Inside this issue: 2 - West Virginia University€¦ · students Chelsea Hodg- ... Miller, student in French and Women’s Studies, ... gas-fluid-rock interactions that affect CO

January 2012

From the Chair 2

Around the Department 3

Spotlight on Graduates 6

Faculty Updates 7

Alumni Updates 11

Make a Difference 12

Did You Know 14

Coming Soon 15

Inside this issue:

2011: a Year of Additions

Greetings from the long abandoned shores of Pleistocene Lake Monongahela!

The year 2011 will be remembered in the WVU Department of Geology & Geography as a year of additions. We added Dr. Eungul Lee to the faculty in December to begin teaching classes in the spring 2012 semester, and added Jennifer Kelly as an administrative secretary over the summer to replace Tracye Tennant, who left to become an administrative assistant for the WVU Center for Civic Engagement. At year’s end we were actively engaged in two Geology faculty searches that we hope to complete in the spring.

We added so many new students over the year that the total number of undergraduate students in Geology, Geography, or Environmental Geoscience exceeded 200 for the first time in 25 years. We graduated 39 BA and BS students in 2011, but that number is projected to exceed 50 in 2012. We set an all-time record with a total of 84 graduate students in the fall semester and about 80 % of these students received support as teaching or research assistants. Our grad students earned 16 masters degrees and nine PhDs.

A record 39 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters were published over the 12 months and cur-rent research funding in Geology & Geography was at $5.7 million at the end of 2011. Several re-markable “in kind” donations were received over the year, including over $13 million in software do-nations from Landmark Graphics, Seismic-Micro-Technology, Environmental Simulations and others.

Thanks to the generosity of our alumni and friends, gifts and donations to the Department by way of the WVU Foundation increased very significantly, a trend that has continued for at least five years, aided greatly by the Geology & Geography Visiting Committee, which my predecessor Dr. Trevor Harris initiated in 2008.

In spite of the additional gifts, our increased numbers of students place us a long way from meeting our students’ needs to cover the exceptional costs they encounter during field classes, study abroad and field research. We project our enrollments will continue to increase in the next few years, so con-tributions from readers like you will be essential if we are to lower the financial hurdles for more of our students.

In spite of the growth and success in the Department in 2011, the most memorable additions for many of us came in the form of children. Three newborns arriving in the homes of four faculty

members in the summer (see faculty updates by Drs. Karen Culcasi, Brenden McNeil, Amy Weislogel and Bradley Wilson). Additionally, Evan Fedorko of the WVU GIS Technical Center added a son. PhD students Jessica Pierson Moore and Dan Harris separately contributed to push-ing the World’s population over the seven billion mark in 2011.

One great loss occurred in August, when Alison Chisholm Hanham, the wife of recently retired Dr. Robert Hanham passed away. Alison worked in Geology & Geography in the 1980s and 1990s and more recently served with the WVU Extension Service.

Drs. Ken Martis and Dick Smosna both entered their last year of phased retirement in the 2011-2012 academic year. We hope to find ways to keep these valued and talented colleagues involved in Geology & Geography for many years to come, but we will honor their careers with a celebration on Friday, April 27th, the last day of instruction for the academic year. As detailed elsewhere in the newsletter, each of these two distinguished educators will present their “last lecture” on a favored research topic, followed by a social event in Brooks Hall.

The WVU Geology & Geography Visiting Committee and the Department hosted two alumni-centered events in 2011, trying to find the best ways to strengthen student and faculty ties to our former graduates. Over twenty alumni participated in a one day event in April, and an even larger contingent participated in a two-day Alumni Day and Open House in late September. While these events went very well, feedback from those who could not attend has led us to plan a single 2012 alumni-open house event on Saturday morning, September 29th, before the Homecoming football game against Baylor. Keep a look out for an E-mail and check the Department web page for details on this event.

We would like to add you to the list of alumni and friends who have met our new faculty additions and visited our first-class facilities in Brooks Hall. I personally hope the Smosna-Martis career celebration, the Homecoming alumni-open house, or some other occasion will bring you back home to WVU Geology & Geography during 2012.

Page 2

FROM THE CHAIR...

“...total number of

undergraduate

students in Geology,

Geography, or

Environmental

Geoscience exceeded

200 for the first time

in 25 years.”

Dr. Steve Kite Photo: G&G Department

Chair of Geology & Geography Department

E-mail: [email protected]

By Dr. Tom Wilson The department continued to enhance its computing resources through industry support. This year was an exceptional year that included two noteworthy software grants. We received a $10.2 mil-lion dollar continuation of our Landmark Graphics University Grant and $2.7 million Seismic Micro-Technology University Grant. The Landmark Graphics software includes Discovery Suite modules, Decision Space Desk-top, SpecDecomp, GeoProbe and more. The Seismic-Micro-Technology software includes a variety of Kingdom Suite modules including 2D/3D PAK, VUPAK, SYNPAK, etc. These grants bring the latest computing technology into the hands of students and faculty for classroom and re-search applications. The department has come a long way since the days of Sampson's Surface II mapping and contour-ing package (KGS) and the old in-house FORTRAN programs used to conduct geophysical analysis. Much of this would not

have happened without the sup-port of alumni such as Alan Brown and Dave Swales. It would be impossible for us to keep up with the rapid advances in processing and computer-assisted interpreta-tion without this kind of industry and alumni support: support that is critical to keeping our training and research capabilities on the cutting edge.

In recognition of this kind of support, Homecoming festivities this past fall included a department reception to highlight last year's $7.6 million dollar Schlumberger Petrel Software Dona-tion. The donation was acknowledged during open house ceremonies that included comments from WVU Presi-dent Jim Clements, Senior Associate Provost Russ Dean, ECAS Dean Bob Jones, WVU Foundation President

at WVU. English student Abra Sitler discussed her extensive travels and stud-ies in southern Africa where she attended the University of Botswana and taught at a primary school in rural Tanzania. The panel also included a graduate student in History, Abigail Miller, who examined

gendered aspects of the transition in East-ern Europe. Miller visited Poland as part of the Atlantis Pro-gram at WVU. Malawi, France, Nica-ragua, Botswana, and Poland. These di-verse countries offer excellent opportunities for students in women’s studies and geography to under-

stand the complexity of different places and people. Study abroad is an attrac-tive option for WVU students in these fields and prepares them for future ca-reers and study in an increasingly global workplace and society. As Alanna Markle noted, “I think everyone can benefit from studying abroad, and I hope sharing my experience will encourage more students to do so.”

