Alumni
Ed Albin (Ph.D. 1997)
This year marks the beginning of my 23rd year at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, where I'm curator of our meteorite and tektite collection. I also operate the Center's observatory on clear Friday evenings, so please feel free to drop by for a great look at the Moon and planets through our 36-inch telescope. Scott Harris (M.S., 2004) and I are currently investigating the Woodbury Structure in west central Georgia, which may be an ancient impact crater. My daughter, Lauren, turns 20 this year and will be a junior at Agnes Scott College in Decatur. My wife Nancie and I celebrated our 25th anniversary this past December. Finally, I acquired a commercial helicopter pilot's rating last year. I fly tours and aerial photo missions part time for Prestige Helicopters, based at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport. Please let me know if anyone would like a helicopter “bird's-eye” view of a field area -- or just an awesome ride through downtown Atlanta!
Thomas Algeo (M.S. 1985)
I continue to work on understanding environmental change in conjunction with the Permian-Triassic boundary mass extinction event. I will return to China to collect additional boundary sections in the field this summer, adding to sections sampled during the past few summers. I will also be teaching a short course at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan as well as attending the International Geobiology Conference in the same city in May and June. My Ph.D. student, Wan Zhenzhu, passed her oral prelims this past February and is making good progress on her study of C isotopic variation in Devonian land plants and its relationship to water-use efficiency. More information about these projects is available at my website, and I can be contacted at Thomas.Algeo@uc.edu.
Jessica Allen (M.S. 2003)
Last summer, I finished my dissertation and took a postdoctoral position at a research consortium on the University of Utah campus. Late last year, Tico got laid off and took the opportunity to follow his dream and recently got certified as an AMGA Rock Climbing Guide. We are thinking about moving, but are not sure where to yet. In the meantime, we are trying to get as much skiing in as possible before we leave Utah.
James Baldini (M.S. 1999) and Lisa (Miller) Baldini (M.S. 2001)
James and Lisa are still living in Northeast England and working in the Department of Earth Sciences of Durham University. James was recently awarded a large European research grant (£1,260,000) for a five year study reconstructing paleo-hurricane activity using stalagmite proxy records from Turks and Caicos Islands and Belize. Lisa completed her two year Marie Curie Research Fellowship in March and has just begun a four year postdoc working with James on the HURRICANE project. James and Lisa will be returning to the United States this summer to present some of their previous research at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Knoxville and to visit their families in Virginia and New Hampshire.
Bob Chernow (M.S. 1984)
I'm currently in my eighth year of teaching earth science to freshmen at Randolph High School in New Jersey. The current teaching focus is on the systems approach to show how all of the spheres are interrelated. The students are great and are genuinely interested in the environmental and current event aspects of our curriculum. Just this week, we had the Iceland volcano eruption with ash that shut down western Europe's airports, the 7.1 quake in China, and the meteor light ball that was photographed in Wisconsin. Talk about bringing earth science to life. New Jersey has a new governor and huge financial issues so now teachers are being blamed for the economic crisis. There are many layoffs statewide and most property taxes are going up as well. This must be the trickle down from Wall Street.
My own three children are doing well and we are starting the college search for Robin and Melissa.
Bill Christy (B.S. 1974)
For those that know me, my handicap has caught up with me and I am not physically able to work. That is not too bad in itself, but it has stopped me from getting out in the field for rock collecting. Keep your hand lens clean, pickup ready to go. Happy collecting!
Dorinda Dallmeyer (B.S. 1973, M.S. 1977)
Dorinda presented a colloquium to the Geology Department on April 8 entitled “Reading a Landscape: Charles Lyell in Georgia” about the eminent British geologist's visit to Georgia in 1846.
Wesley S. Hardegree (B.S. 1986, M.S. 1990)
This June, I'll reach 20 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4 – only 10 more to go! My wife, Maureen (UGA M.S. 1991), is about to have her first full length novel published later this year (Haint Misbehavin'). It's a young adult book about a hypersensitive fourteen-year-old girl who starts to see ghosts.
Our daughter, Cynthia, is now 15. She continues to dance with the Northeast Atlanta Ballet, a pre-professional dance company located in Lilburn, Georgia. Maureen and I continue to help with company costumes (e.g., sewing) and backstage activities (e.g., building and moving props), respectively. My grand stage debut occurred this past March at the Gwinnett County Performing Arts Center. Cynthia was performing as Wendy in the company's production of Peter Pan. In need of a rowboat driver for a few shows, I stepped in to fill this fleeting role.
John Hayden (B.S. 1985)
After a brief stint as a cartographer at the Georgia Geologic Survey, the second job I got after graduating was as a geologist for the Aggregates Division of the Georgia Marble Company. This photo was taken in April of 1989 of me in the Cumming (Georgia) quarry of Georgia Marble by another fellow UGA geology grad and Georgia Marble geologist Bill Bradley (B.S. 1982). We had just pulled a shot and located the fault contact that was responsible for overturning the beds in the quarry.
