Awards Ceremony 2007
Welcome to the ESS 2007 Awards
Presented by Prof. R.
Winglee, May 17, 2007.
Welcome everyone to
the annual ESS awards program. It seems amazing that this year is
almost coming to a close, although if I was one of the students
sitting out there, I am betting that it could not come fast enough.
In addition, though,
it is a great time of the year because we get to acknowledge the
achievements of the faculty, staff and most importantly the
students...and not just with a thank you, which is typically what I
only have to give, but a real award.
Acknowledgement
of Special Guest:
We’re please to
have with us today Professor Emeritus Minze Stuiver. He was
instrumental in the development of the QRC and is acknowledged as the
“father” of modern radiocarbon dating.
Benefactor
Recognition
These awards cannot be
generated without the generosity of so many people and I would like
to acknowledge these people before we get started.
New Endowments (that
haven't earned enough income as yet to provide for an award but will
in the future):
Tucker
and Melody Barksdale - Julian & Marajane Barksdale Endowed
Support Fund [Undergraduate field work, travel to
conference/meetings and field sites, etc., at the discretion of the
dept.] They were unable to attend.
Joe
Vance and Sara Throckmorton - Vance Endowed Student Support
Fund
[Undergraduate
summer field camp, field work, research projects, travel to
conferences/meetings and field sites, etc., at the discretion of the
dept.] Joe is here with us today.
Endowments and Funds
issuing their first awards:
Steve
and Phoebe Warren - ESS Graduate Student Fellowship
[Graduate
support for students with financial need.] They are unable to be
with us today.
Kathleen Ellsbury, family, colleagues, and friends - Anthony
Qamar Memorial Fellowship
[Graduate
support for students, preferably, in the field of seismology.]
Kathleen and Muna Qamar are here with us today.
Continuing support:
Wilbur
and Josephine Hallauer - Undergraduate summer field camp
scholarship
They
were unable to attend.
Jon
and Carol Avent - Undergraduate field and field research
support (preference)
Jon
received from the UW his MS in '62, his Ph.D. in '65, and went on to
have a very successful academic career at Fresno State. He and his
wife live on Lopez Island and spend a lot of time volunteering both
locally and internationally. They have been generous supporters of
numerous funds and endowments in geological sciences and, now, ESS
for many years...and we sincerely thank them for their support. Jon
and Carol are here with us today.
Ken
Robbins, who was unable to attend, continues contributions through
the Kenneth C. Robbins Fellowship and Field Course Scholarship,
which we will be hearing more about later in the program.
Dedications (and
acknowledgements)
Columnar
basalt column, outside the NE 1st floor entrance to
Johnson Hall, engraved with the name of the department and the “bird
bath” column were donated by Darrel Cowan.
Three
boulders outside the SE ground floor entrance to Johnson Hall are
glacial erratics from the Puget Lowlands. They are high P & T
gneisses (amphibotite-facies metamorphic rocks). Donated by
Marenakos Rock Center, Preston, WA.
HDTV:
We’d
like to thank Robert & Susan Frost for the gift of the HDTV (1st
floor lobby, JHN Hall), and acknowledge Skanska USA Building, Inc.
for donating the cabinet design work. Bob Frost attained a B.S. in
Electrical Engineering at the UW in 1996 and worked at Boeing. Bob
will be joining us later.
Display
Slabs:
Fossiliferous
Marble
Dedication
reads: "To Everett P. and Andrea Paup
for their generous contributions to the renovation of Johnson Hall."
“Pete,”
who is with us today, is a Seattle native who began at the UW,
transferred to Stanford soon after, and made a successful career in
construction.
Banded
Iron Formation - gift of Darrel & Gary Cowan
Dedication
reads: "In memory of our
parents, Dorothy & Cedric."
Metaconglomerate
- gift of Robert and Jennifer Winglee
Dedication
reads: "In honor of the Staff
of Earth and Space Sciences."
Cross-bedded
Sandstone - gift of Jody Bourgeois
Display
Benches:
In
honor of Rowland Tabor - USGS retired, 1952-1995
Rowland
received his Ph.D. in 1961 from the UW Geological Sciences Dept. and
is a recognized leader in geologic field mapping.
Gift
of Derek Booth (granitic gneiss, 1st floor Johnson Hall)
Dedication
reads: “USGS retired, 1952-1995 and
beyond. Scientist, mentor, and field geologist extraordinaire.”
In
memory of Richard Stewart - Professor, Geological Sciences/ESS,
1969-2006
Gift
of faculty, staff, students, alumni, colleagues and friends
(metaconglomerate, 1st floor Johnson Hall)
Dedication
reads: "Warm, unselfish and
enthusiastic cheerleader for sediments, the Olympics and life.
Passionate and thoughtful, his integrity, knowledge, and wisdom were
always plain to see. We'll remember many morning coffee
conversations--from politics to geology; his joy for science; his
inspiring mentorship; his great compassion."
We’re pleased to have Mary Ann Stewart and Ian Stewart with
us today.
