My research is focussed on low-temperature thermochronology, flood hazards, watershed analysis, and the sediment record of environmental change, and I am interested the systematics of zircon and fission track dating.
The fission track lab at Union College is one of the leading labs in the analysis of fission track in zircon, or at least we think so. We do traditional fission track studies to understand orogenic development, thermal studies related to fluids and ore forming events, and low-temperature studies in the analysis of basin maturation. A significnat fraction of our work involves understanding radiation damage in zircon. More...
The Keck Geology Consortium is a multi-college collaboration focused on enriching undergraduate education through development of high-quality research experiences in the Geosciences. The Consortium has been a fundamental component of the undergraduate-research landscape since its inaugural projects in 1987. Here at Union we are proud to be part of the Consortium and we are actively involved in running projects and mentoring students. The Keck Consortium and the research project that we run has been named one of seven "Programs that Work" by Project Kaleidoscope. In 2007 I co-led a project called Rocks and Rain in the Swiss Alps. I am co-leading a project that extends from 2011-14 on the tectonic evolution of the Chugach Complex in southern Alaska with Cam Davison of Carleton College. Details of the latest effort for the 2011-14 Chugach Project are here.
For a number of years we have been looking into flooding on the Mohawk River in upstate New York (USA). In doing so, we've been primarily focussed on understanding the conditions that surround historic floods so that we can better understand future hazards for the city of Schenectady and nearby communities. We've compiled a relatively long record of historical floods through a variety of archives, and we've studied ice jams and the dynamics of these ice jams. Some of our recent work has been focussed on determining the movement hisotry of landslides in the basin. The Mohawk Watershed Conference is now in its fourth year More...
I find teaching fascinating and I enjoy getting students excited about science. I teach a number of field-intensive courses where students make observations, collect data, and then interpret those data in a meaningful way. I teach Sedimentology and stratigraphy, Structural geology, Earth and life through time, and Geologic Hazards. Most course information is posted internally (Blackboard). On an irregular basis I teach Carbonate Sedimentology, and Living on the Edge and other FIELD Programs. I have several videos that illustrate Geologic Processes, including analog models for the development of orogenic wedges that are made in our sandbox.
The fission track lab at Union College is one of the leading labs in the analysis of fission track in zircon, or at least we think so. We do traditional fission track studies to undersatand orogenic development, and thermal studies related to fluids and ore forming events, and low-temperature studies in the analysis of basin maturation. A significnat fraction of our work involves understanding radiation damage in zircon. More...
Living on the Edge is a Union College Miniterm aimed at exposing students to geologic hazards and the way society mitigates them. The home page for this course is here.
A PDF of a Union College Magazine article about this experience is here (3.1 Mb).
Here is an incomplete list of PUBLICATIONS.
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