1990-1999

Add your information | Back to Index

1999

Rachel "Cataclastic" Cahill '99, 13 Bancker Avenue Apt. 8, Scotia, NY 12302. phone: (518) 381-6228, email: rachelc@nealab.com
I am currently working as a organic chemist in the Volatiles Lab at Northeast Analytical-an environmental company. Mostly I test for volatile aromatics/halocarbons etc. in city water supplies, private and public wells, commercial products, and run-off/waste water from current and former superfund sites located in NY and throughout the country. I have also spent alot of time working on various PCB/Pesticide related projects. Contact me if your ever going to do a Northeast trip again, we have a cabin in the Adirondacks and are always open to guests. Hope all is well in the Dairy State!

Nicholas "Magma Chamber" Chambers '99, 5238 SW Commons Way, Corvallis, OR 97333. phone: 541-908-4859, email: nchambers@mac.com
After moving to Oregon seven years ago, I had a short stint at the Oregon Department of Transportation before returning to school in pursuit of my MS in Soil Science at Oregon State University in Corvallis. My research was focused on seasonal oxidation and reduction of iron in soil water and subsequent iron isotope fractionation in sandy soils on the Oregon coast. As part of that whole thing, I was able to go to Switzerland for four months and learn about measuring heavy stable isotope fractionation in nature using multi-collector ICP-MS machines with incredible sensitivity buried four stories underground. Oh yeah... I also got to ski and hike in the Alps... and I met my wife there, too. She is a German citizen with a PhD in entomology. We've been busy since then... we now have two kids who can speak two languages. It has been a blast.... and tiring! I finished up my MS in 2005, and I'm currently working at the Oregon Department of Agriculture in the Natural Resources Division. I've been co-opted into several programs including Air and Water Quality as well as endangered species recovery. Although it may seem far from my geology roots, I get to do a lot of field work and my geology and soils knowledge comes in handy more often than you might think. I'm a certified professional soil scientist now... which also comes in handy because I'm the only soil scientist in the entire Department of Agriculture. If you're thinking of moving to Oregon, or you're already here, drop me a line. I'd be happy to network or consult about working for state government.

Angela "Druidstone" Dudek '99, 28 Valentine Ave, Glen Cove, NY 11542. phone: (516) 674-8247, email: angeladudek77@hotmail.com
Hello from New York! I left Beloit in 1999 and moved to Milwaukee to write my thesis, be near my family, and take my physics requirement at UW-Milwaukee. Miraculously, this actually resulted in a finished thesis. Robin and I were married in Seattle on August 5, 2000 and moved to Glen Cove, New York (actually we drove from Seattle to New York with a full load of wedding presents, and no, I don't recommend it!) We settled down here on Long Island, and I worked for about a year in Manhattan as tech director of a multimedia firm. After deciding that the commuting life was not for me, I started my own web development company and am currently experiencing the joys and trials of small-business ownership. Robin is working as an assistant professor of anatomy at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. We are well and happy, and would welcome contact from any Beloit alumni who will be out east.

1998

James "Metastable" Metcalf '98, 204 Heroy Geology Laboratory, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. phone: 315-443-4980, website: http://pangea.stanford.edu/~jmetcalf, email: jmetcalf@gmail.com
I finshed my Ph.D. at Stanford in August, packed up the moving truck, and headed about as far east as I could go. I have now started a postdoc at Syracuse University, where I'll be working on the thermochronologic evolution of the Pyrenees, specifically focusing on spatial and temporal patterns of uplift during the Cenozoic. Like with graduate school, I'll be using as many thermochronometers as I can get a hold of, expecially apatite (U-Th)/He and fission-track. I'll also hopefully be pursuing some side projects in the Basin and Range and Sierra Nevada.

Rachael "Hot Spot" Howse '98
The geology website looks great! I was wondering if the Department is going to Northern MN for Fall Break? If you are, depending on the dates, I'd be interested in meeting up with the field trip for a day or so. Who's teaching mineralogy now? My job at the Watershed District involves a lot of explaining sand plain hydrology to suburbanites who think that we keep the groundwater in a huge underground cistern (unfortunately, its true). So, refreshing the part of my brain that stores the mineral knowledge would be a fun change.

I spent this past Memorial Day weekend in the BWCA. For better or for worse, I still subscribe to Chief's method of canoe travel (43 miles in 2.5 days - 8 miles of portage). It wasn't planned in advance, but we ended up seeing a lot of what Chief described on the Mineralogy/Structure Fall Break trip (the Crooked Lake border route, Lower Basswood Falls, and a few other things I didn't know were still lurking in my brain). It was a fun and even relaxing trip - although much more ambitious than the group had originally planned!

I hope all is well for the Leaky-Booters!

1995

Nelson "Erratic" Erb '95, 119 Brown Rd, Brighton, IL, 62012. phone: 618-372-3003, email: nelson_erb@yahoo.com
Following graduation from Ohio State with a M.S. in Hydrogeology, I worked for 4 years in Las Vegas on the Yucca Mountain Project. Then my career took a sharp left turn. I am currently working as a Computer Programmer for a financial company in the St. Louis area. I spend most of my free time with our three young children: Madeleine (5), Isaac (2) and Lily (11 months).

