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SUMMER 2012 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 25
GEOLOGY ROCKS
ST. LAWRENCE’S GEOLOGY
DEPARTMENT A LEADING PRO-
VIDER OF FUTURE PROFESSORS
Perhaps no department at
St. Lawrence has produced more
college and university professors
than geology.
In fact, one study a few
years ago ranked St. Lawrence fifth
among all undergraduate institutions
in America in the number of eventual
Ph.D.s in geology and related fields
that went through its classes and labs,
ahead of such distinguished programs
as those at Middlebury and Williams.
At least from the days of the legendary
Robert O. “Rock Doc” Bloomer half a
century ago, the St. Lawrence geology
faculty have encouraged their majors to
pursue graduate degrees, and many of
those have become faculty themselves,
at institutions of higher learning from
coast to coast and beyond.
Don Rodbell ’83,
above, professor
and chair of geology at Union College,
teaches during a three-week field
geology mini-course in the Cordillera
Blanca in Peru. The students looked
for evidence of climate change by
mapping glacial moraines deposited
25,000 years ago. “The composition
of the moraines can tell us something
about the rate of climate change,”
he explains. He says he acquired
his dedication to field courses at
St. Lawrence.
Rodbell points out that “a lot of
SLU geology majors have gone
into the study of glaciers and past
climates.” He specifically mentions the
Juneau Icefield Research Program,
in which more than half a dozen
St. Lawrence geology alumni, including
Rodbell himself, have been involved.
Completing his term as director
of the program is Jay Fleisher ’61,
distinguished teaching professor
emeritus of geology at SUNY Oneonta.
—NSB
St. Lawrence alumni teach,
or have taught, at many
of America’s best-known
institutions of higher
learning. A sampling,
courtesy of our database:
Berklee College of
Music | Boston Uni-
versity |Bryn Mawr
| Colby | Columbia |
Cornell | Dartmouth
Medical School |
Duke | Franklin &
Marshall | Johns
Hopkins | The Juil-
liard School | Ohio
State | Pace Univer-
sity, Lubin School of
Business | Skidmore
| Stanford | Syracuse
University College
of Law | UCLA | Uni-
versity of | Southern
California | Univer-
sity of California –
Davis | University of
Virginia | University
of Wisconsin | Wash-
ington & Lee | Wil-
liam & Mary | Yale