By Dr. Ann Oberhauser Growing coffee in Nicaragua … gathering water in rural Malawi … and accessing health care in France. These and other issues were shared by students in Geogra-phy, Women’s Studies, and related disci-plines during a panel on “Going Global: Gender and International Experi-ences at WVU” during the fall semester. Six WVU students on this panel discussed their experi-ences and reflected on the role of gender within the context of their inter-national travel and study. In this panel, Geography students Chelsea Hodg-kins and Justin Belton focused on the gen-der roles they observed during a study abroad trip to Malawi. Here, rural women play an important role in gathering fuelwood and water for their households. Miranda Miller, student in French and Women’s Studies, spoke about her experience in France where she studied the impact of this country’s national health care on women. Geography student Alanna Markle shared her work on a coffee cooperative in Nicara-gua that is part of the Fair Trade 2.0 project

‘GOING GLOBAL’ SHOWCASES STUDY ABROAD

DEPARTMENT RECEIVES OVER $10.2 MILLION IN SOFTWARE DONATIONS

“I think everyone can

benefit from studying

abroad…”

-Alanna Markle,

Geography student who

studied in Nicaragua

“It would be

impossible for us

to keep up with the

rapid advances in

processing and

computer-assisted

interpretation

without this kind

of industry and

alumni support”

AROUND THE DEPARTMENT...

Page 3

Wayne King, Department Chair Steve Kite and the Schlumberger Recipient Dr. Alan Brown, WVU M.S. 1982. Following the recep-tion, Guochang Wang and Dr. Brown provided a Petrel demo to all in our high end computer classroom after the reception. Alumni support in its many forms helps us maintain our long-term commitments to students to pro-vide challenging and timely train-ing along with competitive place-ment in top industry jobs.

Dr. Steve Kite, Chair of Geology & Geography, thanks Dr. Alan Brown, Schlumberger recipient, during Open House in Fall 2011. Photo: Susan Kite

Dr. Alan Brown, Co-chair, Schlumberger

Joe Sewash, Co-chair, North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

Linda Culp, San Diego Association of Governments

Robert Dulli, National Geographic Society

Dr. Jay Gatrell, Indiana State University

Ronald Mullennex, Marshall Miller & Associates

Dr. Amy Pratt, Non-Profit Leadership

Brian Raber, Merrick and Company

Heather Ramsey, Chesapeake Energy

Geary Schindel, Edwards Aquifer Authority

Jennifer Sincock, US Environmental Protection Agency

Ashley S.B. Douds, EQT Production Company

Jeffrey A. Sitler, University of Virginia Environmental Health & Safety

Excerpt from http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/09/14/eight-faculty-grow-their-research-through-wvu-advance-grant. Dr. Karen Culcasi and Dr. Shikha Sharma are two of the eight women to receive a $15,000 grant through WVU’s National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant. Not only will the funds allow each of them to continue exploring within their field of science, but also provides mentoring from other faculty members outside their department and university.

For the next 4 years, the WVU ADVANCE sponsorship will select 10 women to re-ceive this opportunity. Dr. Shikha Sharma, assistant professor in geology, will use isotopes to understand gas-fluid-rock interactions that affect CO2 sequestration and enhanced geothermal systems. Her mentor is Rosemary Capo, an associate professor of geology and planetary science at the University of Pittsburgh, who, Sharma hopes, will provide

lowship” sponsored by the Ameri-can Association for the Advancement of Science, the publish-ers of the prestigious journal, Science. Having successfully navigated both the theoretical and ap-plied worlds of devel-opment, I was inter-ested in exploring and learning what for most academic development geographers is a mystery - the Unites States Agency for Interna-

By Dr. Brent McCusker Sabbatical For many, the concept of “development” is a black box. Eco-nomic progress seems to be in re-verse in globally “developed” socie-ties. With the best laid plans now laid to waste while wealth continues to accrue to the top, how can devel-opment thinking continue to help lift the millions out of poverty that are in so desperate need of assistance? This question propelled me to apply for a “Science and Technology Fel-

Page 4

MCCUSKER TAKES SABBATICAL WITH USAID

MALAWI RESEARCH BENEFITS STUDENTS AND ECONOMY

TWO OF FACULTY RECEIVE WVU ADVANCE GRANT

AROUND THE DEPARTMENT...

Dr. Shikha Sharma (left) and Dr. Karen Culcasi (right) are 2 of 8 eight women to receive $15,000 ADVANCE grant for research. Department Photos

Malawi is facing a similar crisis as fuel and food prices skyrocket in the southeast Afri-can country. WVU Associate Professor of Geography Brent McCusker is using his 10 years of studies and knowledge of climate science to aid Malawi. McCusker’s current research will help ex-plain the many factors involved in recent social and economic changes, such as the protests that took place in Malawi on July 20. Through his work, he will be able to better understand the effects of global eco-nomic and climate change, which have recently included rising fuel costs, food price inflation and civil unrest. To help train the next generation of climate and social scientists at WVU, McCusker led a study abroad trip to Malawi consisting of 16 undergraduate students and one gradu-ate student. “The students were in Malawi for four weeks,” McCusker said. “They par-ticipated in classes during the morning and then completed some field research in the afternoons. The students traveled to local villages and spoke to residents; asking

Students hiking up Mt. Mulanje during the WVU Study Abroad. Photo: Brent McCusker

federal budget. The relationship between aca-demic practitioners and USAID is almost non-existent. Many development experts are criti-cal of USAID’s interventions and USAID is often unable to use academic suggestions that are often overly theoretical and light on practice. I have taken to examining this relationship and ways to improve academy-agency relations over his sab-batical year at USAID in the Washington, DC headquarters.

assistance arm of the United States Govern-ment. I frequently ask my incoming freshmen to an-swer the following question: “What is the percentage of the US Federal budget that is allocated for for-

eign ?”. Students normally re-spond with answers ranging from 20-35%. In fact, foreign aid con-stitutes from 0.8-1.1% of the total

Breath-taking views of the mountain. Photo: Brent McCusker

them how the current changes in climate are affect-ing their crop growth. McCusker believes that the information will eventu-ally help Malawi develop a plan to find areas within the country to successfully grow crops leading to a lowering of food prices. This research will help ensure the country’s continued economic develop-ment.

the opportunity for long-term research collaboration. Dr. Karen Culcasi, assistant professor in geography, will use her grant to identify the issues that Palestinians living long-term in Jordan are facing. With mentoring from Alison Mountz of Syracuse Univer-sity, Culcasi hopes her re-search will help promote deeper understandings about the struggles of refugees in Jordan, as well as to strengthen the bond with Yar-mouk University in Jordan which could lead to a future exchange program with WVU.

Excerpt from http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/08/10/wvu-professor-researches-how-climate-is-affecting-economic-development-in-malawi. While the United States is facing one of the worst economic downturns in recent history,

“In fact, foreign

aid constitutes

from 0.8-1.1% of

the total federal

budget.”

By Dr. Shikha Sharma Stable Isotope Analysis (SIA) is a transformative technology that has become a critical research tool in a wide variety of disciplines, including Earth System Sciences. Utilizing her start-up funds from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Sharma set up the first stable isotope laboratory in state of West Virginia in the Depart-ment of Geology and Geography. The instruments installed in the laboratory include the Finnigan Delta Advantage gas isotope ratio mass spectrometer, Gas bench Device, Element Analyzer and TC/EA. The instrumentation is capable of analyzing the C, N, O, H and S isotopic composition of wide variety of substrates ranging from waters, gases, and sediments to plant/animal tissues. The new instrumentation will provide innovative research/training opportuni-ties not only to faculty, students and post-doctoral scientists at WVU; but also to other researchers in the region.

