Mark Wilson November 1st, 2018
Wooster, Ohio — Every Fall the students and faculty of Wooster’s Earth Sciences Department look forward to participating in the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Next week the meeting will be held in Indianapolis, and over a dozen Wooster Scots will be there. We’re bringing seven student and faculty posters. Today we had our usual practice presentation, which we call “Mock GSA”. I didn’t get images of all the participants, but at least you’ll see the enthusiasm of the group! Above are the posters displayed in Scovel Room 205.
Evan Shadbolt is above on the right discussing his poster (authored with our esteemed alumna Tricia Kelley) on modern shell boring patterns off Long Island, New York. Galen Schwartzberg is to the left in front of her poster on Jurassic sclerobionts in southwestern Utah.
Juwan Shabazz, Kendra Devereux, and Alexis Lanier are discussing their poster on tree-ring chronology patterns in Ohio.
Ben Sershen is pointing to a graph on his poster about Arctic sea ice.
Ethan Killian is presenting his poster on oyster balls of the Jurassic in southwestern Utah.
Josh Charlton and Victoria Race’s poster is on mass balance estimates and dynamics of Columbia Glacier in Alaska. Behind Josh are the hands of Michael Thomas on his poster on central Utah structural geology.
Galen Schwartzberg is here again with her poster on Jurassic sclerobionts in the Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah.
Good luck to everyone in Indianapolis! Our next posts will be from the GSA meeting.
Mark Wilson August 28th, 2017
The Thirty-First Annual Report of the Geology Department is now available online with this link. Our Administrative Coordinator Patrice Reeder has once again done a magnificent job putting this document together, with amazing attention to detail and an artistic eye for format and style. Read and enjoy!
Mark Wilson August 11th, 2017
Professor Fred Cropp taught geology at Wooster from 1964 to 1997. He was an extraordinary teacher and, in his own words, “a cheerleader for geology”. Many, many Wooster students became geologists in response to his enthusiasm, energy and spirit. I was one of them. His obituary and memorial page is here.
Mark Wilson May 18th, 2017
WOOSTER, OHIO — We had the pleasure on Monday of watching our geology seniors cross the stage and receive their diplomas. It happens every year, of course, and every year is special. Above is an image of most of the class taken in September as they started their last year at Wooster.
We were delighted that Wooster Geologist Helen Siegel (’17) earned the opportunity to speak at the commencement ceremony. (Image by ace College photographer Matt Dilyard.) She was a spectacular representation of her graduating class. She earned summa cum laude, Honors in Independent Study, the Jonas O. Notestein Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Prize, and just about every award offered by the Geology Department itself. She is off to Yale on a full ride. Well done, Helen.
Sarah McGrath (’17) was another summa cum laude geology graduate; Clara Deck (’17), Annette Hilton (’17) and Chloe Wallace (’17) earned magna cum laude. It was a remarkably talented class — we’re proud of every student.
Mark Wilson April 22nd, 2017
Wooster, Ohio — It was a chilly day downtown, but several hundred people gathered for the national March For Science. We were one of over 500 local events across the country advocating for science awareness, education and funding. Thank you very much for retired Wooster Professor of Biology Lyn Loveless for organizing such a complex meeting with speakers and break-out discussions in local businesses. It was a great success. Above are some of the signs held by children in attendance. Several Wooster Geologists were in the diverse crowd, and some participated directly.
One view of the attendees. We all see the distinctive profile of Dr. Wiles in the foreground. Kelli Baxstrom may recognize someone on the far right!
One of the speakers was ace Wooster physicist and former dean Dr. Shila Garg. Note her coat on this mid-April day.
I include this photo (taken by Wooster political scientist Matt Krain) of Dr. Wiles and me to show my Paleontological Society colleagues that I wore The Shirt, even if no one noticed under the jacket.
One of the break-out sessions was on climate change. Greg Wiles and Clara Deck (’17) did great outreach work explaining their research to the large gathering. Wooster’s paleoclimate and climate change research and education is making a difference. Visit the Tree-Ring Lab website to see more details about the operation.
