Alumni

Read the 2012 Alumni Newsletter here [pdf]....

• Dr. Kirtley F. Mather '09: Member of the Harvard geology faculty; participant in the Scopes Trial (1925); examplar of the socially-concerned scientist; President of A.A.A.S.; author of numerous books and book reviews; President of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Dr. Raymond C. Moore '13: Major figure in American paleontology and stratigraphy; founder of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology; long-time member of the faculty of the University of Kansas
• Dr. Edgar W. Owen '15: Petroleum geologist and author of the 1,647-page TREK OF THE OIL FINDERS, an invaluable compendium of oil lore
• Dr. Carey Croneis '22: University of Chicago Ph.D.: President of Beloit College; Editor of the Harper-Row Geoscience Series; Chancellor of Rice University
• Dr. L. Don Leet '23: Harvard Ph.D. and member of the Harvard faculty; co-author of the famous Leet and Judson textbook on physical geology
• Dr. Alonzo Quinn '24: Harvard Ph.D.; Chairman of the Department of Geology at Brown University
• Dr. Frederick Holden '37: University of Chicago Ph.D.; Petroleum geologist; Chief Geologist of EXXON
• Dr. Thomas Bates '39: Specialist in materials science; became a Vice President of the Pennsylvania State University
• Dr. Philip Oxley '43: Vice-President of Tenneco Oil: expert in international petroleum exploration
• Dr. Phillip E. LaMoreaux '43: State Geologist of Alabama: major figure in environmental geology and hydrogeology
• Dr. Donald Eshman '45: Geomorphologist and Chairman of the Department of Geology at the University of Michigan

Of course, citizens of the 21st century may appreciate long-standing traditions but have greater interest in the accomplishments of more recent graduates. Let's first consider a few established geoscientists who attended Denison in the 1970s and '80s, and then look at several young professionals from the 1990s.

• Dr. David B. Rowley '76: Chair of the Dept. of Geophysical Sciences, Univ. of Chicago, Dave has had a distinguished career looking at the products of plate tectonics. His diverse research interests have taken him from Labrador to China, and from hammering basalts to developing sophisticated computer models of plate motion through geologic time.
• Dr. Constance M. Soja '77: Currently a Full Professor at Colgate Univ., Connie earned her Ph.D. (paleontology) at University of Oregon. She taught at Smith College and received a fellowship to the Mary Bunting Institute at Harvard/Radcliffe prior to moving to Colgate. Dr. Soja has published extensively on a variety of paleontological topics, including important work that sheds light on plate tectonics and the evolution of Alaska. A Past-President of the Paleontological Research Institute, Connie has also served as Chair of Geology at Colgate.
• Dr. Bradley B. Sageman '79: After receiving a Ph.D. (stratigraphy) at the Univ. of Colorado, Brad pursued a post-doc at Penn State and then moved to Northwestern Univ., where he is now Professor of Geology. His publications on low-oxygen shales, basin evolution, and modern techniques in stratigraphy are numerous and well received. By looking at geochemical signals and fossils, Brad illuminates events that occurred 100-million years ago.
• Mr. Dale A. Walker '79: An all-star athlete (football and track), Dale graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors, having produced an excellent thesis on local fossils. After acquiring a Masters degree at the Ohio State Univ., Dale joined Mobil as an exploration geologist, also serving as an officer in the Special Forces of the U. S. Army. His petroleum work initially involved decoding paleoclimate of the Permian of West Texas, then turned to Permian gas fields in Germany. Dale is currently in the Houston offices of Mobil/Exxon.
• Dr. Kurt A. Grimm '84: An Associate Professor of Geology at the Univ. of British Columbia, Kurt received his Masters at Wisconsin-Madison and Ph.D. at the Univ. of California-Santa Cruz. Specializing in paleoecology and stratigraphy, Dr. Grimm's research on "doomed pioneers" (organisms transported into low-oxygen zones by turbitity currents) was pioneering in its own right. A specialist in stratigraphic paleoecology, Kurt also pursues geologically significant aspects of the Gaia Hypothesis.
• Dr. Andrew B. Heckert '93: Andy finished M.S. (1997) and Ph.D. (2001) degrees at the University of New Mexico while authoring or co-authoring numerous papers on Mesozoic reptiles, stratigraphy, and biostratigraphy with his advisor, Dr. Spencer G. Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. After spending three years as the Geoscience Collections Manager at the NMMNHS, Andy landed a tenure track job in the Department of Geology at Appalachian State University, where, among other things, he oversees the McKinney Geology Teaching Museum.

• Andy Heckert, '93, taking a break from learning about the amphibolite facies of the Ashe Metamorphic Suite on Elk Knob, just down the road from his current employer, Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina
• Amy Jo (Meyer) Klei '94: Duke School of the Environment '96 Degree in Environmental Management - Water resources
  '96-'98  Environmental consulting firm (Florida)
  '98-present  Environmental Scientist with the Ohio EPA.  I currently work in the Division of Drinking and Ground Waters (Columbus, OH) coordinating Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act activities for the protection of drinking water sources.  I'm also involved in re-developing the agency's Inland Lakes Program and establishing new water quality standards.
  Married and have two little rock hounds (Anna 6.5 yr and Laurel 4.5 yr).
• Mr. King Offutt '95: After working with geo-consulting firms, King exercised his first choice of career options and attended law school at Tulane Univeristy in New Orleans. King's vision was to enter the practice of environmental law. He is now pursuing his legal career in Lexington, Kentucky.
• Ms. Kelly Rose '96: Kelly received her Masters degree in geology from Virginia Tech, concentrating on structural geology of the Southern Appalachians. She moved to Wyoming, where she worked as a geologist for Marathon Oil. Kelly is presently a geologist at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia.
• Mr. Matt Pachell '97: Conversant in Nepalese after a semester in Katmundu, Matt earned a Masters degree at Utah State University. In April 2000, he embarked on an internship with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Now based in Houston, with Anadarko, Matt has worked on projects spanning the globe from Alaska to Algeria to Australia.
• Mr. Shanan E. Peters '98: A Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a strong publication record as an undergraduate, Shanan recently finished the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. His interests focused on the use of fossils personally collected in the field to reach large-scale theoretical conclusions about paleoecology. In the fall of 2003, Shanan began a prestigious post-doc as a member of the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan.