move into the newly renovated building in the summer of 2017.


Ongoing Revitalization of Our Teaching Labs (Pillsbury 100 & 105)

by Kent Kirkby, Teaching Professor

Although the move to a new building looms ever closer, we will still be teaching in Pillsbury for the next two years. Consequently, there has been no letup in our department’s efforts to revitalize our courses and teaching efforts. This past summer, two more of our Pillsbury classrooms (100 & 105) were renovated to enhance their educational mission.

BackgroundWhen I first arrived at Pillsbury, room 105 served exclusively as the paleontology lab and was filled by a treasure trove of rocks and fossils accumulated over Bob Sloan’s forty-some odd year career. Following Bob’s retirement, fitting an elevator into Pillsbury took out a darkroom that lined one wall of the room and uncovered an-other of Pillsbury’s beloved support pillars, similar to those familiar to anyone who has attended a class or seminar in Pillsbury 110. Over the years, Pillsbury 105 evolved to become the department’s second-most visible room, serving a variety of courses and hosting talks. Most recently, 105 became home to the laboratory program for Jake Bailey’s and David Fox’s intro-level course, ‘From Microbes to Mammoths’. Similarly, Pillsbury 100 evolved from office space to a combination lecture/seminar/lab room that serves labs for two of our large enrollment introductory courses (Oceanography; Geol-ogy & Cinema).

Unfortunately, the furniture and fixtures in the rooms were inadequate for the rooms’ uses, and the rooms’ inflexible designs were seriously constraining our educational mission. Building on the momentum from the recent renovation of Pillsbury 125 (spearheaded by Joshua Feinberg), the department requested funds to revitalize Pillsbury 100 and 105, and these were generously provided by the College of Science & Engineering.

RenovationIn Pillsbury 100, we replaced rectangular tables with circular tables to promote active learning and facilitate movement about the room. A 70” touch screen monitor provides projection capabilities. Large whiteboards now cover much of the wall space, greatly expanding the workspace available for lab groups. All tables and chairs have casters so they are easily moved to facilitate a variety of lab activities.

Pillsbury 105 is still used for both lecture-style seminars and labora-tory instruction, so we had to be more innovative in its design. Most of the tables are rectangular but narrower than the previous tables. Mounted on casters, chairs and tables are easily shifted into tiers for seminars or paired to form laboratory work stations. A circular table provides space for laboratory demonstrations or overflow seating for lectures. Some of the room’s rock cabinets were replaced by cabinets better suited to store laboratory equipment and instruments. Whiteboards were added to increase wall workspace, and a new laser

Where the Buffalo Roam

continued on next page

Things are changing at the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS). Most importantly, several highly capable new staff members have joined in recent months, including Quaternary, Paleozoic, and Pre-cambrian geologists.

The MGS team – now more than 40 people - is more focused than ever on groundwater-related information products, supported by strategic research and continuing regional work in a broad range of topics – in particular, of course, the County Geologic Atlas program that now is the core of the MGS role. This is all being done in close coordination with partners.

In addition to the ongoing contributions of more experienced staff, the role of new staff, development of new partnerships, increased focus on groundwater, and greatly accelerated production of County Atlases, the big thing on the MGS radar recently has been a move – one block north – to a whole new building.

Since the 1980s, MGS has been occupying a U building at 2642 University Avenue West, which gradually became partially vacant, in need of repair, and in demand for train-station-related develop-ment. So, MGS moved, with most of the moving taking place just before and just after the weekend of Martin Luther King Day in January 2015.

The Survey can now be found at 2609 West Territorial Road, St Paul MN 55114, on the north side of Territorial at the intersection with Westgate. The Survey is at the corner, in a red-trimmed building. Topographic map and MGS publication sales continue to be avail-able. Ample free parking is available at the front door. New phone numbers are on the web site - http://www.mngs.umn.edu/. Please come visit! Harvey Thorleifson, Director, MGS

MGS Has Moved!


projection system greatly improves our visualization capabilities. Walls and cabinets were repainted, and new carpet and window treatments (nearly) completed the room’s physical transformation.

