FACULTY & STAFF

In addition to service courses, Al teaches strat-sed and graduate courses on demand. His particular expertise is in tidal cycles in sedimentation, and he's particularly interested in the world's most extreme tides. He and his graduate students have travelled to such sites as Mont St. Michelle in France, the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil, and Cook Inlet in Alaska.

aarcher@ksu.edu

Matt joined the geology department in the summer of 2007, and is teaching our undergraduate courses in mineralogy and petrology, as well as advanced courses in volcanology and the occasional service course. His main interests are in the development of extrusive magmas, such as the relationship between the mafic magmas of the Columbia Plateau and the later, more silicic magmas of the Yellowstone calderas. His research is highly field-oriented, and his graduate students can expect lots of fresh air.

brueseke@ksu.edu

Sam teaches service courses and a variety of advanced geochemistry courses, including sedimentary geochemistry, clay mineralogy, and isotope geology. He's also co-author on two geochemistry reference books. He is interested in the application of biogeochemical research to environmental hazards, such as airborne contaminants from pig farms and toxic substances in soils. His graduate students can count on him for enthusiasm and stimulating ideas.

ksuncsc@ksu.edu

George teaches service courses, the basic paleontology course, invertebrate fossils, and the 'capstone' course, geologic evolution of planet earth. His research is mostly on the microstructure of calcium carbonate shells, with emphasis on the organic matrix and the general process of fossilization. He has used the scanning electron microscope for 40 years, and producesart works with his daughter as well as research images. Beginning in June of 2007, agreed to serve as interim department head, the 'interim' to be two years.

grc@ksu.edu

Saugata teaches a number of courses in hydrogeology, low temperature geochemistry and water resources, and the occasional service course. His primary expertise is in studies on trace metal mobilities and contamination in the environment, especially in groundwaters, urban air particulates, subway microenvironments, and unproductive soil environments using hydrological and geochemical tools including synchrotron spectroscopy. He and his students travel to various sites in India, Bangladesh, several within USA. Saugata has been keen in delineation of areas of groundwater problems in Kansas and neighboring states.

e-mail: sdatta@ksu.edu

Jack teaches field methods, geomorphology, quaternary geology, hydrogeology, co-teaches the graduate seminar, and takes on an occasional service course. He has served as Graduate Program Director as well as Department Head, but is happiest with just teaching and research. He is a recognized expert on Pleistocene lake beds, especially the 'unabridged version' of the Great Salt Lake, the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. His students have worked with ancient lake sediments and done geologic mapping in other parts of Utah.

e-mail: joviatt@ksu.edu

Raef teaches our courses in geophysics, seismic data processing and seismic analysis. His research interests are in 3D and 4D seismic studies of CO2 injection for enhanced oil recovery and carbon sequestration, non-invasive location of fractures in highway foundations, and the use of geophysical tools in forensic geology. He works closely with other Kansas agencies, including the Kansas Geological Survey and the Kansas Department of Transportation.

e-mail: abraef@ksu.edu

Joel joined the geology department in the summer of 2007 following a postdoctoral appointment in Austria. Joel will be teaching graduate courses in dating techniques, with emphasis on his specialty, optically stimulated luminscence. This is a relatively new field that has exciting possibilities, including dating catastrophic events such as tsunamis, landslides, and floods that have occurred in the past hundred thousand years or so. This capability has applications in archaeology as well as geology, and Joel's lab, one of only a handful in the United States, will likely attract students and scholars from both fields.

e-mail: joelspen@ksu.edu

Iris teaches service courses, an upper level undergraduate course in Origins, and a graduate course in geoscience education. She coordinates the introductory geology labs and works with graduate teaching assistants to incorporate technology and creative inquiry-based activities into the labs. Her science education research focuses on developing innovative teaching tools such as artificial rock outcrops, looking at cognition development between the novice and expert learner in the geosciences and understanding student alternative conceptions. She works with K-12 Earth Science Teacher enhancement programs and offers professional workshops for in-service teachers in the summers.   Iris is currently working with UMKC on an exciting new project funded by the Ewing-Marion Kauffman Foundation where virtual Geoworlds are created in the program Second Life. Iris is always looking for graduate students who are interested in geoscience cognition research.

e-mail: itotten@ksu.edu

Matt teaches service courses as well as courses in petroleum geology, reservoir diagenesis, and subsurface mapping. His research is in clastic sedimentary petrology, with a focus on fine-grained rocks. Recent research typically uses samples and data from the petroleum industry, and includes volcanic ash deposits in the subsurface Gulf of Mexico, the occurrence of heavy minerals in deep-water shales, and clay-mineral diagenesis.

e-mail: mtotten@ksu.edu

Bob retired in 2007, after many years teaching mineralogy and petrology, aswell as courses in groundwater geochemistry. His ongoing research is on terrigenous rocks, some as old as Proterozoic, from Russia and Colorado, with some attention to kimberlites and lamproites of Kansas. He's especially knowledgeable about neutron activation analysis, having utilized the facility at K-State's nuclear reactor for over 25 years.

e-mail:

Page retired several years ago, but if you're interested in local carbonate rocks, he can be a storehouse of information. Although he's given up his office in Thompson, he's still often to be found at morning coffee at the Palace. He frequently attends the departmental seminars when he's in town.

Ron has recently retired but is still active in research. Among other things, he is authoring the section on chaetetids in the newest revision of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. His main interests are in Carboniferous stratigraphy and palaeoecology, and his detailed knowledge of Kansas and midcontinent geology can be of great value to research projects in this area.

e-mail: rrwest@ksu.edu

Mike is an alumnus of K-State as well as KU, and has worked for the Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Kansas Geological Survey, and a major petroleum company before relocating to Manhattan. He teaches the occasional section of Earth in Action, and notes that this puts him at the other end of the same room where he took that course 30-odd years before. Mike's research interests are in organic petrology, petroleum geology, and fine-grained siliciclastics, and he'd be happy to share these interests with interested students.

e-mail: mlambrt@ksu.edu

Keith is a Research Assistant Professor, with an office in Thompson Hall. He frequently teaches service courses for the department, including a section of Natural Disasters, and has originated a course on dinosaurs. His research interests are in terrigenous rocks and paleosols. He is also particularly interested in issues in science education and fundamentalist opposition to evolution, and served as editor for a book on the subject.

e-mail: kbmill@ksu.edu

Ken is an environmental specialist with the City of Manhattan, and teaches night courses in geology through the Division of Continuing Education. Although we rarely see him, we may find some of his students among our majors. Ken referees soccer matches in his spare time.

e-mail: kross@ksu.edu