In
memory of James (Jim) Ramey - Seismograph Technician/Engineer,
PNSN, 1977-2004
Gift
of faculty, staff, students, colleagues, and friends
(metaconglomerate, SE ground floor entrance to Johnson Hall )
Dedication
reads: “Missed by his friends
and colleagues. In the best and worst of conditions, cheerful or
grumpy, he always made the instruments work.”
In
memory of Tony Qamar - Research Faculty, Geophysics/ESS,
1985-2005
State
Seismologist, State of Washington, 1989-2005
Gift
of faculty, staff, students, colleagues, and friends (granitic
gneiss, SE ground floor entrance to Johnson Hall)
Dedication
reads: “Colleague, devoted mentor,
and true friend. He enriched many lives with his compassion, humor,
scientific curiosity, and love for the wilderness and adventure.”
I
would like to thank D.Ellen McDannald, Nichole Fernkes, and
Charlie Wagner for putting the logistics together today with which
nothing would happen, and to thank Dave McDougall and D.Ellen for
organizing the benches and plagues. Also thanks to our hard working
committees:
Awards
Committee Roger Buick (chair), Stu McCallum, Terry Swanson,
Heather Kokorowski (grad student)
Barksdale
Distinguished Service Award Committee: Dave Montgomery (chair),
Gerard Roe, Terry Swanson
Teaching
Excellence Award Committee: John Booker, George Bergantz and Ed
Waddington (chair)
Earth and Space Sciences Special Awards
Julian D. Barksdale Distinguished
Service Award
(Est.
03/2005 by Prof. Eric Cheney)
Julian Barksdale
arrived at the UW from Yale in 1936. He single-handedly mapped the
Methow Valley in the northeastern Cascade range. He served our
country in WWII on active duty in the Navy. He contributed greatly
to the UW mission over a period of 40 years, including Chairman of
the Faculty Senate, first Director of the A&S Honors Program, and
he served as the University Marshall for many years.
This
award honors a current
student, alumnus/a, faculty or staff member in ESS
for his or her exceptional contributions in support of either the
Department's or the University's mission.
(1)
Superior, sustained service or a special one-time contribution to
the mission of the UW or ESS; or
(2)
Demonstrated extraordinary excellence in the performance of job
duties and responsibilities while contributing to a positive and
collaborative work environment; or
(3)
Routinely delivered exemplary service to others either within or
beyond the UW.
This is our chance to
reward unspoken heroes within the department.
This year’s
recipient was cited as being highly dependable, hard-working,
conscientious, and highly skilled at everything, consistently
performs at an extremely high level of productivity and routinely
goes beyond the scope of their job by assuming additional duties and
tasks. The recipient is self-directed and provides direction to
co-workers, and takes the initiative to solve problems when
encountering situations that require action, and is resourceful in
finding appropriate solutions.
The good news for me as
Chair is that there probably isn’t any real clue to the
recipient.
But a good clue is that
she is VERY WELL known to gracefully handle frequent last-minute
requests and is helpful and professional in their interactions with
faculty, staff and students.
This years recipient is
know for their deep commitment to keep the department running no
matter what.
(Okay, we’re
getting warm.)
As an example, she is
known to work with the department even during her scheduled
vacations, to work around payroll deadlines so that she is available
to submit the payroll without expecting other employees to assume
these tasks in her absence. It wouldn’t even occur to her to
ask another staff to do this in her place.
I am please to say that
this year’s recipient is...Kathy Gabriel.
As she comes down, one
of the statements that we received from the Director of Finance and
Administration at the Dean’s Office in the College of Arts and
Sciences was simply that “you’re lucky to have her”,
and I believe that we all concur
Faculty
Excellence in Teaching Award
I am going to ask
Terry Swanson, this year’s recipient of the University of
Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award to come down and
present the Earth and Space Sciences Faculty Excellence in Teaching
Award.
Terry: The award
is given to faculty member of the department for excellence in
teaching. As per usual, competition for the award is very
competitive. There were two highly recommended runners up:
Gerard
Roe - Gerard was nominated again
this year, adding to his file from last year. Recurrent themes noted
by last year’s committee were Gerard's ability to help students
design and answer their own research questions, to question results,
including their own, and to help students to prioritize and explore
scientific ideas. His graduate classes and seminars were widely
praised for the challenges that they offer, combined with excellent
support for students, which enhances their learning. As noted in
2006, he sets clear learning objectives, and he is accessible to
students outside class. Undergraduate students were particularly
impressed by his dedication to his class, in that he attends and
participates fully in all Labs.
Bruce
Nelson - As last year, Bruce Nelson
was also nominated again. The undergraduates have particularly noted
Bruce's enthusiasm, clarity, and dedication to making sure that
students understand concepts in lectures. They found his in-class
mini-reviews to be a very helpful way to retain and consolidate
material. Bruce is noted for his availability outside class, and his
willingness to involve and mentor undergraduates in his lab. His
contributions to the GeoClub Hawaii and Utah field trips were highly
appreciated. His support of student learning by participating in
every “Bad GeoMovie Night” was viewed as a strong point.