University) or RUA developed by Department of Energy’s Na-tional Energy Technology Labo-ratory to address the emerging energy and environment issues. Dr. Sharma is spearheading the isotope research in this RUA and has also established re-search collaborations with scien-tists in the US Geological Sur-vey (USGS) and WV Depart-ment of Environmental Protec-tion (WVDEP). Dr. Sharma’s research efforts are focused on utilizing the new instrumentation to better understand: 1) envi-ronmental issues ensuing from shale gas extraction ; 2) biogeo-chemical controls on deposition of organic rich black shales, and; 2) gas-fluid-rock interac-tions that affect CO2 sequestra-tion and enhanced geothermal systems.

remediate pollution, and what links may exist between water pollution and pre-term birth.

Amanda Laskoskie, a WVU gradu-ate assistant, is working to discover how fast pollutants travel through rock as part of this project. Pollut-ants in the karst aquifers in Puerto Rico can come from unlined landfills and manufacturing plants. “These chemicals may have nega-tive impacts on environmental and biological systems,” Laskoskie said. “In particular, the karst aquifers of northern Puerto Rico, which are highly productive and used for water supply, have been impacted by these problems.” Laskoskie under the leadership of Dorothy Vesper, associate profes-sor of Geology, is working with

Article from http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/08/29/wvu-graduate-assistant-researches-water-pollution-that-can-lead-to-pre-term-births

Pregnancy is a time when you watch everything. You watch what you drink and what you eat, minding everything the doctor says. But it’s diffi-cult to scan the water you drink, being constantly on guard for pollutants that may lead to pre-term birth. West Virginia University researchers are part of a national collaboration that is examining the links between water pollution and pre-term births, especially as it relates to Puerto Rico, the site of the highest rate of pre-term births in the U.S. and its territories. Combating the high rate of pre-term birth is the mission of PROTECT (Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats), a research center funded by the Superfund Research Program of the National Insti-

tute of Environmental Health Sciences. The PROTECT center is designed to study the effect of environmental pollution and its potential effects on pre-term birth in Puerto Rico. This national research cen-ter, based out of Northeast-ern University in Massachu-setts and the University of Puerto Rico, has universities across the country working to better understand how pollutants travel through the island’s waterways, how to

GRADUTATE ASSISTANT RESEARCHES WATER POLLUTION LINK TO PRE-TERM BIRTHS

SHARMA CREATES FIRST WV ISOTOPE LABORATORY

Page 5

AROUND THE DEPARTMENT...

Dr. Shikha Sharma in the Isotope Laboratory at Brooks Hall. Photo: Maneesh Sharma

The isotope lab will be part of the “shared facilities” of the Regional Univer-sity Alliance (composed of Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech. and West Virginia

One of the streams being researched by Amanda Laskoskie and Dr. Vesper’s team. Photo: Dorothy Vesper

hydrogel tracer beads and flores-cent dyes to determine exactly how fast pollutants travel through karst rocks similar to those Puerto Rico. The beads are being used as a proxy for organic contaminants. Laskoskie is experimenting with the density of the hydrogel beads when submersed in water and is being assisted by Harry Edenborn of NETL-Pittsburgh. “Altering the physical properties of the beads will allow us to mimic the properties of different types of contaminants,” Laskoskie said. “This will allow us to better under-stand their fate and how they are transported, improving our ability to remediate polluted sites.” Laskoskie’s research is being funded by a four-year $131,400 grant subcontracted through North-eastern University. The funds will allow her to create a methodology on how tracers and pollutants travel through karst settings, and eventually allow her and other scientists to be able to combat the pollution that risks the lives of new-born children. For more information on PRO-TECT, please visit: http://www.northeastern.edu/protect/ For more information, contact Dorothy Vesper, associate prof., at [email protected].

...Puerto Rico

(is) the site of

the highest

rate of pre-

term births in

the U.S. and

its territories.

“Be prepared to move, be flexible in your job, and keep in

contact with the department and fellow alumni”

-Alan Brown, Principle Reservoir Geologist for

Schlumberger, gives advice for future graduates.

BS Geology Katherine Berry Lauren Black Eva Bragonje Marcus Ellison Cameron Jarrett Amelia King Matthew Kirby Travis Lawson Ashley May Stephen Price Brandt Rouse Courtney Rubin Matthew Spencer Carlos Varady-Mago Brian Walter Joseph Wilks Marla Yates BA Geography Kyle Benne Samuel Byron Patrick Corley Marvin Davis Justin Mcdavid Dillon Moore Jonathan Monroe Douglas Peterson Matthew Ryan Matthew Silveira Steven Thorp Tyler Trolson BA Enviromental Geo Science Erin Broussard Evan Flynn Elizabeth Flynn Michael Gollwitzer Adam Katzoff Matthew Keck Henry Lewis Richard Rex II Dustin Smith Jeremy Wriston MA Geography Bradley Breslow Travis Cowles Lindsey Felton Caroline Leland Autumn Long Ph.D. Geography Susan Bergeron Franklin Graham Janice Hardin Sheila Kazar Amanda Krugh Thomas Saladyga Denyse Wyskup

MS Geology Thomas Donahoe Ian Lucas Julia McConnell Kalin McDannell Kate Olcott Kevin Rega Christina Rhoads Steven Sesack Roy Sexton IV Margaret Walker-Milani Travis Warner PhD Geology Daniel Harris Elizabeth Rhenberg

Page 6

SPOTLIGHT ON GRADUATES...

Meghan Dailey was awarded the Chesapeake Scholarship at WVU as well as the Houston Geological Society W.L. Calvert Memorial Scholarship. Joshua Lohnes was awarded $1000 from the Global Education Opportunities Grant (WVU Office of International Programs) for his 2012 summer research. John Moore and Steve Sesack, each of whom received a $2000 scholarship from the SIPES Foundation. SIPES is the Society of Independent Professional Earth Sci-entists. Ben Baker and Cassidy Rhea are finishing their Masters projects on forest fragmen-tation due to gas drilling and the use of lidar to delineate and identify individual trees of Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven). Jessica DeWitt defended her dissertation proposal on the remote sensing of moun-tain top removal mining. Tom Donahoe successfully defended his MS thesis on 3D seismic attribute-assisted subsurface interpretation in central Appalachian basin.

Geography Senior Capstone course on field trip to Albert Gallitan home. Photo: Dr. Ken Martis

GREETINGS! It occurs to me that 2011 might become the water-shed year with respect to public perceptions regard-ing fossil fuels and the environment. Perhaps we have come to a tipping

point in higher education with respect to the need for as many as possible of the under-graduate students to be exposed to cause-and-effect relationships between our demands for energy resources and the consequences of utilizing fossil fuels for generating electrical power. On a topic near and dear to my heart, this has been a wonderful year for a field trip! Some of the weather events required the an-nual Capstone Field Trip in the BA program to be moved from Spring Break to the week be-tween finals and graduation in May. And it still snowed in Utah whilst we were on our trip! We considered life along the Wasatch Fault, responsible mineral extraction at Bingham Canyon, spring floods, mass movement, and we snuck in a trip to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dino-saur Quarry to remind ourselves that another pretty successful form of life long, long ago also had to deal with changes in the environ-ment! Now to plan a trip in 2012. CHEERS!

