STOCKTON – On May 10 I will be graduating. GRADUATING. That word evokes feelings of fear, anticipation, and excitement but also feelings of regret. When I entered University of the Pacific as a freshman, I was a Communication major. After toiling with a handful of General Education classes my freshman year, I went back and forth on whether that was the major for me. I considered moving to Psychology after taking Intro to Psychology as a sophomore. I thought about switching to Speech-Language Pathology because I wanted a deeper science foundation.

DENVER – We are pleased to report that Brittany Klemm (’14) is the recipient of the prestigious 2013 Austin A. Sartin Best Poster Award for her research presentation at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting last week. The 2013 Sigma Gamma Epsilon Undergraduate Research Poster Session that Brittany presented her research in featured 100 student posters.

DENVER – The Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences had a strong showing this past week at the national meeting of the Geological Society of America. This year is the society’s 125 anniversary and they really pulled out all the stops at the meeting. It was a HUGE and truly dynamic meeting! Left-Hand Brewery even crafted a special microbrew to help us celebrate! Over 8,000 academics, graduate students, undergraduate students, and professionals were in attendance.

HALF MOON BAY – On October 4 and 5, Dr. Pearson's Sedimentary Petrology class (GEOS 112) spent two great days on the central California coastline south of Half Moon Bay.  We visited Bean Hollow, Pomponino, Pescsadero, Gazos, and Ano Nuevo Beaches and studied the cliff outcrops of the Upper Cretaceous Pigeon Point Formation and the Miocene-Pliocene Purisima Formation.  We also spent time observing beaches and digging in the beach sand to observe beach lamination.

DESOLATION WILDERNESS – Brittany Klemm (’14), Dai Wilson (’14), Kevin Alvarado (’16) and Dr Burmeister escaped the clutches of the Central Valley for another day in the high Sierra doing fieldwork in our Grass Lake study area in the Desolation Wilderness Area.

SLY PARK – Drs Rademacher and Burmeister took advantage of the fall break to head up to Pollock Pines to visit the campus of the Sly Park Environmental Education Center. At Sly Park they spent several hours working with Sly Park’s newest faculty member, Dave “Gio” Giordano, who has a long and impressive history of active, hands-on science teaching, including several years working at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science.

Written by Dai Wilson, BS Geology '14

DESOLATION WILDERNESS – Dr. Burmeister returned to the Grass Lake study area in the Desolation Wilderness Area of the Eldorado National Forest this summer. Located only a 2.5 mile hike out of the Fallen Leaf Lake trailhead, the Grass Lake study area is an ideal place conduct research on the early history of the Sierra Nevada. This year, Dr.

DENVER –Dr Burmeister & his colleagues at the Wasatch-Uinta Geological Summer Field Camp were recently selected as the single awardee for the 2013 Geological Society of America/ExxonMobil Field Camp Excellence Award – a recently establishe