2005_vprdoc PSpreads2.qxp - University of Akron

Teaching and research may not always seem like fun
and games, but Dr. Lisa Park is working on it. In conjunction with
the Paleontological Council, Park is developing a game for
budding paleontologists. The game is part of a junior paleontologist
program that will allow children to venture into the field
of fossils in a fun and interesting way. However, Park, associate
professor of geology, still deals mostly with “big kids;” keeping it
fresh, fun and interesting for them is among her main objectives.
“I like when students get excited about what I’m excited about,”
Park says. “I like their enthusiasm and energy. Also, I learn
things when I teach. They might give me some insight. I’m always
learning, right there next to them.” Among Park’s projects have
been two books, with a third on the way. The project, “Lake
Faunas Through Time” involves creating a data base of all lake
deposits throughout history.
But when Park gets a gleam in her eye, literally, she’s talking
about the University’s acquisition of a Quanta 200 environmental
scanning electron microscope, as well as the joint creation of
the Center for Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy.
The learning tool was a product of a $250,000 grant secured by
Park and her colleague, Dr. David Black, one of two six-figure
grants she has landed. “Science, in general, is an area of
discovery,” Park says, adding that the microscope enables new
levels to be achieved. “It’s easy to study and get excited about it.
You learn and find new things every day.”
Funny she began learning these things at all. Park didn’t set out
to become a great researcher or paleontologist, necessarily. It
wasn’t until she spent a year abroad in Scotland that she learned
she had a lot of questions about life in
general, questions that could be answered
through paleontology.
Park
“I was always asking myself, ‘Who are we
Why are we here’,” Park recalls. “I went to visit a colleague at
the Natural History Museum in London and she showed me all
these fossils. In college, you struggle with ideas and things like,
how did the diversity of life originate ‘Part of this can be
answered,’ my colleague said. ‘You could spend your entire life
studying them.’”
The rest, as they say, was history. Or at least a form of it. Park
began a path that took her to the University of Arizona, where
she earned a doctorate. She is now in her 10th year at Akron and
says she learns things every day.
She has co-hosted an international paleontology conference
with experts from half a dozen countries attending, and has been
published more than 50 times. Geology department chair, Dr.
John Szabo, reports that she recently organized the best
colloquium series he’s seen during his 30 years in the
department. As one of the founding members of the
Palaeolimnology Division of the Geological Society of America,
Park is well-known in the geologic research community.
Of working at UA, Park says, “Our department has really had a
tremendous run this past six or seven years that I’ve been here.
The faculty is energized and doing great things. I’m happy to be
amid them and working with them.”
Szabo is equally pleased to have Park at The University of Akron.
He particularly notes Park’s involvement with both undergraduate
and graduate students — she has led several field
trips, including a much-attended trip to San Salvador Island in
the Bahamas, as well as visits to view rocks deposited in
lacustrine environments in the West.
“Teaching and research — I think they are things where you can
do a lot of work, individually and together,” Park says. “Colleges
keep things fresh. Students keep things fresh.”
Fox
Adams
For Phil Fox and Heather Adams,
working with Dr. Lisa Park has been about
more than studying and learning, but about
relationships and friendships.
Fox, who trades barbs with Park upon
stumbling across his mentor in a hallway,
says learning from Park meant
learning more than things about
30
invertebrate fossils, but about life lessons.
“I learned that when the chips are down
and your back is against the wall, you will
always have good friends such as her to
help you out,” he says.
Adams, also a student of Park’s, invokes
the term “friend” as well when speaking
of their student-teacher relationship.
“Dr. Park taught me that the two most
important things I can do are to keep
things in perspective and to balance
priorities,” she says. “She also gave me her
friendship, and that is something I will
cherish for many years.”
But it goes beyond that for both. Fox says
Park’s influence and knowledge of science