I have been keeping busy this year, especially with research projects. High-lights include work with the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center examining the interactions between toxic pollution

and public health. This work led to a presen-tation at the GeoComputation 2011 confer-ence in London, England, in July. I have also started a research project with MA student Clinton Davis (Geography) and Assistant Pro-fessor Rachel Stein (Sociology) to examine spatial patterns of urban crime, so we can improve the understanding of social factors of crime and thus policing strategies. A fun task that I have taken on this past year is running the Southeast Division of the Asso-ciation of American Geographers' World Ge-ography Bowl, a quiz bowl style contest of geographical knowledge for students. This involved writing and reviewing questions, and moderating the championship round, an ex-perience which gives me a greater apprecia-tion of Alex Trebek's talent.

It has been a busy year with students finishing, continuing and starting their research. I saw a large number of alums and former students at AAPG International Con-vention in Houston this

spring. I continue to be busy teaching classes to an increasing number of students focused on subsurface geology and working with ongo-ing graduate students. I am still involved in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS in the vernacular) with work in Canada, Mexico, China and the USA. However, it will be no surprise that unconventional resources (oil and gas shale) are taking up an increased amount of my effort and I have become em-broiled in the issues. International travel has included trips to China to work on CO2 se-questration projects and for unconventional resources. On the personal note, I celebrated my 60th with Margaret and managed to see Joe my son in several plays and recitals.

GREG ELMES

BOB BEHLING TIM CARR

Page 7

FACULTY UPDATES...

The Spring 2011 semester was my fifth semester as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. I've learned a lot during my two years on the tenure clock and now feel quite comfortable in both Morgantown and the University. During this

calendar year some of my research was pub-lished. These publications include a journal article in Political Geography on the construc-tion of the "Arab Homeland" and another arti-cle in Aether: Journal of Media Geography about media representations of terrorism. I was awarded a WVU ADVANCE grant in order to launch a new project of conceptions of iden-tity amongst Palestinian refugees in Jordan. I am most pleased, however, to report that I developed and taught a new course on the Arab world during the Spring semester. My daughter Ayla excitedly welcomed the arrival of her baby brother, Milo Charlie McCasi, on August 9, 2011.

In 2011, the Hydrogeol-ogy Research Center at WVWRI reached its tenth year, highlighted by new research on some old problems. Alkaline injec-tion trials at the Alton Project site in Upshur

County resumed, following on the work of a number of MS alumni in the 1990s. We also have been looking at the regional distribution of gas wells in closed underground coal mines in a new project funded by MSHA. New pa-pers describing the Holocene climate record of Kettle Lake, ND, appeared in QSR and the Holocene.

2011 is another busy year for me and my students. My 18-chapter AAPG Memoir 100, entitled "Tectonics and Sedimentation: Im-plications for Petroleum Systems", is finally in production although it took longer than I expected. As the co-conveners of the 31st Annual GCSSEPM (Gulf Coast Section Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists) Foundation Bob F. Perkins re-search conference, Kurt Marfurt (Oklahoma University) and I together with the editorial board finished peer-reviewing all the 34 full-length papers and the proceedings (DVD) was delivered at the research conference on Dec. 4-7. In addition, my research team welcomes a research associate Zhihong Zheng from China University of Mining Technology (Beijing, China) for a China-US joint PHD program sponsored by the Chinese government.

JAMISON CONLEY

This was a memorable year! George Roedl and I continued to work with the WVU and Morgantown Police Departments on a researcher-practitioner project supported by the US National Institute of

Justice. The WV GIS Technical Center added two new full-time spatial analyst positions this year: Maneesh Sharma and Xiannian Chen. They add abilities to an extremely productive geospatial research and development unit. This year I taught Geographic Information Science and Crime Mapping and Analysis to classes of engaged students looking forward to adding a marketable strength or two to their resumes. On a personal side, Jeanne and I became grandparents for the second time as Carol and Michael welcomed their son, Kilian in March and my mother celebrated her 90th birthday in October.

KAREN CULCASI

DENGLIANG GAO

JOE DONOVAN

Page 8

2011 has been an exciting year! We're in our 5th year in Brooks Hall, but it still seems new to us! We have several new faculty, we're trying to hire more, and some of the long-timers are retiring or con-

sidering it. I have two M.S. students, Kacey Largent and Sarah Johnson, who are working on projects related to my Idaho research that was funded by NSF. My collaborators on that project and I had a paper accepted for publication in Lithos, a European journal. The most exciting geo-travel that I've done this year was a trip to the 9th International Eclogite Conference (IEC) in the Czech Republic in August. This is the fourth IEC that I've at-tended and by now I know many of the inter-national scientists who work on eclogites (beautiful, high-pressure metamorphic rocks!) and I'm beginning to understand a little about the formation and tectonics of these rocks.

This is my 37th, and last, year in the Department. Beginning fall 2012, I will be retired and an Emeritus Professor who plans to continue several projects and have a presence in the Department. It is shocking to even say this and it has been an exciting and wonderful experience. Myra and I have two adult daughters, one (Kase) who has recently moved to Phoenix and one (Elizabeth) is in Beverly, Massachusetts with our grandson Samuel. Research-wise the last several years have been productive, including a presidential voting atlas, article on the origins of gerryman-dering, and an analysis of congressional roll call voting appearing in an atlas of the 2008 election. In the summer, I was a consult-ant for the state legislature in the drawing of new congressional districts. In the fall, I taught the United States and Canada course and continued the new “capstone” field-based Senior Thesis course.

KEN MARTIS

HELEN LANG

I am an Associate Profes-sor and Associate Chair of Geography and this has been a busy year. I was recently invited to give a presentation on my research in Mongolia to the National Geographic

Society in Washington DC. The presentation, entitled “Pluvials, Ponies and the Mongol Em-pire” described how my research on climate variability from tree rings is shedding light on Genghis Khan’s rise to power during the 13th century.

During 2011 I was very ac-tive working on my grant from the National Science Foundation for the project "Assembling the Echino-derm Tree of Life." This is part of the larger NSF initia-tive "Assembling the Tree of

Life", which is attempting to chart the evolution-ary relationships of all fossil and living plants and animals. I am part of a team of a dozen biolo-gists and paleontologists who will attempt, over five years, to map out on an evolutionary tree for the history of the Phylum Echinodermata, includ-ing starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, the ever popular crinoids, and a variety of extinct groups. I will be working on the fossil record of crinoids, which were much more diverse than are living crinoids. The echinoderms are an unusual phy-lum in that fossils of the group show more diver-sity than the living members, thus requiring the participation of paleontologists on the project. Travel for the project took me to Washington, DC, Oklahoma; Iowa City, and Toronto to search museum collections for some of the oldest cri-noids from the Ordovician Period.