This
year’s recipient received letters
of support from ESS undergraduate students and from graduate students
in ESS and Oceanography. The message from all these students is
clear...the recipient teaches in ways that engages students, that
enlightens students, that encourages them to trust in their
abilities, and that encourages them to learn effectively and to
critique ideas. “The recipient is one of the most enthusiastic
and encouraging professors I have ever had.” (undergraduate
student)
“As you learn and
begin to work independently, the recipient continues teaching skills
and knowledge, but more importantly, strengthens your self-confidence
in your own abilities. In traveling internationally to do fieldwork
and collaborate with foreign colleagues, and encourages us to learn
about the local culture, facilitates new experiences for us, and
teaches about cultural differences.” (graduate student).
If you haven’t
figure out who this person is then the give away as a quote from one
of the student is that the recipient engages students
“through song, slideshows of beautiful rocks, and
explanations”, and leads effective discussions with broad
student participation. Many of Jody’s undergraduates go on to
graduate school.
The winner of this
year’s Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, who was also
nominated for the UW Distinguished Teaching Award, is...Jody
Bourgeois.
Earth
and Space Sciences Student Awards
Almost all the awards
are based on scholastic achievement, many cite character
and promise as a criterion, several require applicants to
demonstrate financial need, and a few specify a preference for
a particular field of study.
All undergraduate
majors and all registered graduate students are eligible for awards.
Most (not all) of the awards require an application from students and
letters of support from faculty members.
We will begin with
Undergraduate Scholarships and Awards and move on to Graduate
Fellowships and Awards.
ESS
Undergraduate Student Awards:
Howard and Leila
Coombs Scholarship
Howard Coombs
served as chairman of the UW Department of Geological Sciences from
1952 to 1969, overseeing the department's major period of growth. He
had received his early training in engineering geology by working
with Henry Landes, then State Geologist and UW geology department
chairman. They investigated the geology of dam sites on the Columbia
River for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
As the premier
engineering geologist of the Pacific Northwest from the 1950s to the
1980s, "not a hydroelectric dam or nuclear power plant was built
without his stamp of approval," reflects Eric Cheney. Coombs
served as consultant to the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, to several
private and public utilities, and to various other state, federal,
and private engineering organizations.
In 1950, Coombs went to
Japan as geological advisor to the Supreme Commander of the Allied
Forces under the aegis of the Agency for International Development.
He worked with the Japanese on siting 16 dams, and was awarded a
Special Service Commendation by General Douglas MacArthur for his
achievements. Appointed in 1976 as the geologist member of the U.S.
Department of Interior Blue Ribbon Panel, Coombs helped to determine
the causes of the failure of Teton Dam in Idaho.
Funds for this Coombs
Undergraduate Scholarship are primarily a 1976 gift from the estate
of Richard Fuller. The scholarship fund was augmented by a
major gift from Howard himself shortly before he died and he
requested that his wife’s name be added. Historically this
fund provides a scholarship to undergraduate juniors or sophomores
with excellent academic records.
The award is for 1
quarter of in-state tuition and this year’s Coombs Scholarship
recipients are…
Peter
Neff, working with Pro. Eric Steig in the Stable Iostope Lab
investigating climate change through ice cores
Stephen
Newman, a mature student, with some very different jobs in
the past, from working cruise ships to working in New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina - the award will help him complete his studies
within ESS and possibly in one of the research labs
Summer Field
Course Tuition Scholarships
The Undergraduate Field
Support Fund is supported by gifts from individual donors, which
include alumni and friends of ESS. With the exception of students
receiving awards from other funds, $300 partial tuition scholarships
for Summer Field Camp are being awarded to all students registered
for ESS 400. Recipients will receive a letter of award – we
have 25 students going to field camp; compared with 20 students last
year; which goes to the health of the program run by Profs. Stu
McCallum and Darrel Cowan.
Afton Woolley and
James William Crooks Scholarship
This is one of two scholarships
[see also, field camp awards below] endowed by Ms. Afton Crooks
and it is intended to support one or more students. Mrs. Crooks
graduated with a BA in English in 1947. She lives in Oakland,
California, and insists on hearing from the chairman and the
recipients of awards made in her name. Going back to her roots, she
set up a scholarship in the English Department. But she wanted to do
more and so she provided funds to set up a scholarship in memory of
her husband, who was a student of J. Hoover Mackin. Hoover Mackin
was one of the most distinguished professors at the UW and is cited
as among the 100 most influential professors associated with the UW
over its 140 year history. Mackin started in the department in 1934
and always thought of himself as a geomorphologist. But, over time,
he became an engineering geologist working on dam and reservoir
problems, a structural geologist and map maker, an economic geologist
successful in locating and characterizing ore deposits, a field
petrologist, an expert in volcanic ash flows and flood basalts and,
finally, one of the foremost lunar geologists of the Apollo era.