A Bison Comes to PillsburyPillsbury 105 is home to the only College of Science & Engineering course that satisfies the University’s Liberal Education requirements as a biological science, ESCI 1007 ‘From Microbes to Mammoths: History of Life on Earth’. Towards the end of the room renovation, I was looking for something to symbolize that aspect of the room’s mission. Although we have numerous fossil displays, I feared those would only reinforce a common misconception that Earth Science’s

only biologic contributions relate to past life. Then, while attending the Minnesota State Fair, I came across Horace, a stuffed bison head. The opportunity to define the room’s mission and combine two of Minnesota’s great traditions (the U and the Fair) proved irresistible. So Horace, named after our department’s founder, now oversees Pillsbury 105. Although he looks impressive on the wall, I am not sure that anyone can really appreciates just how large a bison is until they try wrestling its head into the back seat of a Honda Civic.

Success and Future PlansBoth rooms were transformed esthetically and pedagogically by the renovation. Laboratory instruction in Pillsbury 100 is greatly enhanced by the ease of movement and round tables that facilitate lab group interactions, while the monitor allows visualization materi-als to be seamlessly integrated into classroom activities. Pillsbury 105 changes its internal configuration almost daily. The ease with which tables and chairs are moved into new patterns is not only a testimony to the furniture’s flexibility but also the creativity of our students and instructors.

Perhaps the best evidence of the renovation’s success is that both rooms have become informal study spaces for our majors and for

other students looking for a place to study quietly, or work together in groups. We have even had art students stop by to sketch Horace for class portfolios.

Very little of this renovation effort will be lost in the move to a new building. Most of the furniture and whiteboards will follow the department to our new lair.

AcknowledgementsWhile it may take a village to raise a child, it certainly takes most of a department to renovate a room. Donna Whitney and I assembled the proposal for the renovation, and Jake Bailey, David Fox, William Seyfried, Katsumi Matsumoto, and a number of their graduate students contributed to and signed off on the renovation design. Joshua Feinberg and Sharon Kressler, who both have much better eyes for interior design than I do, helped select the color scheme of tables, chairs and carpet. Doug Johnson and Greg Gambeski handled the renovation’s accounting side and intercepted wayward furniture deliveries. Charles Nguyen and his crew designed Pillsbury 105’s new net-work system, while Chuck Bottemiller of the University’s Office of Classroom Management designed and oversaw installation of the classrooms’ projection elements. Du Anne Heeren undertook a multitude of trips to track down items necessary to the renovation, helped clean and sort the rooms and even spent a weekend refinishing a wooden display cabinet for Pillsbury 105.

Of particular note, Mark Griffith took on the nearly her-culean task of transforming the rooms’ physical structure. Ably assisted by student worker Willa Samuelson, who has moved more rocks and fossils than any non-geologist

should have to, Mark installed four large magnetic porcelain white-boards, fans, and window treatments in the rooms while coordinating a daunting array of deliveries, painters, electricians, carpet layers, and network staff.

Buffalo... continued from page 17


In the summers you will find me hiking, climbing, backpacking, rafting, fly fishing (thanks Dr. Stout for showing me the ropes at field camp) and some-times just car camping with good friends. I also thoroughly enjoy spend-ing time in Denver, it re-ally is a world-class city, and there are so many things to enjoy here from enjoying a local brew on a sunny patio to catching some fine art (and wine) at First Friday in Denver’s Art District. In the winter I spend almost every free minute skiing and just recently got into backcountry skiing, which I am finding to be one of the best ways to experience the magnificence of the mountains.

I also enjoy travelling both domestically and internationally. I travel multiple times a year to both New York, NY and to Portland, OR to spend time with my business partners, James Adams and Scott Graves. I also just returned from a month long trip to Southeast Asia, where I had one of the most amaz-ing experiences of my life spending time in Thailand,

Cambodia and Vietnam (you must see Angkor Wat at least once in your life)! I anticipate my next trip this year being to Europe where I hope to spend time with my Swiss colleague, Pascal Vinard; we are currently working together on a joint grant as a collaborative effort between France, Germany and Switzerland. The grant focuses on translating our respective geothermal markets with the goal to bring efficiency to the entire process of geothermal development from design to commissioning.

To end this article, I wanted to note one of the most important charac-ter traits that have blessed me in my career, humility. Without being humble in my career, I wouldn’t have learned so much so quickly or gained the necessary respect from both my peers and the experts in my industry to be successful. I have acquired so many amazing mentors during my career, and continue to be humble enough to ask questions (even stupid ones), take ownership of my mistakes, and learn from them.