I have had an eventful and exciting year. Along with colleagues Drs. Timothy Warner in the department and Jim Rye in the Department of Hu-man Resources and Edu-cation, I have finished a

two course, six credit graduate-level sequence involving training WV in-service K-12 science teachers from across the state in the uses of geospatial technology to study their local wa-tersheds. Teachers are engaging their stu-dents in community-based learning projects involving local development and stream qual-ity. In related activities associated with my five-year USGS grant to AmericaView, I have been busy strengthening K-12 and under-graduate learning in geospatial science and technology. As AmericaView's Executive Di-rector, I have been preparing for the final year of the grant, developing outreach, educa-tion, and applied remote sensing research using Landsat imagery to support the goals of the USGS Land Remote Sensing Program headquartered in Reston, VA.

TOM KAMMER TREVOR HARRIS AMY HESSL

RICK LANDENBERGER

FACULTY UPDATES...

JOE LEBOLD

I have developed two courses, the Geology of WV and the Geology of the Na-tional Parks, which cover a range of topics in geology and give our students a chance to develop connec-tions between the required

upper-division courses in our program. In the spring, I took my Geology of the National Parks class to Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In the fall, I led eight field trips to locations in WV where our students did everything from crawling through the mud and tight spaces at Lost World Caverns to taking a brisk hike to the top of Seneca Rocks. I also continued to be very active in our geology field camp program. This year's edition of camp in the Black Hills was filled with gorgeous scen-ery and fantastic geology. We had a wonderful journey through Wyoming that included 5 foot high snow drifts at Powder River Pass in the Big Horn Mountains and a memorable tour of the Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis.

Now that I no longer bear the chair’s administrative load I find that I have the job that I always wanted – a ‘normal’ university pro-fessor! As such I’ve had an enjoyable and produc-tive academic year. Lots

of research projects moving along, confer-ences in some wonderful locations, and I’m really enjoying my teaching and seeing stu-dents moving along in their careers. My health has been very good with no indication that former ailments will return. We were blessed to have two additional grandchildren born this year and though the births were under difficult circumstances all are doing remarkably well. Amelia Rose was born 11 weeks premature at just 2lb 7ozs, and now six months later she has topped 13lb and mother and daughter are doing great. Archer Mat-thew was born in mid-December by caesarian section and severe complications arose for mother Sophia but both are doing well now. Ashton approaches the three year mark and is a bundle of joy.

Year 2011 was extremely busy as I was setting up the new stable isotope laboratory, submitting research projects for funding, exploring new , and developing a new research collaborations. As busy as this year was, I enjoyed every moment of it. It was a very productive year for research; I got a few federal grants and got three students started on their thesis research. Our group’s research on environmental issues related to Marcellus Shale drilling was showcased in several regional newspapers and news channel reports. I am hoping all this exciting research will move forward at full pace during the coming year.

Page 9

BRENT MCCUSKER

JOHN RENTON

My role in geography con-tinues to overlap with my position as Director of Women’s Studies at WVU. I have discovered even more synergies between these two fields as I ex-pand the international

scope of my research and teaching. In par-ticular, I participated in a visit to southern Af-rica in March to develop collaborative projects and exchanges with colleagues and students at universities in Botswana, South Africa and Malawi. This opportunity led to the successful submission of a Fulbright Program proposal to develop training programs for gender-based research and teaching in southern Africa. I am very proud to work with graduate stu-dents in Geography who engage in research on topics such as economic development in rural Pennsylvania, sustainable food strate-gies in WV, and non-governmental organiza-tions in Timor-Leste. It was also very reward-ing to watch my class of undergraduate stu-dents as they undertook a civic engagement project that involved volunteering within the community.

It has been a very busy 2011! I am still teaching Geol-ogy 101 and enjoying every minute of it. I pub-lished my second text-book “Physical Geology Across the American

Landscape” and my research with Ron Smart in the Chemistry department continues as we explore trace elements in coal and coal asso-ciated rocks. My biggest news is that I have decided to begin my phase retirement in the fall of 2012. A personal 2011 highlight was celebrating my 50th anniversary with Eleanor in Italy. Well, I am looking forward to what 2012 has in store for me!

BRENDEN MCNEIL

SHIKHA SHARMA

My news of 2011 was all encapsulated into a mid-summer fortnight. On July 22nd and 25th I got to serve on four thesis de-fenses, and was thrilled to have two great students defend eminently publish-

able masters theses (manuscripts now in peer-review). July 28th capped a very good summer field season as my NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates student presented a poster describing our glorious support of a null-hypothesis. But, the data does make a convinc-ing argument that we need more field sites and more robust measurements, so I later spun these results into a large proposal to the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program. On July 29th, I got the news that a paper of mine is being published in the January 2012 issue of the Annals of the AAG. And finally, on July 30th, my Ph.D. student Lindsay Deel re-submitted our paper that is now published in Remote Sensing of Environment. On a personal note, our family celebrated Ayla's 2nd birthday. On August 5th Karen Culcasi and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, and on August 9th, we welcomed Milo Charlie McCasi into the world.

JEREMIA NJERU

HENRY RAUCH

On a personal level, this has been an eventful year. During the summer, I vis-ited Kenya to visit with my father who was ill and help him get good medical care. Unlike here in the US, where most people have

healthcare insurance, in Kenya most people don’t and rely on under-resourced public hos-pitals. Because of my visit, we were able to get him to a private hospital where a diagnosis was made and he has been feeling better day by day. Another major highlight from my visit to Kenya is that I helped begin the construction of a new house for my parents. It is a nice 2-bedroom stone-house which will certainly standout in the village! The construction was completed at the end of the 2011 year.

Year 2011 was busy as usual for me, performing the usual teaching, research, and service work for my job. My research work continued on monitoring shallow ground water and vadose zone gas for upwards seep-

age (leakage) associated with injected carbon dioxide gas at two research field sites - Boze-man, Montana and in Marshall County, West Virginia. My health and wife Dottie's health continues to be good. Our daughter Denise continues to cope well with life and her professional job for the past 8 years as an occupational therapist in Reno, Nevada, despite her muscular dystrophy (MD) condition; she is the only nearly fully func-tioning such patient that her MD doctor serves, and he is quite amazed. August had us partying at my 50th high school class reunion in my home town of Voorheesville, NY, and at daughter De-nise's father-in-law's retirement party after a career mining coal. My former students are welcome to contact me or visit me in Brooks Hall; I often wonder about many of you and how you're doing.

FACULTY UPDATES...

It has indeed been a very busy year for me. I finished my book on South African land reform. The book has been two years in the making and a culmination of ten years worth of research and

travel. It will be published in 2012. Before the year ended, my graduate students and I re-ceived 3 NSF awards to research human re-sponse to climate change in Malawi, Kenya and urbanization in South Africa. I travelled with the Office of International Pro-grams to Botswana, Malawi and South Africa and returned in May to lead 17 undergradu-ates on a study abroad program to southern Malawi. I applied for a “Science and Technology Fel-lowship” sponsored by the American Associa-tion for the Advancement of Science, the pub-lishers of the prestigious journal, Science. I was interested in exploring what for most aca-demic development geographers is a mystery - the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID). I am excited to share my insights when I return at the end of August 2012.

