UGA - Geology Faculty

Bruce Railsback

Professor, Department of Geology, University of Georgia

Area of specialization:
Sedimentary Petrology - Geochemistry - Speleothems - Paleoclimate

Background

B.A, History, University of Iowa, 1980.

B.S., Geology, University of Iowa, 1981.

M.S., Geology, University of Iowa, 1983.

Exploration Geologist, Shell Oil, New Orleans, 1983-1985

Ph.D., Geology, University of Illinois, 1989.

Faculty Member, University of Georgia, 1989-present.
         Assistant Professor 1989-1994.
         Associate Professor 1994-2002.
         Full Professor 2002-present.

Member of the Graduate Faculty, University of Georgia, 1990-present

Temporary Member of the Graduate Faculty, University of Alabama, 2006-2009

Correlatore (secondary doctoral advisor), Universita degli Studi di Cagliari
(University of Cagliari), Italy, 2009 to 2010.

Doctoral reviewer, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, 2013.

Visiting Faculty Member, University of New Orleans-Innsbruck, 1997-2008:
Visiting Associate Professor, 1997, 1998, and 2002.
Visiting Professor, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2008.

UGA Geology Professor of the Year, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2011.

UGA Geology Teacher of the Year, 1993.

Research Interests and Publications

Research interests

Information for possible collaborators

List of published papers, with links to PDFs of some

Additional Pages for Prospective Graduate Students

Possible areas of graduate student research

Former Graduate Students

The Sedimentary Petrology/Geochemistry Lab

A note for prospective students who are not native speakers of English

Courses Taught

Earth Processes and Environments - Physical Geology* (Physical Geology for undergraduate non-majors and perhaps majors too).

Earth's History of Global Change* (Historical Geology for undergraduate non-majors).

Sedimentary Petrology (formerly part of our Mineralogy-Petrology sequence for undergraduate Geology majors).

Alpine and Glacial Geology (taught in Innsbruck, Austria, in the UNO program in some summers).

Elementary Oceanography (a no-prequisite general survey of all marine sciences for undergraduates).

Petroleum Geology (a course undergraduates who have taken at least one geology class and for graduate students).

Earth Surface Geochemistry (a graduate course examining natural waters, soils, sediments, and sedimentary rocks).

Carbonate Petrology (a graduate course on the petrology of limestones and dolostones).

Sandstone Petrology (a graduate course on sand, sandstones, porosity, permeability, and even a little petroleum geology).
A self-report on Railsback's teaching.

Pages for Educators:

Virtual field trips.

Diagrams and documents used in teaching basic classes and available to educators.

Field images used in teaching and available to educators.

Earth-surface images used in teaching and available to educators.

Some Fundamentals of Mineralogy and Geochemistry.

Diagrams used in teaching upper-level classes and available to educators.

Pages for Students

UGA's On-line lab safety training

Advice to students about graduate school and about academic careers

A page of Comments on ethical issues about research

Advice on Writing scientific papers and theses
Writing grant proposals
Editing scientific writing, mostly for grad students
Making plots to accompany papers
Giving a scientific talk

Pages on What Science is (and isn't) for students in core courses

Other Geo-Academic Stuff

An on-line Atlas of Speleothem Microfabrics.

An Earth Scientist's Periodic Table.

An on-line Atlas of Pressure-Dissolution Features.

Beach and Shoreline Sands From Around the World.

A summary of The Geology of Georgia

A modern reprise of T.C. Chamberlin's Multiple Working Hypotheses

Other strange stuff

Buildings and Building Stones - a Gallery

Pages on The History of the UGA Geology Department.

The Transilience Project .

Even stranger stuff on a personal web page.
Stuff just for fun.

Railsback's latest web features:

One view on the recent global warming/cooling debate .

Contact Information:

Phone: 1-706-542-3453 Fax: 1-706-542-2425

U.S. Mail: Bruce Railsback, Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602-2501 U.S.A.

Railsback's office is in Room 133 in the northwest corner of the first floor of the Geology-Geography Building.

Railsback's departmental mail box is in Room 306B in the south hallway of the third floor of the Geology-Geography Building.

email: rlsbk@gly.uga.edu Persons using email to request unpaid labor, such as reviewing, might be interested in these comments on requests for work

Inquiries for the UGA Geology Department, including inquiries of the type beginning " I would like for a geology professor to look at a rock I've found . . .", should be sent to geology@uga.edu

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UGA Links:

UGA Geology:
Other UGA Geology faculty members
The UGA Geology Department Home Page

UGA:
Other UGA science departments
The University of Georgia Home Page

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External Links:

Geology and Speleology:
Other web resources in sedimentary geology
Other web resources in geology
Web resources in speleology

Fun earth/science links that are updated regularly:
Earth's present day and night
Earth Science Picture of the Day
Astronomy Picture of the Day
The MODIS Image of the Day
NASA's Earth Observatory, with a new image every day
Kilauea (Hawaii) Volcano Update
Sky maps for your location and time of choice

Science news links that are updated regularly:
Geotimes
Science Daily
Science News Online
The BBC's Science News page
The New York Times's Science News page and Earth-Science News page
The Guardian Unlimited's science page
AAAS's Eurekalert Science News page
The National Science Foundation's press releases
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Meteorlogical and astronomical links that are updated regularly:
The Weather Underground
World-Wide Satellite Weather Images
Current Watches, Warnings, & Advisories and Specific Forecasts from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center
CMB Sea-Surface Temperatures
Heavens Above
International Space Station Sightings
The US Naval Oceanography Portal, a source of astronomical and oceanographic information and the U.S. official time

Fun image-rich earth/science links:
Severe Weather
German Halo Workgroup's Images of Atmospheric Light Phenomena
NOAA's Photo Library from the National Weather Service
Microsoft's Terraserver of U.S. aerial photography
The European Space Agency's Envisat environmental satellite
NASA's Earth from Space Image Library
NASA's ASTER Remote Sensing Image Gallery
The Earthrise Collection of Images from the Space Shuttle
The LANDSAT Image Gallery
Louis J. Maher Jr.'s collection of aerial photographs of US geologic features
The Color Landform Atlas of the United States
Chris Scotese's PALEOMAP Project
The Hubble Space Telescope Gallery of Images
Views of the Solar System
An online Atlas of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks, Minerals, and Textures

Convenient map sources:
US locations at various scales
US State Geologic Maps

The content and opinions expressed on this web page, or any web page in the same directory, do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Georgia or the University System of Georgia.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.