Alesky Smirnow (GMES), is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $5,000 research and development agreement from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey. The project is “Magnetic Petrophysics of the Menominee Iron Range.”
This is a two-year project.
Ted Bornhorst, executive director and professor, A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum recently attended the 62nd annual meeting of the Institute on Lake Superior Geology held in Duluth, Minnesota. The Institute includes geologic field trips as well as two days of technical presentations and posters. He served on the board of directors at its annual meeting. The 63rd annual meeting will be held in Wawa, Ontario and Bornhorst will be co-chair along with two Canadian colleagues.
This is the third year of one day geotours of Michigan’s Keweenaw based on four of the five Geoelements of Keweenaw Geoheritage. These tours use ground and boat transportation and visit some of the most scenic and important geological spots in the Keweenaw.
We use the University’s research vessel Agassiz. Individual trips include “Lavas and the Keweenaw Rift,” “The Keweenaw Fault,” “Jacobsville Sandstone” and “Mining Wastes of Lake Superior.” The trips are led by Bill Rose and Erika Vye, from Michigan Tech’s Geological Engineering department.
Details of these trips are described online. They feature places that can best be seen by boat. There are only 17 spaces on each trip — sign up early.
President Barack Obama honors Assistant Professor Colleen Mouw with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
“These early-career scientists are leading the way in our efforts to confront and understand challenges from climate change to our health and wellness,” said President Obama.
All 106 recipients of the award are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education, or community outreach. The winners will receive their awards at a Washington, DC ceremony later this spring.
To read the official White House Press Release click here.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) posted a news story on its website about an open-vent volcano that erupted at Fuego, near Guatemala City. It quoted Greg Waite (GMES), who is studying the volcano under an NSF CAREER award.
Ted Bornhorst, executive director of the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and Dr. Chris Poulsen, chair of the department of Earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan, published an article titled: “Michigan Mineral Alliance” in the September issue of the international journal Rocks & Minerals. The article establishes a name for the legal agreement between Michigan Tech and the University of Michigan that provides for co-ownership and shared responsibility of the University of Michigan’s mineral collection. The collection is now at the museum and there is an introductory exhibit in the museum’s Thomas D. Shaffner exhibit hall.
Chad Deering (GMES) received a $77,039 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a research and development project titled, Understanding Basaltic Volcanic Processes by Remotely Measuring the Links Between Vegetation Health and Extent, and Volcanic Gas and Thermal Emissions using HyspIRI-like VSWIR and TIR data. This is the first year of a potential two-year project totaling $212,448.
Aleksey Smirnov (GMES/EPSSI) received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a research and development project titled, Paleointensity of the Paleoproterozoic Geomagnetic Field as Recorded by Single Silicate Crystals: Testing the “Proterozoic Dipole Low.” This is a three-year project.
GMES student Priscilla Addison received the Best Student Paper Award for “Rail Embankment Investigation Using Remote Sensing for a Permafrost Region” which she presented at the 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Cold Regions Engineering Conference: Developing and Maintaining Resilient Infrastructure, held earlier this month in Salt Lake City. The thrust of Addison’s paper was to look at remote sensing as a site investigative tool for the portion of the Hudson Bay railway embankment underlain with discontinuous permafrost in northern Manitoba, Canada. This research is jointly supported by OmniTRAX Inc. and National University Rail (NURail) Center funded by the U.S Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration (USDOT-RITA). Addison is co-advised by Associate Professor Thomas Oommen (GMES) and Assistant Professor Pasi Lautala (CEE).
The US Peace Corps’ Peace Car was on the Michigan Tech campus July 9th. An eco-friendly Smart Car, the Peace Car enables Peace Corps staff to share their mission while limiting their carbon footprint. See the photo here
The Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG) featured Lauren Schaefer, a PhD student in Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, as its AEG Featured Scholar for June 2015.
Jason Gulley (GMES) has received a $194,940 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation for the collaborative research project: What Hydrogeochemical Processes Control Weathering in the Deep Critical Zone of Unburied Karst Landscapes. This is a two-year project.