This award is for 2 quarters of
in-state tuition and this year’s recipient of the Crooks
Scholarship, representing truly an interdisciplinary approach for
both Earth and Space Sciences, is…
Hope
Sisley, working with Terry Swanson and John Stone in
cosmogenic dating of samples around the San Juan Islands
Field camp is
an enormously important experience for students. Talking to the
students, it is a mixture of boot camp with extreme sports, where
they encounter the freedom to move about and fully appreciate the
processes that go into shaping our Earth while having the
responsibility of producing a gradable product far from the comforts
of campus life.
Afton Woolley and
James William Crooks Scholarship (Field Camp)
In addition to a undergraduate tuition
scholarship (see award above), Mrs. Crooks has provided substantial
field camp support over the years. Thanks in large part to the
efforts of Darrel Cowan, Mrs. Crooks recently increased her endowment
for this scholarship which has allowed us to offer one full
scholarship and one partial scholarship this year.
The recipient of the
Crooks Field Camp full scholarship is…
Amy
Tice, Dean’s list students; ESS Honors working with
Prof Jody Bourgeois on the Kuril Project
The recipient of the
Crooks Field Camp partial scholarship is...
Ryan
Bruce, initially studying Geotechnical Eng. Seattle U. Ryan
saw the light and has joined the ranks of Earth and Space Sciences
Wilbur G.
Hallauer Field Camp Scholarship
This scholarship is
made possible by a generous gift from Mr. Hallauer and pays the
entire cost of field camp. Mr. Hallauer graduated from the UW with a
degree in Education in 1937. He served 20 years as a State Senator
and was head of the State Department of Ecology in the 70’s.
He was instrumental in the development of the community college
system and this is reflected in the conditions attached to this
award. Mr. Hallauer has specified that his scholarship support a
field course student who transferred to the UW after completing a
course of studies at a community college.
The recipient of the
Hallauer Field Camp Scholarship is…Hope Sisley
Jon and Carol
Avent Field and Field-Study Scholarship
Jon and Carol have
provided funds to support undergraduates in field and
field-related research. This year Bruce Nelson kindly
volunteered (or conned) to run a field trip to the Canary Islands
to look at active volcanic process (I am assured they do some work
there and not stay on the beach all the time. Logistically and
financially this is a big sink and the Jon and Carol Avent
Scholarships are going a long way to making this happen for our
students. Jon and Carol would you please come down to hand
out the certificates.
The awards of $1000
each for field support go to...
Jessica
Dake (Junior)
Julian
Dillon (Junior)
Emily
Hopper (Junior)
Rex
McLachlin (Senior) - unable to attend
Dyan
Padagas (Junior)
Molly
Ravits (Sophomore)
Kyle
Samek (Junior)
Jon and Carol please stay.
Chevron Undergraduate Support
Sunday Shepherd from Chevron please
come down.
We’re very please that this year
Chevron expanded its student support to include undergraduates.
Because of Chevron’s generosity, we are able to provide two
students with $1,000 of tuition support for the Canary Island
Field Course.
This year’s recipients of Chevron
Undergraduate Support Scholarships are...
Hope
Sisley (Senior)
Margot
Ferencz (Senior) - unable to attend
Richard Fuller Fellowship
Many
of the early geology students and faculty of the UW pioneered the
study of the geology of our own region in addition to their research
of geological structures elsewhere. Richard
E. Fuller
is an exceptional example of that versatility: not only did he make
major contributions to the understanding of geological formations in
Washington State but he also held the prestigious position of lead
scientist studying the historic 1943 eruption of the Paricutin
volcano in Mexico. Moreover, he served for many years as Director of
the Seattle Art Museum, which was created to house works collected by
Fuller and his mother.
Fuller carried out work
for his master's thesis in the Snoqualmie Pass area of the Cascade
Mountains. He established that a granite rock mass called the
Snoqualmie granitic batholith had broken through its roof and poured
out onto the earth's surface. This phenomenon is now widely accepted
worldwide for granite magmas, but when Fuller documented it granites
were believed to be emplaced deeply in the earth's crust.
Fuller began field work
on his doctoral dissertation in 1926 on the Columbia Plateau of
Washington State. He developed an explanation of the origin of the
Asotin craters; and he brought to the attention of scientists
nationwide the phenomenon of altered basaltic glasses in the region
of the Columbia Plateau. Fuller established standards that are still
useful in distinguishing chlorophaeite, sideromelane, and palagonite
- three minerals characteristic of Cenozoic basaltic fields around
the world.
In Fuller's doctoral
thesis, awarded in 1930, he presented an array of chemical analyses
of the rocks rhyolite, andesite, basalt, and latite that form the
Steens Mountains. A term coined by Fuller to describe the texture of
basalts ("diktytaxitic") remains a standard term in the
glossary of geologists.
Beginning in 1933,
Fuller served as President and Director of the Seattle Art Museum,
while continuing his geological research as a faculty member of the
UW. Over the next 32 years he carried out this dual role.