It was an inspiring afternoon, especially seeing the many young scientists and scientists-to-be who participated. Of course, for someone my age it is astonishing that we have to advocate for something so self-evidently beneficial as science, but such are our times.
Mark Wilson March 2nd, 2017
One of the pleasures of being in the Geology Department at The College of Wooster is that we have the annual Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lecture series. These presentations, given in honor of the late Professor Osgood, have significantly enriched our intellectual lives. Funds from the endowment are used to bring to Wooster internationally-recognized Earth scientists. Last night the 36th Osgood Lecture had an overflow crowd in Lean Lecture Room. It was an excellent event in every way.
Our speaker was Dr. Rob Thieler, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Science Center. His title was “Changing Climate, Changing Coasts”.
Dr. Thieler outlined the causes and consequences of sea-level rise on coastal systems. It is a complex topic, but he made it accessible to everyone. The projected changes are grim enough, but he emphasized to students the critical need now and in the future for people who can communicate science effectively to the public, and for decision-makers to have strong foundational awareness of geological context. Sounds like the ideal mission for a liberal arts geology program.
Dr. Rob Thieler on, appropriately, a coastline. We thank him for his clear, provocative and information-rich talk, and his wonderful interactions with our students. Thank you again to the Osgood family for endowing this spectacular lecture series.
Mark Wilson September 26th, 2016
DENVER, COLORADO — Many of the Wooster Geology alumni at GSA, along with current students and professors Pollock and Wilson, gathered this evening for conversations. It was great fun with many stories and lots of good advice for our students.
We celebrated Sophie Lehman’s (’08) brand new PhD. Congratulations, Dr. Lehman! We remember your first GSA presentation.
Here is Wooster alumna Steph Jarvis talking to current student Amineh AlBashaireh. Many connections made tonight.
More later on the day of talks and posters.
Mark Wilson September 26th, 2016
DENVER, COLORADO — On this second day of the Geological Society of America meeting we had several Wooster presenters. Above Cassidy Jester (’17) describes her developing Senior Independent Study work on Jurassic “snuff-boxes“.
Dr. Pollock’s students Chloe Wallace and Ben Kumpf talked about their work on the geochemistry of a volcanic system in Iceland.
And there was me! This is my poster (With Caroline Buttler of the National Museum of Wales) on an Ordovician cave fauna.
Honorary Wooster Geologist Paul Taylor of the Natural History Museum in London also presented in our session. His project is the interpretation of a magnificent set of Carboniferous bryozoans.
Finally, here is what a typical GSA poster session looks like. You can imagine the accompanying loud buzz of several thousand voices.
Mark Wilson September 24th, 2016
Wooster has produced many paleontologists over the last century. I’m not sure exactly why we’ve had such an abundance of people who chose to devote their lives to the study ancient life, but I am most grateful to the tradition. Women have been prominent among the Wooster paleontology cadre. There is currently a developing project celebrating the accomplishments of women working in paleontology and “challenging the face of science”. It is called The Bearded Lady Project. Two of our alumnae are featured in a photographic exhibit about the project at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver this week.
This is Tricia Kelley, recently retired as a distinguished professor of geology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is also a past president of the Paleontological Society. I would not have recognized her in this bearded state without a caption on the photo! (Sorry I can’t avoid reflections in the glass.)
Erica Clites was one of my students. She is presently a Museum Scientist at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley. I do recognize her!
We have other accomplished women paleontologists from Wooster — and other geologists. Tricia and Erica represent them well. We are very proud!
Mark Wilson September 22nd, 2016
The Geology Department at The College of Wooster is sending a record number of students to the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver next week. Seventeen students, eleven of whom are presenting in some way, will be going to this large gathering of geologists (some 7000 are expected to attend). As part of our preparations, the Geology Club holds a “Mock GSA” in which students show their posters for the first time and practice their poster patter. In the foreground above is Geology Club president (and epic student leader of this trip) Sarah McGrath (’17) discussing her poster with emeritus faculty Dr. Sam Root.
We needed two rooms to display all the posters. It was fun!
More later from Denver.