Faculty Research Interests

John Brady  Metamorpism of rocks from Syros Greece and the geology of the Tobacco Root Mountains of Montana.

Mark Brandriss  Continental arc plutonism and magma mixing, Alaska, Iceland, and Scotland.

H. Robert Burger  Comparison of the structural evolution of Death Valley and the Connecticut Valley; geophysical imaging of Connecticut Valley structure.

H. Allen Curran  Coral reefs of the Bahamas, Belize, and the Dominican Republic.

Bosiljka Glumac Use of isotopic techniques in sedimentology and stratigraphy of carbonate rocks.

Jack Loveless Structural geology, use of GPS data to constrain earthquake cycle processes, active tectonics of southern California, Chile, Japan, and the Tibetan Plateau.

Robert Newton  Ground water contamination  issues.  The role of groundwater/wetland interactions.

Sara Pruss  Understanding the role of ancient skeleton-producing invertebrates in carbonate cycle.

Amy Rhodes  Hydrology of cloud forests in Monte Verde Costa Rica and the impact of road salt on Kampoosa Bog, Massachusetts.

The Department of Geosciences has a number of specific strengths in addition to its carefully planned educational philosophy and specific goals, its diverse course opportunities, and dedicated faculty.

Our faculty is committed to both teaching and research. If one scans our publications and professional activities, it is readily apparent that our entire faculty engages in geological research and publishes in a wide variety of journals. However, everyone also has engaged in a number of professional activities dedicated to and focused on teaching.

Student Research Projects

In the past several years geoscience majors have done summer research projects in the following locations:

Iceland
Scotland
Svalbard, Norway
Costa Rica
Croatia
Alaska
Adirondacks of New York
Western Massachusetts
Finger Lakes of New York

Smith is a member of the Keck Geology Consortium that offers students summer research field opportunities.  Projects in the past several years have been in:

Iceland
Mongolia
Cozumel Mexico
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Rhode Island
Canyonlands Utah
Finger Lakes Region NY
Washington State
Colorado