Upon the birth of the
basaltic volcano Paricutin in a Mexican cornfield in 1943, Fuller was
catapulted back full-force into geological research. Then President
of the Volcanological Section of the American Geophysical Union,
Fuller was tapped to become the Chairman of the U.S. Committee for
the Study of the Paricutin volcano in 1944. He was the lead
scientist studying that historic geological event, in which the world
witnessed the birth of an entirely new volcano that rose up out of a
farmer's field.
Funds for this year will be used to
assist ESS majors for the Hawaii field trip in Spring 2008, and an
international geology course in the near future.
Marie Ferrel Endowed Fund
This fund, like the Dorothy Stephens
endowment, does not come from someone directly related to the
department. Marie Ferrel had a love of music but also a love
of geology. As such she set up two endowed funds for both graduate
and undergraduate student support: one in the Department of Music
and one in Earth and Space Sciences. This fund helps to further the
career of a student who shows a similar passion.
This year’s Ferrel Scholarships,
which provide 1 quarter in-state tuition, go to…
Peter
Neff - who we have already met (for the Coombs Scholarship
award)
Rachel
Weber, worked in Engineered Biomaterials but through this
support she will be able to seek out research opportunities within
ESS; she lived up to being a true geologist when on returning from
Hawaii she returned with rocks (Xenoliths) in her bags
North Seattle
Lapidary & Mineral Club Scholarship
I would like to ask
Rick Fogel and Marcia Skinner to come down.
“The NSLMC was
founded in 1953 by a group of people who shared an interest in the
gem stones found so abundantly in Washington State.” The club
has provided an annual scholarship to an outstanding undergraduate
student for over 40 years. This year they were able to provide a
$2,000 award. We’re grateful for their generosity and support,
and we’re pleased to have representatives from the club [Rick
Fogel, President, and Marcia Skinner, Chair of the Scholarship
Committee] here to present this year’s award to...
Tara
Smiley - She has been to the Galapagos Islands with
Oceanography, to Niger with Christian Sidor evidence of life and
climate conditions of Permian equatorial systems. She plans to work
for the Peace Corps for a year and then apply to graduate school.
Undergraduate
Service Award
This award is given to
the undergraduate student who has donated major amounts of time and
effort to make life more pleasant and enjoyable for their peers and
who represent the collegial spirit of the department. The GeoClub is
an important undergraduate club that organizes and runs the
department graduation ceremony, raises money for undergraduate field
trips, invites speakers, and generally serves as a social club for
our undergrads.
This year’s
Undergraduate Service Award of $100 (including having her name
engraved on the award plaque) goes to…
Tara
Smiley - “As part of her efforts she has gathered us
to walk Mt St Helens in Fall qtr, watch bad geomovies together and
wandered the incredible sandstone formations of Utah.”
Douglas Merrill
Prize for Excellence
Our final undergrad
award is named in the memory of Douglas Merrill, Ron’s brother,
who was tragically killed in a climbing accident on Mt. Stuart.
Doug’s colleagues and classmates at UW made a small gift in his
name. This is our most prestigious award for a graduating senior and
it is presented to the senior with an exceptional record of
achievement. (In addition to a $400 cash award, the awardee also
gets his/her name engraved on the plaque.)
This year the Douglas
Merrill Prize for Excellence goes to…
Jesse
Einhorn - “If you know anything about this
person the one thing is for certain is that he can be seen at the
highest point of ground available.”
ESS Graduate Student
Awards:
Chevron Graduate Support
I would like to ask Sunday Shepherd
to please come down again.
During the year Chevron interviews with
many of our students. They seek to create professional relationships
with the students irrespective of the student’s particular
field of interest. In an ever increasingly global economy,
professional paths are not always direct and expertise across many
disciplines will often be needed to for one to be fully successful.
This scholarship seeks to further the careers of the graduate
students within Earth Sciences by supporting endeavors of the
student’s choice (e.g., travel to conferences, equipment,
field trips, etc.) and to help develop proper usage of Earth’s
limited resources.
This year’s recipients of Chevron
Graduate Support Scholarships of $2,000 each are
Emily Mullen,
Eliza Nemser, and Philipp Ruprecht
I am going to ask
our Graduate Program Coordinator Prof Ed Waddington
to announce the Graduate Student Research Awards.
Graduate Student
Research Awards
This is a monetary
award based on a submitted proposal that provides “assistance
and supplemental support for graduate students [and faculty] in any
of the earth sciences relating to understanding the physical
processes active in shaping the crust and surface of the earth.”
Seventy percent of the funds for these
awards come from the Dorothy Stephen’s fund which
was created in 1981. Ms. Stephen’s had no direct ties to the
department but created the fund because of her love for geology.
There are, of course, insufficient
funds available to meet all the needs of the students and so addition
support is provided from the Peter Misch fund.
We had a large number of applicants
this year so, yes, there are budget cuts. The committee worked very
hard to evaluate need and maximize allocation of resources. The
dollar amount of each award is shown on the award certificates.
