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Lance D. Yarbrough Joins GGE Faculty - Lance Yarbrough (Ph.D., University of Mississippi) has joined the GGE faculty. Dr. Yarbrough's specializations are Engineering geology, Remote Sensing, Geospatial Analysis, and Environmental Remediation. His office is in 324 Leonard Hall. (Posted 08/26/2008)

Jaakko Putkonen Joins GGE Faculty - Jaakko Putkonen (Ph.D., University of Washington) has joined the faculty. Dr. Putkonen's specialties are Geomorphology, Surface Processes and Quaternary Geology. His office is in 103 Leonard Hall. (Posted 08/26/2008)

SGE-GGE Spring Banquet to be Held May 1 - The Beta Zeta Chapter of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the national honor society for the Earth Sciences, and the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering will hold their annual spring banquet on May 1 at the North Dakota Museum of Art on the UND campus. A social hour begins at 5:30, with dinner at 6:30. Featured speaker Mary Schweitzer (North Carolina State University) will speak on "T. rex under the microscope, a new look at an old dinosaur." In addition, the Department and SGE will nominate recipients for scholarships and awards. For further information and tickets, please contact the GGE office at 701-777-2248. (Posted 04/10/2008)

Zivkovic Presents at A.G.U. - Ph.D. student Vladimir Zivkovic presented a poster entitled "The Lake St. Martin Impact Crater and its Relation to a Multiple Impact Event" at the December AGU meeting in San Francisco. Zivkovic and Will Gosnold are studying the possibility that the St. Martin impact crater is one of six impacts that occurred about 200 mya in a matter of hours or days. Zivkovic said that residual gravity indicates an asymmetry in the melt sheet that aligns with the expected trajectory the bolides would have to have taken to coincide with such an impact event. (Posted 12/20/2007)

Bongard Receives Scholarship - Andrew Bongard, now pursuing the B.S. in Environmental Geoscience, has been awarded a generous Raymond & Edyth Sullivan Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is available competitively to students in the UND School of Engineering and Mines. Congratulations, Andy! (Posted 12/14/2007)

Senior to intern at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory - Anna Worden, graduating this December with a B.S. in Geology, has been invited to work with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory for three months beginning this January. She'll be working on a project entitled "Eruptive History of Mauna Loa", which will involve her with flow-by-flow mapping, 14C dating of charcoals, and processing of rocks for chemical and petrographic study. She'll also be making digital maps using GIS. Anna voiced her goal of becoming a volcanologist her first semester here at UND, and clearly she is on her way! Her senior thesis has her busily engaged with two Cretaceous tuff units in North Dakota. She plans to enter graduate school in volcanology next fall, perhaps in Alaska. The USGS provides a dormitory guest house just a few hundred meters from Kilauea's crater, but they don't provide airfare to Hawaii nor meals. anna.worden@und.nodak.edu (Posted 10/24/2007)

Homecoming 2007 Newsletter - Read the homecoming edition of the GGE Department newsletter here. (Posted 10/11/2007)

Tom Hamilton Receives Sioux Award - Oil company executive and GGE alum Tom Hamilton (MS 1967, PhD 1970) received the UND Foundation's Sioux Award on September 27 in a ceremony at the Alerus Center. The Sioux Award is the UND Alumni Foundation's highest honor, bestowed upon alumni who, throughout their lives, have represented service, achievement and loyalty. Dating back to 1949, The Sioux Award is recognition and honor for an individual. It embodies the history and tradition of the University of North Dakota, a university which can proudly claim alumni who, in so many ways, make their lives count for the benefit of others. Dr. Hamilton's biography can be found here. The complete text of the tribute to Tom, delivered by Alumni Association and Foundation Development Officer DeAnna Carlson-Zink, is here. (Posted 09/04/2007)

GGE Alumni Advisory Committee to Meet September 28 - GGE Alumni are invited to attend a meeting of the UND Geology and Geological Engineering Alumni Advisory Committee at 1:00 pm, Friday, September 28, 2007, in the Leonard Hall conference room. (Posted 08/28/2007)

GGE Events at GSA - The department announces these activities at this year's Geological Society of America meeting in Denver: The Group Alumni University of North Dakota gathering will in the Centennial Ballroom DE, Hyatt Regency at the Colorado Convention Center. It is located directly across from the Convention Center. It will be from 7:00pm-9:30pm on Monday, October 29th. For our separate GSA Geology get together, we have reserved the Brown Room at The Wynkoop Brewing Company (1634 18th St.) from 5:00pm-7:00pm on Tuesday, October 30th. We will be ordering some appetizers. We have the interview booth on Monday, October 29th and Tuesday, October 30th, each day from 8:00am-Noon and 1:00pm-5:00pm. We are interviewing to fill two faculty positions: one in surficial geology/geomorphology and one in geological engineering. (Posted 08/28/2007)

Bret Fossum Inducted Into SEM Academy - Bret Fossum was inducted into the School of Engineering and Mines Alumni Academy during Homecoming at 3:00 pm, Friday, September 28th, in a ceremony in the atruim between Upson I and Upson II. The purpose of the Academy is threefold: a) to honor the achievements of outstanding alumni; b) to encourage current students to excellence by the example of alumni; c) to create a body to provide advice to the School on major issues. See more information here. Thank you, Bret Fossum! (Posted 08/28/2007)

Joanne Lerud-Heck and Mary Woods Scott Receive Leonard Award at Homecoming - This year's Arthur Gray Leonard Award recipients are Joanne V. Lerud-Heck and Mary Woods Scott. Our Leonard Award banquet was held at the Ramada Inn on Thursday, September 27th. The evening's Program is available here. The Leonard Award was established in 1992 in honor of Arthur Gray Leonard, 1865-1932, scholar, leader, and pioneering geologist of North Dakota. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in the geosciences in research, technical studies, and projects applied to societal needs, teaching, educational development, or leadership in conservation of Earth’s resources and environment. (Posted 08/28/2007)

Zheng-Wen Zeng gave presentations in China. - From July 7 to Aug 14, Dr. Zeng was invited to give several presentations in some universities and research institutes in China, including: (1) Global Warming, CO2 Capture and Geological Storage (Southwest Jiaotong University), (2) Geological Engineering Challenges and Opportunities (Southwest Jiaotong University), (3) Design and Development of a Tri-axial Acoustic Core Flooding System (China Petroleum Logging), (4) Recent Research Progress in CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery and CO2 Storage (China University of Petroleum), (5) CO2 Phase Transition Induced Acoustic Velocity Change in Porous Media (Inst of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences), and (6) Global Warming and CO2 Storage in Geological Formations (Inst of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Dr. Zeng also visited the following academic organizations: (1) Chengdu University of Technology, (2) Environmental Engineering Research Institute, China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group, (3) Xi’an Institute of Post and Telecommunication, (4) Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, and (5) China University of Mining and Technology at Beijing. It is hoped that these presentations and visits will help in student recruiting and research cooperation. (Posted 08/23/2007)

Nels Forsman gives public presentation about meteorite identification - Dr. Forsman split podium time with state geologist and alumnus Ed Murphy as part of "Sensational Sundays" "Ancient Past" series at the North Dakota State Heritage Center in Bismarck on April 1, 2007, giving a presentation about meteorites and how to distinguish them from meteorwrongs. Ed Murphy discussed the history of North Dakota meteorites. 171 persons attended the presentation and an interview with Forsman was aired that same evening on KFYR TV. (Posted 04/04/2007)