alumni reception - Syracuse Universe Department of Earth Sciences ...

and dredge samples during the field program, from
a variety of environments in Lake Turkana’s South
Basin. The 24-foot zodiac Hurricane inflatable
was skippered by Douglas Wood, and this versatile
vessel was fully outfitted for collecting sidescan
sonar, CHIRP high-resolution seismic and small
airgun seismic reflection data. It was also helpful for
investigate the geochemistry of Taihu Lake the water
supply for tens of millions of people. This research
collaboratively ties SU’s Earth Science Department
with the Biology and Oceanography departments
in three universities in China, including Nanjing
University. My new PhD student, Xiangyu Mu, heads
up this effort.
Tied to my new interest in large lakes, I
received funding from the Dean to mount an AGU
Chapman Conference at SU on: “Environmental
Intersections of Urbanization and Lakes.” I hope
to attract major speakers from around the world
to this conference. Last year I was also appointed
as Chairman of the National Water Science and
Technology Board of the National Research Council
(the working arm of the NAS). I expect to be traveling
around the nation advising committees on multiple
water quality and quantity problems as part of this
task.
Windy?! Try it with contacts! (Jacqueline
Corbett and Melissa Hicks).
transporting the onshore geoscience team to remote
outcrop areas and as a back-up boat to the larger and
slower Kilindi. The region of the Turkana Rift is the
original homeland for our own species, and all these
new data sets will contribute to new discoveries, and
to understanding the past environmental variability of
this remarkable system.
Donald Siegel
This past year, I have gotten into the public
arena while spending time educating people on the
science of the shale bed methane--as well as the
pseudoscience being presented as science by some.
The Natural Gas industry wishes to produce trillions of
cubic feet of gas from the New York and Pennsylvania
Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. I have advised
the USEPA and the State of New York DEC on this
matter, and have been speaking on various media
outlets at many levels about the process. I also hope to
initiate a large scale research program, in collaboration
with the Jackson School of the University of Texas, to
forensically characterize the fluids produced with the
methane throughout the nation to be able to clearly
evaluate potential contamination in the future of water
supplies.
Along with ongoing peatland research of
now 35 years (!), I have initiated this year a new
multidisciplinary research program in China to
The next “Iron Chef”?
As part of my Meredith Professorship, I am
now focusing more on different kinds of teaching
initiatives for the Department and University. For
example, after 28 years, I handed over the reigns of
my core hydrogeology class to Dr. Laura Lautz, and
my Earth Science class for non-science major students
to others in the Department. I now teach an Honors