The recipients of Graduate Student
Research Awards are
David
Argento
Neutron Activation
of C1-35 in seawater - a proxy for the global cosmic ray flux for the
last million years. (J. Stone)
Aurora Burd
Electrical
Conductivity beneath the Payun-Matru Volcanic Field in Argentina near
36.5S. (J. Booker)
Christina
Dwyer
Density
determination of reduced iron-silicate liquids and a revised volume
equation of state for natural melts. (V. Kress)
Samantha
(Sam) Ewing
Fe Isotope
Fractionation during microbial Fe reduction at elevated temperatures.
(B. Nelson, J. Baross)
Amanda Henck
Is the Three
Rivers Region in steady state? (D. Montgomery, B. Hallet)
Theresa
Kayzar
Timescales of
volcanic gas transport from a Uranium-series perspective (B. Nelson,
K. Cooper, O. Bachmann, et.al)
Ariah Kidder
Using a
multi-fluid numerical model to understand plasma transport at Saturn.
(R. Winglee, E. Harnett)
Lora Koenig
Analysis of firn
microstructure for passive microwave modeling. (E. Steig)
Michelle
Koutnik
Fifty years at
Blue Glacier, Olympic Nat'l Park, Washington. (H. Conway, A.
Rasmussen, E. Waddington)
(Maria) Beth
Martin
Paleotsunami
deposit sedimentology of Ko Phra Thong Island, Thailand. (J.
Bourgeois)
Ruth Martin
Using foraminifera
to investigate and characterize cold methane seeps from ancient
sedimentary basins in the Cascadia accretionary margin, the Miocene
East Coast Basin of New Zealand and from recent seeps of the
Hikurangi Margin. (L. Nesbitt)
Emily Mullen
Origin of
diversity of Arc Andesites: Evidence from Mt. Baker, WA. (I.S.
McCallum)
Eliza Nemser
Temporal and
spatial development of damage-zone architecture investigated using
small-displacement faults: implications for the evolution of fault
permeability and fault-seal capacity. (D. Cowan)
Heather
Rogers
36C1 calibration
study in the Canary Islands, Spain. (T. Swanson, B. Nelson, J Stone)
Philipp
Ruprecht
Volcán
Quizapu, Chili: A natural laboratory for magma mixing. (G.
Bergantz)
Sanjoy Som
Relative and
absolute atmospheric pressure estimation and liquid sustainability on
Mars, A geological approach. (D. Montgomery, R. Buick)
Steve Vance
Pressure's
influence on prebiotic chemistry: formation of proto-cell membranes
in deep hydrothermal systems. (J.M. Brown)
I am going to ask Roger
Buick, Chair of the Awards Committee, to complete out the
graduate student awards.
Livingston
Wernecke Fellowship
This is our oldest
fellowship. Livingston Wernecke (BS 1906) was a mining
engineer who made his fortune in mining ventures in the Yukon. He
had many exploits and was there at the death of the Treadwell Mine
complex near Juneau in 1917– it was reported that in early
April 1917 the ground around the recreation center of the mine
started cracking and on April 20 the swimming pool sank 5ft. More
cracking continued and the next day it was noted a creek was
cascading into a 30-ft deep hole and a rising tide widened the hole,
convincing official to order miners to evacuate. Undaunted
Livingston entered the mine to investigate what was happening, where
at 1750 ft down he was met with a wall of water and rock and made a
harrowing escape to the surface.
Ms. Wernecke
established the scholarship in memory of her husband, giving a gift
that is split between Geology and Mining Engineering (Material
Science) and is awarded to a meritorious student doing research in
economic aspects of the earth sciences in the broadest sense.
This year’s
recipient of the Livingston Werneke Fellowship of a 1 RA qtr is...
Heather
Rogers, working with Dr Terry Swanson investigating
shoreline retreat in unconsolidated sediment with the northern Puget
lowland
Howard Coombs
Fellowship
Coombs Fellowship fund was initiated by
a gift from James Gualtieri to honor the memory of Howard
Coombs. Mr. Gualtieri was a MS (1966) student of Howard’s.
Howard Coombs started at the UW as a freshman in pre-law in
1925 but saw the beauty and value of geology and earned a BS in
geology in 1929, an MS in 1931, and worked during summers of 1931-33
as a ranger of Mt Rainier. He climbed the mountain more than 30
times. He obtained his PhD in 1935 with the firt major geological
investigation of Mt Rainier and joined the faculty until his
retirement in 1976, serving as chair for 17 years. He did the first
geological studies of Mt Rainier and Mt. Baker and subsequently
became interested in engineering geology. Howard became the state’s
premier consultant on dam and nuclear plant siting and spent most of
his career in this capacity. He was active well into his 80’s.
The Coombs Fellowship
is based on academic achievement and ,also, provides an award in
recognition of excellence in teaching. This year we are able to
provide three awards of 1 RA qtr each.
This year’s
recipient of the Coombs Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching
is:
Matthew
von der Ahe - “He was so approachable; not
intimidating in any way .. geared to the students’ many
abilities and maturity levels”
This year’s
recipients of a Coombs Fellowship are:
Ruth
Martin, working with Prof. Liz Nesbitt looking at cold
methane seeps from New Zealand to Washington State to determine
variations in sediment-water interface
Alicia
Spooner , working with Prof. Pat Anderson studying
paleoecological records studying multiple proxies (sediment, pollen,
charcoal, macrofossils) to local at past climates within the NW
Marie Ferrel Endowed Fund
As noted in the undergraduate awards,
this fund supports both graduate and undergraduate students.
