Category: Departmental News

The 2008 Geology majors’ ultimate frisbee team ORDOVICIOUS powered away with the championship of their soft-core intermural league during spring term in a sudden-death playoff.

The final point was carried across the line by Katie Bovee ’08 in a triumphant dash. Team captains were Katie Buckner ’09 and Ethan Hyland ’08. Good work guys!

Carleton College will dedicate a memorial in honor of former professor and Dean Shelby Boardman on Saturday, May 31, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. near the entrance to the Cowling Arboretum. The memorial is located past the Hill of the Three Oaks on the border of the arboretum. Boardman, the Charles L. Denison Professor of Geology and former Dean of the College, passed away in January 2007 at the age of 62 and served at Carleton from 1971-2007.

Spring has finally arrived in Northfield, and Sarah Titus’s Introductory Geology class is embarking on independent projects, so what makes more sense than going boating on Lyman Lakes?

Lisa Ayala, Katie Markle, and Adrienne Wilber, all class of 2011, took advantage of the nice day to evaluate the water chemistry in Lyman Lakes. Their results are still pending, but they did report a turtle, which they actually caught in their hands and examined, and then let go.

Carleton, along with 47 other colleges and universities, is the recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant to usher in a new era of science education. Carleton, one of only two Minnesota institutions to receive the grant, received a grant of $1.5 million over the next four years. Carleton is using part of the $1.5 million grant from HHMI to prepare its students to move beyond traditional approaches to address real-world scientific complexity. Carleton will develop programs that prepare students to tackle scientific problems as teams, to analyze data with quantitative methods, and to communicate complex information effectively.

“Global Warming: Lost in a Fog of Skepticism, Models and Manufactured Doubt” is the title of an upcoming lecture being presented by Coastal Geology and Coastal Zone Management expert Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey. The lecture, part of Carleton’s ongoing lecture series on the topic of climate change, will take place Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Boliou Hall auditorium. Pilkey’s appearance is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served.

Each year, the geology faculty faces the difficult task of selecting a few students to be Duncan Stewart Fellows. The Duncan Stewart Fellowship was established in 1976 by Daniel Gainey, class of 1949, in honor of Duncan Stewart, professor of geology at Carleton for nearly 25 years.

We select the Stewart Fellows based on a combination of excellence in scholarship, a high level of intellectual curiosity, potential for scientific growth, and involvement in departmental activities. As we make this selection, we realize how fortunate we are to have so many talented, interesting, and impressive students within the department.

We are pleased to announce that Dorene Sam Nakata ’08 of Waipahu, HI, Lauren Colwell of St. Paul, MN, Aaron Fricke of Kalispell, MT, Jessica Marks of New Berlin, WI, and Kristin Sweeney of Portland, OR, all class of ’09, have been named Duncan Stewart Fellows, extending the number of Stewart Fellows over the years to 93. Congratulations and best wishes to all of you!

The Geology Department began its celebration of the 75th anniversary of its founding on January 18 and 19 with a symposium for current students and alums who live in the Minnesota and Wisconsin area. The department was founded in 1932-33 by George Gibson and the famous Antarctic explorer Laurence Gould.

During winter break we added two magnificent new rocks to the rock garden south of the front door of Mudd.

The Carleton women’s rugby team, which includes prominently three Geology students among its ranks, has established itself as a dominant club sports presence on campus by winning the Division III Minnesota Rugby Union State Championship.