ANN OBERHAUSER

Page 10

RICHARD SMOSNA

After 33 years as professor of geology at West Virginia University, I'm retiring. Well, sort of. This is the third year of phased retirement, which basically has meant cutting back to half-time for the last

few years. I officially retire in May, but in fact I will continue teaching one course per semes-ter until I get can't walk any more. Kathy and I now have a small farm in the mountains of Preston County, northern WV. We still travel a lot, primarily to Europe. Over the years we lived in England for a semester, in Spain twice, and most recently in Ire-land. Still have a lot of friends there, and we get back to Spain and Ireland every year for at least a few weeks. We will go again to both countries in 2012. And we’re finalizing an exchange program between WVU and Univer-sity College Cork (Ireland) for undergraduate geology majors; students of both universities would spend a semester or academic year taking courses across the pond.

JAIME TORO

With my PhD student Dan Harris and many collabora-tors, we have been strug-gling with the tectonics of the Arctic. Although plate tectonics has been with us for two generations, it has been unable to explain the

opening of the Arctic Ocean basin. Part of the challenge hinges on the difficulty in conducting marine geophysical and geological surveys through the ice pack, but in addition, many fea-tures of this basin do not fit the plate tectonic mold. Our contributions to the solution of this problem involve the use of detrital zircon signa-tures from sandstones collected in Alaska, Rus-sia and the Canadian Arctic Islands to help de-cide how the continental blocks that surround the basin were arranged prior to its opening. Our work suggests that Northern Alaska was once attached to the Canadian Arctic Islands and that a large portion of Northeastern Russia shifted to the west by strike slip motion to its present loca-tion.

DOROTHY VERSPER

I have spent most of the year focused on research projects - via my sabbati-cal at WVU's Ag. Science Lab, working with gradu-ate students, and building collaborations. One im-portant avenue of re-

search is looking at water systems with natu-rally-high CO2 concentrations (with NETL collaborator Harry Edenborn). My other re-search focus continues to be karst systems and contaminant transport in these systems. The group also continues to research the distribution of caves systems in the Chesa-peake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park (student Tudek). This project began a new phase in 2011; we are now beginning to de-velop a decision framework to assess risk to the rare, threatened and endangered species in the karst features in the park. The best research moments of the year was sampling the hot springs at the Homestead Resort in VA and finally seeing the cockpit karst of Puerto Rico.

TIM WARNER

A personal 2011 highlight for me was being invited to collaborate with the Center for Ecological Noosphere Studies, of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. Amenia is a

fascinating place, in a geopolitically fraught Caucuses region, between Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Azerbaijan. I spent two weeks in Armenia this summer, including an extended stay in the capital, Yerevan, and a fascinating field trip to southern Armenia to collect field reflectance spectra. My hosts, and indeed all the Armenians, were wonderfully welcoming. I found the culture very interesting and the food delicious. I'm hoping to publish some joint research on our work in 2012.

AMY WEISLOGEL

I welcomed two PhD stu-dents into my research pro-gram. Matt McKay will work with collaborators at the University of Liverpool and Chevron to investigate evo-lution of the Karoo basin in South Africa. Fei Shang will

test the hypothesis that a precursor or proto-plateau developed in Tibet prior to the Himala-yan orogeny produced from India colliding with Asia. Fei will be funded by 1 of 2 NSF grants I received to study ancient tectonic evolution of Asia. Andrea Lisi, an MS student, will work on sediment dispersal history of the Mesozoic East-ern Gulf of Mexico. Keith Coffindaffer is finishing his MS thesis on a CO2 sequestration project funded by the DOE. And the littlest member to join my “group” this year: my son Alden Vernon Dinterman was born in August. He joins Emmett in making sure there’s never a dull moment!

BRADLEY WILSON

I teach a range of fun courses at the under-graduate and grad level. I also had the pleasure of mentoring my first 2 M.A. students who defended this past summer. Over the year I’ve continued

my work on the politics of fair trade labeling, global value chains and peasant move-ments. I authored two research papers, one on student activism in the Fair Trade move-ment and submitted it to Antipode and co-authored a publication on coffee quality and terroir which was submitted to the Journal of Applied Geography. I am really excited about advances made with WVU Fair Trade 2.0, an organization and global service learning pro-gram that I founded with WVU undergrads in 2010. So far, we’ve raised $2100 through coffee sales for investments in food sover-eignty with cooperatives in Nicaragua (Learn more at www.wvufairtrade.org). On the home front, my wife Cynthia and I welcomed our second daughter Zayda May to the family in May.

TOM WILSON I offered 2 new courses this year: one on fracture modeling and another on spectral analysis and spectral decomposition concepts. The spectral analysis course was funded through the Halliburton Foundation and each of the students in the class received a scholarship: 6 undergrads receiving $1,000 each, and 2 grads, $1,500 each. Geophysics research continued to focus on carbon sequestration and leakage risk assessment. New grants were received to support these efforts. Work continued in the San Juan Basin, Teapot Dome in Wyoming and Marshall County, WV. Research endeavors continue to be centered primarily on geophysical characterization using 3D seismic and well log data. Fracture and fault models are developed and up-scaled in these efforts. The workflows have considerable applicability to the Marcellus shale gas play. Matt Weber (geophysical characterization of the San Juan Basin CO2 pilot site) will finish his MS this spring, as will Joel Follmeyer (time lapse multi-frequency EM). Emily Roberts is

starting an MS related to geophysical and fracture characterization efforts through NETL's National Risk Assessment Program.

FACULTY UPDATES...

Tom Saladyga (Ph.D.

Geography 2011) is

now an assistant pro-

fessor of Geography

at Concord University

in Athens, West Vir-

ginia. Dr. Saladyga

teaches courses in

biogeography, geographic information

science and environment and is actively

pursuing research grants to support un-

dergraduate students at Concord.

Page 11

ALUMNI UPDATES... Wayne Fox (M.A. Geology 1973) In 2010, I retired from my federal govern-ment position with the US Army Public Health Command. I am thankful for a rewarding career involving groundwa-ter quality projects and environmental compliance. My work included 17 years as a project manager, 9 years as Section Chief (half time supervisor), and 7 years as the program manager. Although my position as program man-ager was great financially, my days doing field projects were the most re-warding professionally. During my ca-reer I worked in 41 States and 5 for-eign countries including Germany, It-aly, Belgium, Belarus, and Japan. Thanks to you and the staff at WVU for the great foundation at the start of my career.

Mika Roinila (faculty member 1998 -2000) started a new position as of Aug.24 2011 as the International Bac-calaureate Program Coordinator at John Adams High School in South Bend, Indiana.

Mitzy L. Schaney (MS Geology 2005) is an Archaeologist in the Plan-ning Branch with the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Nashville District.

Sheldon Murphy, (MS Geology 2001) has been with Talisman Energy almost a year and spent the last 2.5 years at EXCO Resources in Cran-berry Twp. working on the Marcellus. He is currently tasked with mapping the Upper Devonian section in North-east PA. He is the senior Geologist in the Geology and Geophysics depart-ment.