The fellowship award provides 1 RA qtr
each and the recipients are...
Rachel
Headley, working with Profs Hallet and Roe investigating the
interaction of glaciology and active tectonics and deformation
Ariah
Kidder, working with Prof. Winglee and Dr Harnett on the
space environments around the planets including Mercury and Saturn
Kenneth C.
Robbins Fellowship and Field Course Scholarship
This scholarship is
made possible by a generous gift from Ken Robbins. Ken
graduated from UW in 1950 in Civil Engineering and later
returned to get a second degree in Geology in 1955. He provided an
undergraduate summer field camp scholarships annually for 3 years and
then, in 2005, he established an endowed fund for Graduate RA support
and Undergraduate and Graduate field study support. Ken’s gift
to support field school students is made because of his strong belief
that “field school is a necessity for all geology majors.”
This is a good example for the graduating class that when you become
rich and famous to think about your home institution, possibly in a
favorable light after you have forgotten all those bad experiences
with exams.
The recipient of this
year’s Fellowship of 1 RA qtr is…
Tina
Dwyer, working with Victor Kress looking at the
properties of melts, and the properties of ferrous iron and its
oxidization at Earth and the terrestrial planets.
The recipients of
$1,333 in field camp support are two first year graduate
students...
Jonathan
Toner and Tom Kennell
Peter Misch Fellowship
Born in Berlin in 1909, Hans Peter
Misch started doing many things early in life--painting
watercolors at 5, skiing at 6, collecting fossils at an outlying farm
at 10, and taking up serious mountaineering at 14. As a "wunderkind"
geologist, Peter received his doctorate at age 23 from Göttingen
University, with his thesis that covered the geologic structures and
petrology of the central Pyrenees in northern Spain. Because of his
strong combined activities in geology and mountaineering, Peter was
invited to join the scientific contingent of the 1934 German Nanga
Parbat Expedition to the Karakoram Himalayas.
It was through
these wide travels among the world's high mountains that Peter had
become an avid supporter of the controversial theory of
granitization, whereby--rather than occurring principally as an
intrusive igneous rock--granite is found in the core of most ranges
as the end-product of a metamorphic cycle that changes
mud-to-shale-to-slate-to-phyllite-to-schist-to-gneiss and finally to
granite.
By 1936,
Hitler's persecution of anyone of Jewish ancestry had Peter, with his
wife and baby daughter Hanna, leaving Germany for China where during
WW II. He taught at Sun Yat Sen University in Canton before the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria forced his move to Peking University
in Yunnan. But his wife became ill and with Hanna returned to
Germany, where she died during the Holocaust. Peter was not reunited
with Hanna until at age 16 she came from Germany to Seattle.
After the war, Peter had come from
China to California where he taught briefly at Stanford and was lured
to the UW in 1947.
Despite a rapid-fire, German-accented
delivery in the classroom, Peter's daily lessons were enhanced by his
illustrative talent. By the end of each daily session his blackboard
was covered from end to end with chalked sketches of geologic
cross-sections of mountain ranges, showing faults, folds, and
overthrusts he had discovered during his wide travels among the
world's mountains. But, of course, his favorite outdoor laboratory
was the North Cascades where he spent nearly 40 summers mapping the
geology under grants from the GSA (Geological Society of America),
and there he encouraged many of his grad students to find their
theses areas.
This year’s Misch Fellows,
receiving 1 RA qtr each, are…
Eliza
Nemser, working with Prof
Darrell Cowan she has interned
at both Chevron and Exxon, and is presently working mapping faults
and fault-related products structures and working up a new area of
faulting in Death Valley
Emily
Mullen, working with Prof.
Stu McCallum investigating petrogenesis of magmas in subduction zones
using Mt. Baker and explain the chemical diversity of subduction zone
volcanic products
Harry Wheeler Fellowship
Funds for the Wheeler
Fellowship are provided by friends, colleagues and students of
Harry. Harry Wheeler was hired away from the Univ. of Nevada to the
UW in 1948 where he taught until his retirement in 1975.
Harry started out his
career as a paleontologist, later became a world leader in physical
stratigraphy, and pioneered the use of unconformity-bound sequences
for regional and intra-continental correlations. Harry was one of
the founders of modern sequence stratigraphy.
There are two
recipients for this year’s Wheeler Fellowship of 1 RA qtr each…
Beth
Martin and Bre MacInnes – Both working
with Prof. Jody Bourgeois on evaluation and modeling of tsunamis,
past and present
ESS Graduate Student Endowment:
This endowed fund was
established in 2005 by Professor Steve Warren to provide support for
graduate students of academic merit who are in need of financial
assistance. This is the first year for this fellowship, providing
$500 in educational support.
The recipient is...
