Dear Alumni and Friends,

Greetings to all of you from the Department of Geology! As seems to be the tradition with our
annual departmental newsletter, we have lots of exciting news to bring to you about the activities of
our faculty, staff, and students during this past year.

As incoming departmental Chair this year, I speak for the entire Department of Geology in
extending a warm “thank you” to our outgoing Chair, Mark Wilson, who is currently enjoying a
much needed and deserved sabbatical during the Fall semester.

We also would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Brennan Jordan who has taught our Mineralogy
& Petrology series and other courses during the past two years. We wish Brennan well as he returns
“home” to his beloved Northwest and to his new teaching position at Whitman College.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome the newest members of our faculty. Dr. Jade Star Lackey is
joining us for three years to teach Mineralogy & Petrology, as well as other courses. Fresh from
receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Jade Star’s unique expertise in the use of stable
isotopes will provide new research opportunities for our students. Hilary Sanders, also a recent
Ph.D., from the University of Wisconsin, will teach History of Life during the Fall semester. Hilary is
an expert in paleontology specializing in the evolution of bivalves.

As many of you know, Lori Bettison-Varga has been teaching part-time in the department as she
filled the position of Faculty Grants Associate. Lori has now been appointed to the newly created
position of Associate Dean for Research and Grants for the next two years. We wish Lori well in her
new position. Lori also continues as Director of the Keck Geology Consortium.

The past year has been an exciting one for both faculty and student research. As is our tradition in
the Department of Geology, much of our research took us to exciting places including Iceland,
Arizona, Utah, Israel, the United Kingdom, Alaska, the south Pacific, Tennessee, and even Ohio. We
are particularly grateful to the many departmental endowments that make it possible for our
students to travel to such remote field sites.

As part of a topical course on “Desert Geology,” our students were able to experience the wonderful
exposures in the southern California desert. As might be expected, this was quite a hit with the
students and we appreciate the support for this trip from The Richard G. Osgood, Jr. Memorial
Lectureship in Geology .

We would like to gratefully acknowledge our Administrative Coordinator, Patrice Reeder, for all of
her help and amazing organization over the year. Thankfully, Patrice is now busy learning the
College’s complex new accounting system so that I don’t have to!

As always, we would like to hear from all of you so please take advantage of the Alumni
Information Sheet at the back of this report and also on our website. Have a great year!

Sincerely,

Robert Varga
Chair

Department of Geology • Scovel Hall, 944 College Mall • Wooster, Ohio 44691-2363
330/263-2380 • fax: 330-263-2249 • www.wooster.edu/geology