Bill Rose has started an effort to help get a local geoculture by doing a weekly department seminar. The idea is to have a partly technical and partly social event every friday from 3-4 (beginning Sept 4) with refreshments 4-5 pm.
Speakers from the department and other parts of the university and beyond have been scheduled. All of these people want to communicate with our geocommunity. They all can help us by being part of our support group for teaching, research, outreach and learning in general. These are mostly people that we don’t see every day, but who know about the Earth, Earth Science, Geology, Geological Engineering, Geophysics and Mining. The seminars will be done to inform all of us about our geocommunity, its elements and opportunities.
You may realize that Michigan Tech is a geouniversity, created because of its fortunate geology. Many people are here, whether they realize it our not, because of Earth’s gifts here and our geoheritage. You, as a member of the geocommunity have advantages and benefits that you may not know about.
Among the main things that you could get out of participation in this seminar series are:
1. Being able to write a better proposal, that explains its relevance more broadly, something that could help you get funding.
2. You might be able to identify outside examiners for your MS or PhD research.
3. You might learn about a part of geoscience or engineering that could help you do better work, or understand things better.
4. You might improve at explaining your future to your grandmother.
5. It will be fun and interesting.
We hope you will want to come every friday! 3-5pm
See the Website http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~raman/SilverI/Geoseminar/Welcome.html
The Keweenaw Peninsula is a place of natural beauty with a fascinating mining history. Join local expert Bill Rose in reading the landscape to learn how the Copper Country came to be the way it is today.
Each one-day field trip explores one of four major events in Earth’s history that make up the strong geoheritage of the Keweenaw: Lavas, the Keweenaw Fault, the Jacobsville Sandstone and Copper Mining Waste of Lake Superior. Participants can expect to cover a lot of ground and be outside all the time.
The trip dates are as follows:
TRIPS ARE ALL FULLY BOOKED
July 27 – Lavas and the Keweenaw Rift
July 28 – The Keweenaw Fault
July 29th – Jacobsville Sandstone
July 30th – Copper Mining Waste of Lake Superior Today
Travel is a combination of van transport, short walks and trips aboard Michigan Tech’s research vessel, the Agassiz. Trips are limited by boat capacity to 17 people. Each day trip costs $145 and includes lunch and snacks, boat and van transport.
For more information, trip descriptions and registration please visit the Keweenaw Geoheritage website. For specific questions, please email Erika Vye at ecvye@mtu.edu.
Dr. Ebrahim K. Tarshizi has been internationally recognized by the Young Operations Research (OR) Professional Award in the 37th International Symposium on Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral Industry (APCOM 2015) held in Fairbanks, Alaska, from May 23rd through May 27th. The focus of the 37th APCOM was to further the APCOM goal of contributing to effective decision-making processes throughout the entire mineral industry. APCOM was founded in 1961 by four American universities, including the University of Stanford, the University of Arizona, the Pennsylvania State University, and the Colorado School of Mines to promote the application of computer and operations research in the mineral industry. APCOM has become an international forum to present, discuss, and examine the state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in the mining and mineral industry.
Dr. Tarshizi is currently an assistant professor of mining engineering at Michigan Technological University’s Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences. He received a Ph.D. degree in Geo-Engineering/Mining Engineering from the Mackay School of Earth Sciences & Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He also received an MSc in Mining Engineering with a graduate minor in Business Administration from UNR, and an M.B.A. from the UNR College of Business. Dr. Tarshizi earned his bachelor’s degree in Mining-Exploration Engineering in 2004 in Iran.
Lauren N. Schaefer, PhD candidate in geological engineering, has been selected as the 2015 Marliave Scholar by the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geology (AEG) Foundation. The $4,000 scholarship recognizes outstanding scholarship and professional dedication by students in Engineering Geology or Geological Engineering. Schaefer’s PhD advisor is Thomas Oommen.
A three-year NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship has been awarded to PhD/Geology student, Brice Grunert for a project titled “CDOM Variability and Its Influence on Phytoplankton Distribution in a Sub-Arctic Basin.” He is currently under the direction of Dr. Colleen Mouw, Assistant Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences. The NASA fellowship is a highly competitive national program which had a 16% funding rate in Earth Sciences.