Thomas
Carpenter, working with Prof Ron Sletten investigating the
long term stability of ground ice at McMurdo Dry Valleys
George Goodspeed Fellowship
The driving force
behind this fellowship was Julian Barksdale who spearheaded an
effort to contact friends, colleagues, and students of “Goody”
for donations. “Barky” was another of the major figures
in our department history who started out his professional life as an
igneous petrologist but is best known for his maps of the Methow
Valley. Barky served as the University Marshall, the guy who carries
the mace at graduation ceremonies. George Goodspeed
(1919-1957 on faculty-16 yrs as chair) was also an igneous
petrologist. He became an international figure as a result of his
work on the origin of granites. He was elected president of MSA in
1957 at the tail end of his career.
The recipient of this
year’s Goodspeed Fellowship of 1 RA qtr support is...
Julia
Jarvis, working with Prof Eric Steig using nitrates
in polar ice to investigate variability in climate.
Joseph A. Vance Fellowship
This fellowship is funded by a generous
gift from Joe Vance and the intent of the fellowship is to
support graduate students, preferably doing field work. The award
may be used for tuition, living expenses, books, fees, travel, and
field research and conference registration. Joe is an emeritus
professor in our department and still actively involved in research.
He has had a distinguished career entirely at UW where he was an
undergraduate student, a graduate student, and a faculty member.
We are honored that Joe has graced
us with his presence today and I would like to call on him to say a
few words and to personally present the Vance Fellowships.
The recipients of the
Joseph Vance Fellowship of 1 qtr RA are…
Philipp
Ruprecht, working with Prof George Bergantz, investigating
physical and chemical processes controlling the evolution of magmatic
systems
Michael
Kokorowski, working with Prof. McCarthy and Holzworth using
long duration balloon experiments to understand atmospheric
electrification and its roll in the precipitation of energetic
particles into the topside atmosphere
Tony
Qamar Fellowship
We’re pleased
to have Tony’s wife, Kathleen Ellsbury, and their daughter,
Muna Qamar, with us today. Please come on down.
Dr. Qamar
joined the UW faculty in 1983 and quickly became indispensable for
his ability to keep the seismology lab running while also improving.
His role in the network eventually led him to become the state
seismologist.
During the
excitement that accompanied Mount St. Helens' reawakening in 2004,
Dr. Qamar developed a method to quickly plot the amount of energy the
volcano was releasing over time.
"He would dash back to his
office, put his head down and basically do the computer programming
to develop this." (Quote from Steve Malone).
Dr. Anthony "Tony"
Qamar of the University
of Washington and Dr. Daniel Johnson of the
University
of Puget Sound were fatally injured on October 4, 2005
while traveling to the Olympic Peninsula to retrieve a GPS instrument
deployed to record an episode of Episodic
Tremor and Slip, which is presently receiving
substantial attention today in its role in determining seismic
activity within the NW.
This is the first year
for this fellowship, providing $1500 in educational support. The
recipient is...
Aurora
Burd, working with Prof. John Booker using magnetotellurics
to investigate structures hundreds of km below the surface.
The most prestigious award for our
graduate students is the...
David A. Johnston Fellowship
This fund provides a cash award for two
students to be used for whatever he/she needs to further their
research. The fund was set up by students, faculty, friends, and
co-workers of Dave Johnston with a major donation from Lee
Fairchild, one of Dave’s UW classmates. In 1975, when Mt.
Augustine in Alaska erupted, Dave took time out to visit the active
volcano, became entranced by it, and changed his thesis topic. After
finishing his Ph.D. in 1979 Dave got a job with the USGS and was sent
to Mt. St. Helens in 1980 to monitor the volcano. He was on duty at
the USGS Coldwater II observation post during the May 18, 1980,
eruption. David Johnston was one of 57 people who lost their lives
in the eruption. The Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO), named after
David, is located at the terminus of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway
in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Southwest Washington State.
This vantage point brings visitors within five miles of the north
side of the volcano and offers spectacular views of the
still-steaming lava dome, crater, pumice plain and landslide deposit.
Two awards are given out, one in
geology and one in geophysics, to graduate students in the Ph.D.
program who have demonstrated superior academic ability and
creativity in research. As stipulated by the endowment, this
cash award is based on income earned over the past year. This year
the fund will provide an award of $7,500 to each recipient. In
addition, because of its prestige, ESS has had a perpetual plaque
made to honor all recipients of this award (past recipients names
will be added to the plaque). The plaque reads: “David A.
Johnston Award for Research Excellence. Presented to the Graduate
Students considered to be the most outstanding young scientists in
the fields of Geological Sciences and Geophysics. In memory of David
A. Johnston (1949-1980). Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences.
University of Washington”
The recipients of this year’s
David Johnston Memorial Fellowship are…
Bretwood
Higman, working with Prof. Jody Bourgeois investigating
effects of various tsunamis on coastal areas and their signatures
from past tsunamis
Michael
Kokorowski, working with Prof. McCarthy and Holzworth is
space physics
CLOSING REMARKS AND INVITATION TO THE
RECEPTION
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