Gayle Levy (M.S. 2003)
Life is busy but good. My daughter Eliana is 21 months now and isn't a baby anymore. She definitely keeps me on my toes! I'm about to change jobs as well. I'm leaving Rosetta Stone to work at Conservation International as their Web Manager. I'll be working on a new project to develop a website (teamearth.com) to get people to make pledges to change their habits for the good of the planet. It's really exciting and I'm eager to do something again related to the saving the environment and the Earth!
Vince Matthews (B.S. 1965, M.S. 1967)
A busy past year. I finished the second edition of Messages in Stone-- Colorado's Colorful Geology just before the last of the 20,000 copies of the first edition were sold. The first edition of Messages was used as a text in 12 institutions of higher education in Colorado and also won three awards. Also, got out a new highway map called Tourist Guide to Colorado Geology in time for the AAPG annual meeting here in Denver. I am Co-PI on a $3.8 million DOE grant to look at potential carbon sequestration in northwest Colorado and the Colorado Plateau. Governor Ritter just appointed me to represent Colorado on BLM's Review Panel for the second round of Research, Demonstration, and Development (RDD) proposals from industry. I also represented Colorado on the first round in 2005 which resulted in awards for five RDD projects in Colorado and one in Utah.
Invited keynote addresses on the Global Scramble for Natural Resources were given for the AIPG Annual Meeting, the Mining and Metallurgical Society Forum for Congress and the Executive Branches, and The Materials Society annual meeting. The talk was also given at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in February and will be given as an invited address to the National Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences at the National Academies in May.
Jon McKenna (M.S. 2002)
Jon McKenna's wife, Leslie gave birth to their second son, Elijah on May 11, 2009. Elijah's brother, Colston (5), is a tremendous help in raising the new baby. Jon has been working for the USGS Landslide Hazards Team in Golden, Colorado for nearly a decade and hopes to defend his Ph.D. dissertation in Geological Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in the fall of 2010. His research is focused on the initiation of debris flows.
Allan Nix (B.S. 1991)
I have been working as a geologist for the Georgia EPD since November 2007. I am with the Response and Remediation Program and am tasked with regulatory oversight of the assessment and remediation of contaminated sites. I have been a registered professional geologist (PG) in Georgia since 1997. Giles Allard was legendary as an undergraduate petrology teacher, but I had Mike Roden for that class and thought he was great. I have fond memories of the departed Drs. Howard, Frey, Giardini, and Hurst. On a personal note, I live with my wife and 14-year-old son in Woodstock (Georgia, not New York). Bad knees have forced me to stop bowling competitively. I am due to have two knee replacements, but will probably keep putting off the surgeries for as long as I can. I can be reached at allan.nix@gaepd.org and would enjoy hearing from you.
Tori (Hanson) Press (B.S. 2003)
My husband, David, and I are thoroughly enjoying life in Atlanta since we moved back here from Chicago in 2007. David is working with CCP Games, a video game company that makes massively multiplayer online games (their flagship game is called EVE Online), and I don't think anyone could possibly love his job more. My graphic design business, Red Queen Design Studio (yes, the name is an homage to Leigh Van Valen's Red Queen hypothesis), has been flourishing. It's a great pleasure to work for myself on a variety of diverse projects for different clients. My portfolio (always out of date!) is posted on my website at http://www.redqueenstudio.com/.
Our big news is that we are expecting our first child in late July of this year! We're having a girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled about welcoming our daughter into the world. In the meantime, we're trying to enjoy our last few months of non-parenthood as best we can. We were able to do a lot of traveling in the past year, we're trying to do as much sleeping as we possibly can now, and we're looking forward to all of the changes ahead of us in the coming months and years.
Andy Rindsberg (M.S. 1983)
In December, I was awarded tenure at the University of West Alabama, where I have worked since 2006. It feels good to be settling in at last. The Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences is strongly field-oriented and the students can get a good grounding in hands-on techniques. In addition to teaching the usual courses (Earth Science, Physical Geology, Environmental Geology), I have developed courses in Natural History of the Black Belt, History of Life on Earth, and the UWA Butterfly Survey. The new Center for the Study of the Black Belt is coordinating scientific and cultural efforts in the region. The Black Belt is a physiographic region of rich, dark soils, formerly planted in cotton, overlying Cretaceous chalk.
My compliments to the alumn association for a great party at the Northeast-Southeast GSA meeting. The old bar was a taste of Real Baltimore!
Kathy (Fitzpatrick) Sanford (B.S. 1981, M.S. 1982)
I'm now the Assistant Director of the Division of Mineral Resources in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. We regulate oil and gas drilling and production along with materials and mineral mining in the State. Most of my attention for the past two years has been focused on issues related to potential Marcellus Shale drilling and hydraulic fracturing here in New York.
Jim and I are still having fun. Our fall 2009 vacation was to the Florida Keys. It was my first time back since the spring break field course in Key Largo too many years ago. We stayed in Marathon and took a day trip out to Key West. We'll definitely go back. In May 2010 we'll visit New Orleans; it will be Jim's first visit there and he's eager to see the historical sites, especially those associated with the pirate, Jean Lafitte. We're both looking forward to some good food and drink!