Poppert... continued from page 7That concludes my ab-breviated career history, I appreciate your time, and hope that all of those reading this are pursuing your passions, and if you haven’t found it, never stop search-ing! I thank the UMN Geology Department for such an amazing education and set of experiences and hope they continue on with their success. Lastly, we must all stand up for climate change; it is the single most important challenge in human history!

Metro Transit’s light rail green line opened in Fall 2014. The new line connects the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul as it runs along Washington Avenue through the Minneapolis campus (both east and west banks), then along University Avenue ending at the recently remodeled Union Depot in St. Paul’s historic Lowertown neighborhood (below).

Mass Transit on Campus


Alumni Notes

1950sDr. Bruce M. Doe, BS 1954, in his own words: Currently I live in Penick Village in Southern Pines, NC. I am sorry to say that my wife of 26 years, Marjorie, passed away in 2013. I received a BS (undesignated) and B. Geol. Eng. degrees in 1954 some 60 yrs ago this year. [This note was received in 2014]. Following my time at the U of M, I received an MS (Geology) at what was then the Missouri School of Mines (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) in 1956 and a Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in 1960. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory with much time spent at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, I joined a new branch of Isotope Geology in the Geo-logic Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, eventually becoming its Chief for 5 yrs. When I was in research, I worked on advanced methods of mineral prospect evaluation, mainly through use of lead and strontium isotopes. When in administration I concentrated on Environmental Concerns. Among other titles at the USGS were Assistant Chief Geologist for 3-1/2 yrs and Assistant Director of Research for another 3-1/2 yrs. I spent a year at the ETH in Zurich, was the first Western scientist to give the Varnadsky Memorial Lecture in Moscow in 1976 during detente, and served a year as President of The Geochemical Society. The University of Missouri granted me a D. Sci. (honorus causa) in 1989. I had the joy of participating in most of the major Earth science programs of the day such as the Uranium Program, Upper Mantle Program, the Apollo Program, and the National Acid Precipitation Program. I have all but left science and now tend my boutique blog “Reunite Gondwanaland” (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/) under the pen name of Everett Estes Ford that helps keep my mind pretty sharp. The blog currently has 328 items dating back to November of 2009 and is bearing down of 20,000 page views. It is an eclectic blog (November, 2009, through this year) with sections on Biography, Commentary (General, Economics and Investing), Fiction, Health Care, Oil and Gas, Politics, Photographs, Poetry (Children’s Poems, General, Health, and Space Poems) and Poems by Others. A table of contents is at http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/07/reunite-gondwanaland-2009-june-2011.html In addition I have published two novellas: “Swell Country” available as a Kindle book for $0.99 and currently as a paperback for $9.90 in 2013 on amazon.com (the price seems to move around)

and “(All I Wanted Was) A Piece Of The Moon” also available as a Kindle Book for $0.99 or a paperback for $4.84 this year on amazon.com. The price of Swell Country paperbacks is higher because of two colored pictures. I am indebted to my oldest nephew who put the novellas up on Kindle and saw to the publication of the paper-backs. He has a business of doing this for religious books but made an exception for his uncle. Swell Country is about the uranium boom in the early 1950s that was the greatest mineral boom ever. The era was famous for “weekend” prospectors. Piece Of The Moon is about the early days of the Lunar Sample Program in the Apollo Program when it was getting set up. Cheers Bruce R. Doe

1970sDr. Bor-ming Jahn, PhD 1972, was selected as a member of “China-100” honoring Chinese alumni of the UofM over the past 100 years who have excelled in their profession. Information about this award can be found at http://china100.umn.edu/. In addition, Dr. Jahn was awarded “Prestwich Prix” of the Geological Society of France, in May 2013; awarded “2014 International Prize” of the Geological Society of Japan; and in May 2014 was given an “Hon-orary Professor” at the China University of Geosciences, Beijing (his 10th such title from China).

Correction:Klaus Schulz, PhD 1977, was inducted into the University of Min-nesota Duluth Academy of Science and Engineering. Klaus received his MS from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1974 working with John Green. We apologize for the error.

