Geological and Mining Engineering and Science News

Author: Brittany Buschell

Jordan Ewing Wins Big at the 2020 3MT Competition

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Jordan Ewing, Ph.D. student in GMES, won first place with his presentation “Terrain Traversing: X Marks the Spot”. Ewing also won the People’s Choice Award for his presentation. He will go on to represent Michigan Tech at the regional competition.

The runner up is Ninad Mohale, Ph.D. student in the Materials Science & Engineering department, with his presentation “Development of a Physically-Based Creep Model Incorporating ETA Phase Evolution for Nickel-Base Superalloys”.

The other finalists were: Masoud Ahmadi and Sadaf Batool, Ph.D. students in Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Mechanics; Parya Siahcheshm, Ph.D. student in Chemistry; Rachel Hetherington, Ph.D. student in GMES; Shardul Tiwari, Ph.D. student in Social Sciences, and Emily Lindback, MS student from the College of Forest Resources & Environmental Science.

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Bornhorst Recognized by Michigan Museums Association

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Ted-BornhorstProfessor Emeritus Ted Bornhorst (GMES), has been selected by the Michigan Museum Association (MMA) for one of its 2020 MMA Member Awards in the “Colleague Champions” category.

Bornhorst will be recognized at a virtual celebration hosted by MMA on Nov. 19, in recognition of his work that allowed the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum to safely reopen to the public on July 1, and to plan a smooth transition of leadership of the museum upon his retirement as executive director and interim curator.

A large piece of sheet copper from the White Pine mine at the entrance of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum. Photo credit: wikimedia.org
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NASA Awards Funding to Simon Carn

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Simon Carn is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $325,000 research and development grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The project is entitled, “Tracking Volcanic Gases from Magma Reservoir to the Atmosphere: Identifying Precursors, and Optimizing Models and Satellite Observations for Future Major Eruptions.”

This is a potential three-year project.

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The 2020 AIPG Student Chapter of the Year Award goes to Michigan Tech

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The American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) Student Chapter at Michigan Technological University has been selected as the 2020 AIPG Student Chapter of the Year.

Each year, AIPG recognizes the most outstanding student chapter for their activities, achievements, and contributions to the Institute. The award letter states, “the Student Chapter at Michigan Tech stood out among the AIPG Student Chapters in the nation this past year, and are highly deserving of this distinction and honor.”

The current chapter officers are:

Elana Barth, President (Geology)
Breeanne Huesdens, Vice President (Geological Engineering)
Emilie Pray, Treasurer (Geology)
Makala O’Donnell, Secretary (Geological Engineering)
The president and vice-president during the year of the award were Dustin Helmer (Geological Engineering) and Sienna Meekhof (Geology).

The chapter, which has more than 50 members is advised by Chad Deering (GMES) and Michigan Tech Alumnus David Adler ’82 BS geology, a Mannik Smith Group Certified Professional Geologist.

2020
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Emily Gochis, Ph.D. Candidate, Appointed As New MiSTEM Director

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Emily Gochis, Ph.D. candidate in GMES has been appointed as the director of the MiSTEM network in Region 16 of Michigan, which covers Keweenaw, Houghton, Ontonagon, Baraga, and Gogebic counties.emilypc

The new regional network, which replaces the Western U.P. Math and Science Center, has been established to form partnerships and strategies that promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and career pathways. These careers are often difficult to experience before a student reaches college when it becomes expensive to explore different career options. Presenting K-12 students with opportunities to experience hands-on STEM applications lets them consider these careers for themselves before making a college choice.

“I’m going out and communicating with anybody and everybody that does anything with science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the region, just trying to connect with all of them in order to create these new opportunities,” Gochis said.

Emily’s PhD advisor, John Gierke, had this to say about the new role that Emily will have in our region’s schools: “While we are certainly proud of Emily’s accomplishments that led to this appointment, we are very happy for the schools of the Western Upper Peninsula and the new opportunities that Emily will facilitate.” Gierke has worked with Emily since she completed her service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and notes that, “Her skills, creativity, and enthusiasm are vast. I am always amazed at her experience in teaching, research and service and how she puts those experiences together in building new educational programs and activities. We are certainly lucky that she is in this new role.”

Read more at the Daily Mining Gazette

 

Pictured: Emily Gochis as a PCV in El Salvador, contributing to our hazards research as car-battery sherpa. The batteries are used to power monitoring equipment on the volcanoes.