1994

William "Pectolite" Peck '94, Department of Geology, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346. phone: (315) 228-6798, email: wpeck@mail.colgate.edu, website: http://departments.colgate.edu/geology/faculty/wm/peck.htm
Hello from New York! I just finished my second year here at Colgate, where I teach Petrology, Economic Geology, Environmental Geology, and other miscellaneous topics. When I jointed the Colgate faculty the first course I taught was a first-year seminar on Earth Resources, 10 years to the month after my own first-year seminar with Carl Mendelson (The Age of Dinosaurs). My research these days concerns conditions on the Earth during its first few hundred thousand years, using isotope and trace element geochemistry of Early Archean detrital zircons. Closer to home I work on the Proterozoic history of the Adirondacks and Canadian Grenville Province. Myongsun Kong and I were married in September of 2001, and we live in Hamilton NY where Myongsun is Colgate's new GIS specialist. We welcome Leaky Booters passing through central New York!

1991

Andy "Well Sorted" West '91, 4434 Columbia Blvd, Juneau, AK 99801. phone: (907) 790-7278, email: andywwest@yahoo.com.
Hello Leaky Booters! I've been up in Alaska ever since gradauting from Beloit. I spent my first three years in Fairbanks getting my Masters degree. I left cold Fairbanks for the Banana-belt of Alaska, Juneau in 1994, taking a job as a contract geologist at the Greens Creek Mine. That's where I am today! I currently supervise the surface exploration department, spending my summers flying around in a helicopter and trying to avoid Brown Bears on the most densely bear-packed island in the world (.9 square miles per a bear). I meet my wife, Sandy, here in Juneau and we have two great boys, Elias and Brendan, and two very troublesome dogs, Shroom and Terrell. Give us a call if you are ever in Juneau!!

1990

Gary "Crenulation" Creaser '90, 37 Liberty Drive, Bangor, Maine. phone: 207-848-5714, website: www.swcole.com, email: gcreaser@swcole.com
Hello! I'm here in the great white north (Bangor, Maine), where I am an engineering geologist with a geotechnical engineering firm (S.W. Cole Engineering). My wife, Emma, is a professor of physiology at Unity College in Unity, Maine. We moved to Bangor from Naples, Florida in 1997. Recently, I've been working on tidal current monitoring in Bar Harbor and modeling groundwater movement beneath melting snow piles in wastewater disposal fields. Never a dull moment! By the way, the web site looks great! Gary (Crenulation) Creaser, Class of 86.
Howdy! Just noticed that I put the wrong graduation year with my message / update sent a few months back. 1990 instead of 86. Must have been thinking about high school! It's been so long! Gary

Shannon Parsons-DePry '90, 2413 La Pluma St., Henderson, NV 89014. phone: 702-433-2651, email: parsonsm@nv.doe.gov
Since graduating from Beloit in 1990, I obtained my MS in Geoscience from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I've been working for the DOE contractor at the Nevada Test Site ever since, although the work I have done has been quite varied. I started out doing sedimentary mapping of pit walls for low level radioactive waste disposal pits. I then spent a few years heading up some environmental cleanup operations on Johnston Atoll, which is located off of Hawaii. After that it was back to the Nevada desert and drilling into subsidence craters that were created by the detonation of nuclear weapons. These craters are used as waste disposal pits at the Nevada Test Site. I did a stint logging core in the tunnels at Yucca Mountain (as you have probably heard is being considered admist much controvery as the depository for the nations high level radioactive waste). Then, I spent another couple of years as a task manager for more environmental remediation jobs, this! time at the Nevada Test Site. Last August, I took over as manager for the Hazardous Waste Operations at the Nevada Test Site. My group is responsible for safely and legally managing all nonradioactive hazardous waste generated at the Department of Energy's Nevada Operations, which includes 5 locations throughout the southwest. On a personal note, I married Daryl DePry in 1998 after a 7 year "courtship". We had our first child in March 2000. Connor is your typical toddler, into everything, loves being outdoors, in the water, in the dirt, back in the water, etc.. He also loves books, has the goofiest sense of humor and is an endless source of joy and amazement. As for future plans, we are waiting for Daryl to finish his MFA next year then we will see what academenic positions open up for him (is Beloit looking for a printmaking instructor?) So, a move is always a possibility in the next few years. Meanwhile, we're just biding our time in Lost Wages, Nevada!

Keith "High Kurtosis" Krugh '90, 7088 Pinecrest, Park City, UT 84098. phone: 435-615-6996, email: keith.krugh@Holcim.com
After several work related moves, (Colorado, Mexico City, Michigan, and Colorado again) my wife Erika, son Julian (born 1-17-07) and I are currently making Park City, Utah our home. I've remained in the cement business since leaving the academic world, and now work as a plant manager of a cement manufacturing facility. It's a pretty interesting business because we're part large mine operation, part milling, part pyro-process, and part chemical plant, and the Leaky Booters are always welcome if you're ever planning a trip out this way. Also, if any of you "old" profs or alums are in the neighborhood, especially in winter, please look us up. We're ten minutes from the lifts and have lots of room at the house.

Laura Reiser Wetzel '90, Eckerd College, 4200 54th Avenue South, Saint Petersburg, FL 33711. phone: 727-864-8484, email: wetzellr@eckerd.edu
I've been at Eckerd College in the Marine Science department since 1997 when I finished my PhD at Washington University in Saint Louis. My office overlooks the Gulf of Mexico, which is a great thing unless a hurricane is coming our way! I teach your typical wide range of geology classes at a small liberal arts college, including mineralogy, structural geology, geophysics, hydrology, marine geology, and oceanography. Jim Wetzel (also Beloit class of 1990) and I married what seems like ages ago. We have a wonderful young daughter and are in Saint Petersburg to stay!