EDITOR’S NOTE: A few months back, Bob Cowdery asked each of the state universities to write an update on the activities and programs in their respective Departments of Geology.  The only university to respond to this request was the University of Kansas.  I hope that after seeing this article, the other departments will respond in kind.  Please forward by mail to the KGS to my attention or e-mail to whansen@southwind.net

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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

     The University of Kansas Department of Geology enjoyed a very successful 2001, and we continue to reap the benefits of generous alumni, talented faculty and students, and strategic planning.  There are five new faculty who joined us last year.  Rick Devlin (hydrogeology/contaminant transport) started in January of 2001.  In August, four other new faculty joined the Department:  Jennifer Rogers (microbial hydrogeology), Dan Stockli (petrology-tectonics-geochronology), Steve Hasiotis (paleontology), and Beth McClellan (petrology-tectonics).  During the Spring 2002 semester we conducted a search for a new geophysicist and are very pleased that George Tsoflias has accepted our offer and will be joining us soon.  Some new professional staff members have also joined the Geology Department.  We hired Dr. Assad S. Al-Ammar in January as laboratory manager for the Plasma Analysis Laboratory (PAL).  Assad is jointly funded by the College and the Kansas Geological Survey, and he splits his duties between the two.  We have also hired Joey Mosteller as a specialist in rock preparation for the carbonate program in particular and petrology in general.  His position is also a joint Department – Kansas Geological Survey appointment.

      Just after New Year’s 2001, we received a notice from the KU Endowment Association that Alice S. Patterson, widow of alumnus Joseph M. Patterson, had died and bequeathed the bulk of her estate to the scholarship fund she set up in her husband’s name.  This bequest greatly increased our scholarship endowment.  Our faculty are evaluating the best way to use these funds, and on key plan is to use the Patterson Fund for some full-expense scholarships to recruit new, top-flight students or to reward excellent continuing students.  To satisfy the research and graduate teaching needs of our new and continuing faculty, we have significant new facilities available.  Notable among these are a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope that was purchases with an interdisciplinary research grant fronted by the KU Physics Department and including geology.

     Our faculty continue to be research-active, with over $3 million worth of grants in force.  They are active around the world, in Italy, Spain, Egypt, Libya, Hungary, Mexico, China, Iran, Russia, Switzerland, France, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Australia, Belgium, Antarctica, Norway and Canada.  With the addition of several new faculty, we now have a good balance in many key fields of geology.  At last count we have 72 declared undergraduate majors (15 BA majors, 57 GS majors) and at least 5 declared Geology minors (a new option).  Our four introductory courses garnered a total enrollment of 1187 students for Fall 2001, and attracted even more undergraduates during the Spring 2002 semester.  These courses are a major tool in recruiting undergraduate majors.  There are currently about 40 graduate students active on campus.  Our student recruiting will be substantially aided by the ability to offer several full-expense “Patterson Scholar” awards to the incoming class next fall.  Recruiting will also be aided by the strong presence that KU Geology held at the 2001 SEPM and AAPG meetings, where alumni, faculty and students won many top honors.  These included the Francis J. Pettijohn Medal for Excellence in Sedimentology (Dr. Paul Enos), The William H. Twenhofel Medal for Excellence in Sedimentary Geology (Dr. William L. Fisher), a Distinguished Educator Award (Dr. John Harbaugh), the Jules Braunstein Memorial Award (Mr. Brad Prather), first and third place in AAPG’s best student poster competition (Mr. Jason Cansler & Dr. Tim Carr; Mr. Peter Dillet, Dr. Paul Enos, and Dr. Dan Lehrmann), and an SEPM honorable mention for excellence of poster presentation  (Dr. Robert Goldstein & Dr. Evan Franseen).  Other KU presentations from the 2001 meeting were later awarded AAPG’s Jules Braunstein Memorial Award (Mr. Martin Dubois, Dr. Lynn Watney and Mr. Alan Byrnes) and the SEPM excellence fro poster presentation award (Ms. Anita Scoma & Dr. Robert Goldstein).  Also, Dr. Bruce Lieberman recently learned that he will be awarded the Paleontological Society’s Schuchert Award for Outstanding Young Paleontologist.