1980sAhmad Bukhari Ibrahim, BS 1986, currently heads the Exploration Technical Services Division at PETRONAS, Malaysia.

Jon A. Carlson, BS 1987, was chosen as a finalists for Entrepre-neur Of The Year™ 2014 in the Upper Midwest! Information about this award can be found at <http://www.ey.com/US/en/Newsroom/News-releases/News-EY-announces-finalists-for-EOY-2014-in-the-Upper-Midwest>.

Please Send Us Your News and Comments

We need more alumni notes! Please send comments, memories, and/or news of your career or family to <[email protected]>.

Thank you!


1990sGarrett M. Kramer, BS 1999, is a Business Development Manager at Schlumberger Geosolutions, WA Branch of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysics (ASEG).

2000sDana (Bishop) Pertermann, BA 2001, has just been named Di-rector of the Center of Southwest Wyoming Archaeology Federal Repository at Western Wyoming College. She also has a book coming out in the summer: “Archaeology of Engagement: Battle of San Jacinto, San Palo, and Others”; and will be co-chairing a session on Quaternary Geoarchaeology at the Rocky Mountain GSA meeting in April 2015.

Nicole (Elgethun) Spangler, BS 2002, is married with an 8-year old daughter and has owned her own photography business for the past six years: Nicole Spangler Photography <www.nicolespan-glerphotography.com>.

Fawna J. Korhonen, PhD 2006, is a senior geologist at the Geo-logical Survey of Western Australia in Perth, specializing in the evolution of Proterozoic belts in WA (of which there are several to keep her busy). Fawna married Tim Ivanic (also a geologist) in April 2013 and they are expecting a baby boy the end of February 2015. She notes that, “Anyone passing through Western Australia should please get in touch!”

Rajdeep Dasgupta, PhD 2006, and Sushmita Dasgupta, PhD 2008, currently live in Houston, TX with their three sons, Pritthij, Aurno and Odri. Sushmita is a Consulting Geologist at Schlumberger and Rajdeep is an Associate Professor at Rice University. In addi-tion, Rajdeep was a 2014 recipient of the AGU Macelwane Medal given for “significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by an outstanding early career scientist.”

Benjamin J. Maas, BS 2008, completed his MS at Illinois State University, a PhD at Louisiana State, and now has a tenure track appointment at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA.

2010sSu Yi Chai, BS 2011, has been working with the National University of Singapore’s Office of Environmental Sustainability since Oct. 2013, and received a M.Sc in Environmental Management in 2014.

Kelsi R. Ustipak, BA 2011, has had a busy couple of years since leaving the U. She started a MS program at UT-Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, specializing in deepwater depositional styles of sediment gravity flows, advised by a former Chris Paola post-doc, David Mohrig. Her thesis focuses on identifying transitional flow deposits in outcrops of the Brushy Canyon Formation in the Guadalupe Mountains, Texas. This work is important because it revises a lot of previous notions about traditional Bouma sequences in basin floor settings, broadening the understanding of the types of flows that deliver sediment to the deep oceans. Kelsi received grant funding from GSA to conduct a small series of flume experiments on depositional styles of clay-rich, sand-laden flows with unstable

velocity conditions. Her plan is to finish May 2015 and seek either a PhD option at Colorado School of Mines OR possibly return to Minnesota to find work. Kelsi got married in August 2014 to a “super great guy whose dream is to become a head brewer-what else could a geologist ask for?” And they have added a dog to their family.Greg Brick, PhD 2013, taught energy topics at Metro State Uni-versity (St. Paul) after graduating and before joining the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 2014, where he is designing the Statewide Springs Inventory.

Caitlin J. Castner, BS 2014, is an Associate Environmental En-gineer at Rock Tenn Corporation and “absolutely loves it!” She misses walking up the stairs of [Pillsbury Hall] every morning and will never forget all of the wonderful people she met at Pillsbury!

Darren S. Cheah, BS 2014, is working on a M.Sc. at the University of Notre Dame researching molecular biomarkers for paleoclimates under Melissa Berke, PhD 2011.

Cindy Frickle, MS 2015, is conducting environmental site assess-ments for Partner Engineering & Science out of Oakland ever since the Monday after her defense.

Please join us for the University of Minnesota alumni gathering on Monday, November 3, 2015 held during the GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD.