Brian Connelly (MS Geology 2006) and Anne Yanni (MS Geology 2010) are working at Maersk Oil, Copenha-gen, as members of the Petroleum En-gineering Department for Dan Field. Brian is the focal point for Maersk Oil’s structural community. The photo is from a fault and fracture evolution field trip in Italy.

Corland Eble (Ph.D. Geology 1988) of the Energy and Minerals Section received the Gordon H. Wood Jr. Me-morial Award from the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petro-leum Geologists in September during its 141st annual meeting in Cleveland. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the geology of coal and other energy minerals and the goals of the Association’s Energy Min-erals Division in the Eastern Section. After completing his doctoral disserta-tion on the Fire Clay coal of the central Appalachian Basin at WVU, Eble joined the U.S.G.S. in Reston, VA., as a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow. He has been with KGS since 1990, researching the composi-tion and geochemistry of coal, coalbed methane, and other coal-related is-sues.

Christopher Schaney, (MA Geogra-phy 2004;Ph.D. Geography 2009) is assistant professor in the department of Geosciences at Middle Tennessee State University.

Beth Rhenberg (Ph.D. Geology 2011)completed her Ph.D. project on Missis-sippian-age crinoids from the Lake Val-ley Formation of New Mexico, graduat-ing in December 2011. She has taken a teaching position at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Aaron Burkholder (MA Geography 2010) published his masters research in the August issue of Photogrammet-ric Engineering and Remote Sensing.

Dr. Jong Yeol Lee (PhD, Geography 2000) accepted a position as Research

Professor at Korea University and Dr. Tim Warner jointly published a paper in the International Journal of Remote Sensing on the use of adaptive texture measures for mapping land cover on the beautiful Korean island of Jeju.

Franklin Charles Graham IV (Ph.D. Geography 2011) I have 2 blogs if you would like to know what I am up to in Africa or in the Western Powers. For Africa – http://pastoral-food-security.blogspot.com, for North Amer-ica and Europe – http://neocon-nightmare.blogspot.com.

Steven Thorp (BS Geography 2011) has been accepted in the Master of Arts in Urban Affairs and Public Policy program at the University of Dela-ware’s School of Public Policy & Ad-ministration. He is conducting GIS mapping for the Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination, creating GIS mapping of the College of Agricul-ture and Natural Resources farms for their nutrient plan update, and updating the City of Newark basemap, future website development, and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Sys-tem maps for a state report of develop-ment applications and permits.

Arthur Elmes (M.A. Geography 2008) is a tree data coordinator for the Central Park Conservancy in New York City. His work was featured in the New York Times on December 2

nd

on page A17.

Shawn Banasick (Ph.D. Geography 2001) is a faculty member at Kobe College in Japan.

The Department of Geology and Geography is dependent on alumni giving, and we are fortunate in having a supportive group of graduates. Alumni donations have traditionally sponsored speakers for our colloquium and AAPG Distin-

guish Lecturer series, helped with expenses of field trips and student travel to professional meetings, and provided much needed grants for student summer research and field work. Many student research projects are supported by your

donations. Donations in support of undergraduate and graduate students greatly enhance the Department’s ability to attract high-quality students.

Or checks, made payable to the WVU Foundation, Inc., can be mailed to:

WVU Foundation Inc. PO Box 1650

Morgantown, WV 26506

On the check memo line, please note how your gift should be used. Simply note the fund number and name listed on the next page.

To make online gifts, visit

https://www.mountaineerconnection.com/SSLPage.aspx?pid=337. Select the “Designation” drop down arrow

and click on “Other” to tell us how to use your gift.

If you have any questions on making a gift,

please contact Bonnie McBee Fisher at [email protected]

or call 304.293.4611.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE...

Send your support by US Mail:

West Virginia University Department of Geology and Geography

330 Brooks Hall PO Box 6300

Morgantown, WV 26506

Page 12

MAKE A DIFFERENCE...

2R033 - Geology Research Non-endowed fund to support geology research activities, including support of students, clerical employees, techni-cians, draftspersons, faculty travel, visiting experts, sup-plies and equipment. 2V021 - Department of Geology & Geography Non-endowed operations fund to be used at the discretion of the chair of the department. 2V265 - Geography Field Camp Fund to support overseas field experiences for WVU stu-dents. Funds remaining (if any) after course will be used in the development of present and future field camps. 3R078 - Robert C. and Beverly M. Shumaker Geologic Research Used to support geological research and travel for faculty and students of the Geology department. 3V227 Marshall S. Miller Geology Endowment The income from this fund support the Department of Geol-ogy in the College of Arts and Sciences, including an award to the outstanding student in Geology Field Camp.. 3V609 - Geology Graduate Fieldwork Endowment Income will be used for support of the Geology Program at WVU, especially research expenses for geology graduate students. 3V617 - Trevor and Sylvia Harris Student Support Fund Funds will be used to encourage students who are studying in the area of Geographical Information Science and ma-jors in Geography. 3V782 - Milton Tidd and Doris E. Heald Promising Researcher Award The award recognizes the significant contributions that Mil-ton Tidd Heald, a WVU professor of Geology, and his sup-portive wife, Doris Ethier Heald, gave to the geology com-munity in the research areas of quartz cementation and sedimentary digenesis. The award supports Geology Graduate students who show an aptitude and desire for advanced research in geology at the M.S. or Ph.D. level. 3S006 - Wilcox Geology Scholarship Endowment income is to be used towards scholarships for Geology students.

3S686 - Alan C. Donaldson Scholarship Scholarship award to an undergraduate Geology major based on academic achievement and interest in Geol-ogy. Preference is given to freshman and sophomore pre-majors. 3Z111 - Environmental GeoScience Scholarship Fund will be used for various graduate and undergraduate scholarships awarded in the department for students inter-ested in environmental geoscience. 3Z112 - Geography Undergraduate Endowed Scholarship Funds shall be used to make awards to Geography pre-major or major undergraduate students. 3Z228 - Kenneth C. Martis Undergraduate Geography Scholarship A scholarship resource for a least one outstanding geogra-phy major in the junior year.

G&G LIBRARY FUNDS

3L057 - Geosciences Remote Sensing Library Endowment Endowment acquires new remote sensing journals (i.e., International Journal of Remote Sending) to support the academic and research programs at WVU. 3L093 - M. Duane and Ruth C. Nellis Library Endowment Endowment acquires geography and remote sensing re-sources and materials to support the academic and re-search programs at WVU. 3L110 - Frank J. and Jo Ann Calzonetti Endowment Endowment acquires geography resources and materials to support the academic and research programs at WVU. 3L513 - Department of Geology & Geography Book Plate Funds used for book plates for Dept of Geology and Geog-raphy.

Page 13

Page 14

DID YOU KNOW...

The Geography program hosted a WVU party at Pike's Pub & Brewery at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Seattle in April of 2011. The party was well attended by about 40 alumni, students and faculty. A similar event will be held at the AAG meeting in New York in February 2012. Check our website for details under upcoming events at http://www.geo.wvu.edu/.