 

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Nominee for 2018 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award: Lauren Schaefer

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LaureLauren-Schaefer-2018n N. Schaefer received both an MSc in Geology (International Geological Masters in Volcanology and Geotechniques, 2012) and a PhD in Geological Engineering as a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow (2016) at Michigan Tech under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Oommen. Her dissertation investigated the potential for large-scale debris avalanches at Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala to optimize future monitoring and mitigation efforts. A combination of experimental rock mechanics, field investigations, remote sensing, and numerical modeling not only detected, but revealed the nature and mechanics of the largest landslide surge witnessed in a single event at a volcano. Her dissertation provided rare insight into precursory deformation prior to a potential future catastrophic collapse at an active volcano. Such an event was witnessed at Mount St. Helens in 1980, and is known to have occurred at over 400 volcanoes worldwide.

Currently, Lauren is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she continues to research landslide and volcanic hazards.

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NASA Project Funding For Simon Carn

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Simon Carn
Simon Carn

Simon Carn (GMES/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $27,883 research and development grant from the University of Maryland-The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The project is titled “Extending NASA’s EOS SO2 and NO2 Data Records from Auro/OMI to Suomi NPP/OMPS.”

This is the first year of a potential three-year project totaling $96,614.

By Sponsored Programs

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Dean’s Teaching Showcase: Chad Deering and Bob Barron

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by Michael Meyer, Director, William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and LearningPrint

This week’s Dean’s Teaching Showcase selection, made by Dean Wayne Pennington of the College of Engineering, is a unique teaching partnership. Assistant Professor Chad Deering and Lab Manager Bob Barron were selected for “deftly leading our students for the past three summers” through the field course in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences.

GMES Chair John Gierke explains the unique demands and challenges of teaching the field geology course. “While most of us hold a fondness to participate in fieldwork, the glamour wears off when conditions get tough or if the work turns out tedious. Field geology starts a few days after Spring Semester. In addition to the rapidly changing and variable weather, UP fieldwork in May and June is accompanied by hordes of mosquitoes and black flies. The glamour evaporates by the second day. Moreover, field geology is fraught with uncertainty and figuring out the geological setting is tedious. Frustrations with the weather, bugs, and unknown are pervasive. It takes special people to lead students through the five week, all-day, every-day course.”
In addition, Michigan Tech’s field course has non-traditional timing which creates unique learning opportunities, but might make the teaching even more demanding. Pennington explains, “In most institutions, the ‘field course’ in geology is the final course, often following all other coursework. At Michigan Tech, it is usually taken after the second year. This enables students to have a better understanding of the basis for nearly all their subsequent courses … but only if the field course is taught in a way that encourages self-discovery and insight. For many years, Bob and Chad have taken the field course to new levels of integration with the concepts students are exposed to in their courses, helping the students to better master the concepts as well as the practices involved in the various disciplines that are based on these experiences. This approach to field experience is one of the things that makes Michigan Tech unique, and our students more successful upon graduation.”
Deering and Barron’s co-nomination for the Dean’s Showcase is based not on one particular innovation but their collective skills for success in developing students’ field skills in geology. Their complementary styles and knowledge have been an ideal pairing for leading the course, and student evaluations of instruction confirm their effectiveness. They approach each new site with a sequence that includes background literature, field observations, measurements and sampling, then further study in the microscopy lab.
They find ways to reinforce the mineralogy, petrology and structural geology skills developed in prerequisite courses, and insist on frequent individual and small-group interactions in the field to help the students persist, guiding them to an appropriate explanation for each site.
Intermingled through the learning experience are barbecues, brief periods of shooting the breeze in picturesque locales and other recreational activities. The fieldwork activities culminate with students creating geological maps and reports describing their findings. At this point in their studies, students span a spectrum of abilities for scientific writing and creating maps, which require artistic skills along with technical competence.
Gierke articulates the unique teaching challenges of the field course, saying “Achieving a balance of being critical of quality and yet maintaining morale is a knack that I have never mastered—I, unfortunately, excel at the being-critical part. Yet Bob and Chad have somehow figured out how to take students who are exhausted, sunburned and fly bitten and keep them sufficiently motivated to produce maps that could be framed (for some) and develop writing skills that help them through the rest of their curriculum.”
Deering and Barron will be recognized at an end-of-term luncheon with other showcase members, and the team is now eligible for one of three new teaching awards to be given by the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning this summer recognizing introductory or large-class teaching, innovative or outside-the-classroom teaching methods, or work in curriculum and assessment.
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Tech Researcher Gets Mine Safety Grant

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The iStock_000006629083Large_0US Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $10,537,000 in mine safety grants, including $249,257 to Michigan Tech. The funds are intended to reduce mining accidents, injuries, and illnesses by supporting safety and health courses and other programs.

Grant recipients will use the funding to provide miners with the federally mandated training required for all miners working at surface and underground coal and metal/non-metal mines.

Principal investigator on the grant at Michigan Tech is Matthew Portfleet (GMES), assistant director of the University’s Mine Safety Program.

 

(Original post by Jenn Donovan in Tech Today, November 20, 2017)

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