2010 Geo Major Accomplishments

Four seniors completed senior departmental or college honors theses this year under the direction of geology faculty. Brittany Myers '10 thesis "Bedrock and Vegetation Influences on Aridisol Chemistry in the White Mountains, Eastern California" under the supervision of Dr. Chris Van de Ven. Brittany will be beginning graduate work at the UNLV in fall 2010.  Allison Robbins '10 completed an Interdisciplinary College Honors Thesis, "Riparian Change in an Expanding Urban Environment: A Study of Historic Habitat Change Along the Truckee River" under the supervision of Dr. Chris Van de Ven. Melissa Light '10 completed a departmental honors thesis, "Evolution and Systematics of the Eocene Alligator Procaimanoidea" under the supervision of Dr. Bill Bartels. Melissa has already begun graduate work at Miami University in Ohio. Allison Neumann, '10 completed a departmental honors thesis, "Systematics and Taphonomy of Microvertebrate Faunas from the Early Eocene of the Pinnacles, Green River Basin, Wyoming" under the supervision of Dr. Bill Bartels. Allison is headed for the University of Alberta to begin graduate research in fall 2010.

Three senior Geology/Earth Science majors/minors, Allison Neumann, Kendall Tarrant, and Dori Williams, were inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most widely known academic honor society. The top 10% of the graduating class who meet the liberal studies requirements are elected at Albion College each year. According to the national organization, "about one college senior in a hundred, nationwide, is invited to join Phi Beta Kappa."

Zaak Havens '10 was TA for the department's biennial field geology course in Wyoming and South Dakota.