Office staff, frozen in time: LtoR: Sharon Kressler, Mark Griffith, Greg Gambeski, Jennifer Petrie, Doug Johnson, Tony Gambeski


In Memoriam

William Jack Gelineau, BA 1952, MS 1959d. February 10, 2015 Jack earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1952 from the University of Minnesota. He then served in the United States Air Force from 1952 - 1956, during which time he and his wife were stationed in England. After returning from active duty, Jack went on to gradu-ate school and earned a Master of Science Degree (Geophysics) in 1959 from the University of Minnesota. He was employed in oil exploration by Texaco in New Orleans, followed by Union Oil Company of Canada in Calgary, Alberta, and later Union Oil Com-pany of California (Unocal), in Pasadena and Bakersfield, CA. Jack traveled extensively for his job, and he and Joan were able to visit many different countries and experience many different cultures. While working for Unocal, Jack and Joan also spent 3 years living in Balikpapan, Indonesia.

Tsu-Ming Han, MS 1953, d. February 3, 2005

R. Celdon Lewis, MS 1953, d. December, 2013

William N. Marr, EM 1957, d. March 1, 2014

Dr. Harlan H. Roepke, MS 1958, d. November 9, 2012

John B. Botelho, BS’1946Elmer D. Anderson, BS’1948John E. Boettcher, BA’1949James W. Joyce, EM’1949Clarke R. Lewis, MS’1949Roy T. Sorenson, EM/1949/MS’1952Robert W. Timm, EM’1949Mary E. Lugsdin, BS’1950William H. Becker, EM’1951John H. Goodrich, EM’1951Kenneth H. Johnson, BS’1951Wayne H. Kelly, BS’1951Russell A. Nelson, BS’1951Douglas M. Sheridan, MS’1951Edward S. Hughes, MS’1952Gene M. Olson, EM’1952Allan Kiliman, BA’1953Richard P. Maley, MS’1953Murray Lloyd Miller, PhD’1953Eugene L. Palusky, EM’1953Orville J. Pardau, BS’1953Charles J. Beaupré, EM’1954Rudolf R. Moen, EM’1954Howard W. Blakely, BS’1955Bernardo A. Taborda, MS’1955Iwan Tkatchenko, EM’1955Ashiq Ali, MS’1956Roy W. Hillmer, EM’1956Jack D. Arthur, BA’1957Robert H. Barton, MS’1957Robert C. Kaase, EM’1958Leslie G. McDowell, BS’1958

Warren C. Miller, BA’1958Gary C. Stamman, BA’1959Reynaldo Ayala, BA’1960Arthur E. Anderson, EM’1961John R. Guenther, EM’1961Conrad E. Maher, BS’1961Pundalik Kulkarni, MS’1962Barton D. Gross, MS’1963Naiding Wang, MS’1963Dennis G. Deischl, MS’1964Harold A. Johnson, BS’1964Charles E. Knigge, BA’1967Douglas B. Moore, BA’1968Jacques Becker, MS’1969Robert E. Smith, BS’1969Dale Wikre, BA’1969Dominique Rey, MS’1971Richard K. Covill, BS’1972Sally Wright Kendrick, MS’1972Douglas O. Phair, BS’1972John E. Puffer, BS’1972Sudarshan Singh, MS’1972Mark Markowitz, MS’1973Larry D. Douglas, MS’1974James Carl Engstrom, MS’1974William Thomas Gill, BS’1974Bruce H. Burton, MS’1975William J. Loye, BS’1976Carolee Berge, BS’1977Robert G. Bowman, BS’1977Stephen R. Elkins, MS’1977Ann Hubbs, BS’1977

Dr. Richard “Dick” Hardyman, MS 1969, d. March 24, 2014Obtained BS from UW, an MS from UMN and PhD from UNR. He taught for several years at BSU where he was fondly referred to as “Herr Doctor Professor”. He left when he was recruited by the USGS where he spent 18 years as a field geologist. Over his career, he worked in many foreign countries as well as much of Nevada and is respected for being a true artist as a mapper, applying his formidable skill to “figure out the puzzle”. To quote from the April 13, 2014 Reno-Gazette-Journal obituary: “Dick was a talented ge-ologist and a fierce friend. He was infamous for protracted stories and, as he often said, having no wit.”