Alison C. Hanham, Adjunct Geography Professor,

passed away August 24. In addition to her mother and

sister, she is survived by her husband Dr. Robert Q.

Hanham, Emeritus Associate Professor in the

Geography program.

She was born on June 20, 1949 and lived an active life

within the Geology and Geography community and

working for the WVU Extension Service.

Elias Jack was born on October 5 to Rebecca and Evan Fedorko, a

Research Assistant at the WV GIS Technical Center. He joins older brother Cormac to the family.

Eungul (Eugene) Lee joined the department after completing post doctoral research in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Lehigh University and in the Center for Sustainabil-

ity and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Geography and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His deep interest in climatology started from the clima-tology laboratory in the Department of Geog-raphy at Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea where he got his B.S and M.S. He has been working on various problems in the coupled Earth system to better under-stand the biogeophysical and biogeochemical feedbacks in the terrestrial ecosystems and atmosphere and their impacts on natural and human environmental systems.

An Alumni Reception at the GSA meeting in Minneapolis on October 10 was well received by WVU faculty, graduate students and alumni. Top Photo (left to right): Francis Rengers, Dr. Joe Donovan, Ann DeMarco, Scott Eaton, Steve Taylor, Eric Carson, Jonathon Remo, Dr. Steve Kite (G&G Chair), Dr. Tom Kammer Middle Photo: Bob Jaret (USGS) and Dr. Steve Kite (G&G Chair) Bottom Photo: Geary Schindel and Francis Rengers Photos: Steve and Susan Kite

WVU faculty, graduate

students, and alumni gathered

at the WVU Mountaineer reception at

the AAPG meeting in

Houston, Texas on April

12th.

Top Photo (left to right):

Greg Wrightstone,

Mike Coughlin, Matt Boyce,

Julia McConnell

Middle Photo: Anne Steptoe, Ashley Douds

and Pete Sullivan

Bottom Photo:

Eric Lewis, Sheldon

Murphy, Susan Kite, Alan Brown

Photos:

Steve Kite

Welcome to the G&G Family

The

Geology &

Geography

Dept. saw

an overall

increase of

307

students

during the

Fall 2011

semester.

In Memory

Donna Titus, Administrative Assistant at G&G, welcomed her 8th grandchild, Oliver Wayne Titus, on August 26th.

Jennifer Kelly joined our Department as the new Administra-tive Secretary in August. Among her other duties, she will be tending to the annual newsletter.

See the back page for how to send your tidbits of news and more or send it directly to her at [email protected].

Conference Place Date Details Contact Info.

American Association of Geographers (AAG)

New York City, NY February 24-28 February 26, 5 PM -Alumni reception at Social Bar and Grill, located on 8th Ave. between 48th and 49th Streets. This link provides the map and directions: http://g.co/maps/4mqhc

Dr. Jeremia Njeru, Assistant Prof. in Geography Program Tel: 304-293-0382 Email: [email protected]

American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG)

Long Beach, CA April 22-25 April 23— We will have a reception for alumni, stu-dents, faculty and friends of the department. Check our website for more information.

Dr. Tim Carr, Prof. in Geology Program Tel: 304-293-9660 Email: [email protected]

Geology & Geography’s Annual Alumni Event & Open House

WVU Downtown Campus, Brooks

Hall Morgantown, WV

September 28-29 Join us for WVU Homecoming Weekend!

Check our website for event updates: www.geo.wvu.edu

The Geological Society of America (GSA)

Charlotte, NC November 4-7 Check out our welcome reception table. Details will be posted on our website: www.geo.wvu.edu

Dr. Helen Lang, Prof. in Geology Program Tel: 304-293-5469 Email: [email protected]

WV GIS Conference WVU Downtown Campus,

Morgantown, WV

May 8-11 Hosted by the WV GIS Technical Center, WV Office of GIS Coordination, and WV Association of Geospatial Professionals. More information at www.wvagp.org/conference

Kurt Donaldson, Sr. Project Coordinator Tel: 304-293-9467 Email: [email protected]

Page 15

COMING SOON IN 2012...

G&G will be celebrating the distinguished careers of retiring professors Dr. Kenneth C. Martis and Dr. Richard Smosna on Friday afternoon, April 27 at Brooks Hall with a “last lecture” followed by a reception.

We invite you to join us and contribute in one of two ways to the festivities: help us create a digital scrapbook of e-mails and videos for them and/or making a financial contribution to their choice of scholarship funding.

Dr. Martis: WVU Foundation Kenneth C. Martis Undergraduate Geography Scholarship Fund Dr. Smosna: WVU Foundation Alan C. Donaldson Undergraduate Geology Scholarship Fund

(Donation information is available on page 13; Send questions to Dr. Steve Kite at [email protected])

Details will be posted as they become available at www.geo.wvu.edu.

Do you know how to contact the following M.I.A. Alumni?

Please let us know if you recognize anyone on this list. Remember to protect yourself from becoming a M.I.A. Alum by updating your information online at www.geo.wvu.edu., calling our office during normal business hours (Monday—Friday, 8 AM-4:45PM), e-mailing us at [email protected] or sending a quick note to our main office (address on page 14). We love hearing from you!

2010 Chad Eberly Season Jones 2008 Jeffrey Kay 2006 James Yoder

Daniel Miller Brian Mercer Samuel Landon Adam Kota Amanda Thomson Michael Solt Fei Wang Jeffrey O’Connell Jeffrey Frazier

2001 Matthew Williams Zach VanAckeren Jay Newberry David Lockett Dominick Kort-kamp Robert Godfrey Patrick Fly Kevin Krivonak

Joshua Bailey Doug Arbogast Mary Coffindaffer 2000 Douglas Rea Michael T. Costanzo Mary Sanders Timothy Malley Aletha Lee

2005 Nicole Riley Timothy Griffith James Gibson Martin Gerhold 2004 Adam Hale-Hern Christopher Howton Nicholas Doner

2003 Michael Sanders Hin Wah Li Robert Harper Eric DiVenanzo Joshua Forlaine Miho Soda 2002 Adam Ward Elena Ruiz

Matthew Hopkins Jessica Spicer Thomas Ritz Bradley Scott Tye Coen Bauders More M.I.A. Alumni coming in the next Geo-Mountaineer issue.

We are creating a series that will feature a look at the Geology & Geography Department from its birth in 1867 to where we hope to take it in the future. You are invited to share your favorite stories, collegiate memories and insight on what it was like to be WVU

student, faculty and friend of the department. We would love to hear from you! See our back cover for contact information.

We’re on Facebook!

See our page at West Virginia

University Department of Geology and

Geography Alumni

http://www.facebook.com/wvugeoalumni

Send your information by US Mail: Alumni Relations

West Virginia University

Department of Geology and Geography

330 Brooks Hall

PO Box 6300

Morgantown, WV 26506

Phone: 304-293-5603

Fax: 304-293-6522

Web: www.geo.wvu.edu

Email: [email protected]

Check out the annual reports

from the WV GIS Technical

Center at

http://www.wvgis.wvu.edu/

about/about-reports.php