Daniel S. Erickson, BS 1975, d. November 4, 2011

Dr. Timothy Wawrzyniec, MS 1994, d. November 6, 2014

Cale Thomas Anger, MS 2010, d. January 28, 2015Cale graduated with two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a dual Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and Hydrogeology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Cale graduated with many honors, including the UMN 2012 Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award for his research on harmful chemicals in antibacterial products (CivE). A fund was started by his wife, Yelena, that will be used to fund a Best MS Thesis Award in the department of Civil, Environmental, and Geological Engineering (formerly CivE); donations can be made by going to makingagift.umn.edu and searching for “Cale Anger Best Master’s Thesis Award”.

Benjamin A. Arogundade, BS’1978Randall R. Atchinson, BS’1978Michael Bower, BS’1978Thomas Geskerman, BS’1978John A. Miller, MS’1978Lorene Gergen, BS’1979Steven A. Meger, BS’1979Thomas F. Woods, BS’1979Paul W. Loaney, BS’1980James Paulson, BS’1980Dong Jin Kim, MS’1982Michael A. McCrum, BS’1982Brian A. Ross, MS’1985Chongmi Suk, MS’1985Dongwoo Suk, MS’1985Kevin E. Miller, BS’1987Wendy Lynn Tormanen, BA’1987Janice M. Lawhead, Ed’1988Richard T. Wilkin, BA’1988Ellen K. Kirschner, BS’1989Mary J. Lynch, BA’1989Christopher Manydeeds, BS’1989R. Jonathan Paetz, MS’1989Jacqueline Black Jiran, BS’1990Kurt S. Pfaff, MS’1991Anbin Yu, BS’1992Jennifer Mackenzic, BS’1993Kriste M. Davenport, BS’1995Scott Rubin, MS’1995Sanghamitra Sahu, MS’1995/PhD’1997Jon Paul Jones, BS’1996Gideon Norbert Ngobi, MS’1998

Jennifer York, PhD’2000Michelle M DiGirolamo, BS’2001Nicole R. Elgethun, BS’2002Ross D. McNeil, BS’2003Lily M. Wood, BS’2003Nicholas R. Bonow, BS’2004Yongsul Cho, MS’2004Travis Charles Kennebeck, BS’2004Matthew L. Rheinhart, BS’2005Richard A. Cargill, BS’2006Djuna Maria Gulliver, BS’2006Yiwen Pan, MS’2007Junmin Shi, MS’2009Jenillee A. Pajewski, BS’2010James Kenneth Parry, BA’2013

We continue the search for missing alumni and friends. Your help in locating these people with whom we have lost touch would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!


Various factions of the N.H. Winchell School of Earth Sciences have a presence on social media, namely, Facebook. Check them out!

Department of Earth Sciences:https://www.facebook.com/groups/81943157076/

Institute for Rock Magnetism:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Institute-for-Rock-Magnetism/214991911849169

LacCore:https://www.facebook.com/laccore

Minnesota Geological Survey:https://www.facebook.com/MinnesotaGeologicalSurvey

Polar Geospatial Center:https://www.facebook.com/polargeospatial

St. Anthony Falls Laboratoryhttps://www.facebook.com/saflumn

Assistant professor Max Bezada and post-doc Na-gasree Garapati are shown making ice cream using liquid nitrogen. The ice cream social is one way the department kicks off the Community Fund Drive, the U’s annual annual charitable giving campaign.

This newsletter is available in alternative formats upon request. For additional information or comments contact:

Alumni NewsletterDepartment of earth Sciencesuniversity of Minnesota310 Pillsbury Drive SeMinneapolis, MN 55455phone: 612/624-1333fax: 612/625-3918e-mail: [email protected]

Department of Earth SciencesUniversity of Minnesota310 Pillsbury Dr. SEMinneapolis, MN 55455

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Group photo from the Fall 2014 Picnic, Hidden Falls Park, St. Paul

The watercolor of Pillsbury Hall on the front cover is a gift from Nicole Sabatier of Manurewa, New Zealand. The original artwork is on display in the departmental administrative offices.

The university of Minnesota shall provide equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Documents

2015 Newsletter - esci.umn.edu · study to determine the conditions, mechanisms, timing, and consequences of flow of partially molten crust. We have proposed that domes represent