Appreciating Earth
and Environment

To help make the Earth a better place, you must understand the processes that operate in its interior and on its surface. Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, landslides, and pollution are just a few of the topics that geologists and environmental scientists study. From glaciers to gemstones, rivers to mountains, canyons to oceans, earth scientists investigate the Earth’s features and how they have formed and evolved. They are also interested in ongoing processes that affect the Earth today.

The Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences (G&EG) offers an extensive set of courses that cover surficial processes, the Earth’s interior, and environmental problems. Three courses of study are offered, ranging from an A.B. program that provides maximum flexibility in designing an individualized curriculum to more structured B.S. programs for students headed to graduate school or the environmental workplace.

Whether you plan to pursue a career as a professional geologist, environmentalist, environmental lawyer, or environmental manager, the department has a program well-suited to each of these goals.

Students in the A.B. program are encouraged to double major. Some have combined G&EG with government and law for environmental law, or with economics and business in preparation for an M.B.A. leading to environmental management. The department also offers a minor.

Students are trained to evaluate scientific problems, not only through numerous field trips, but also through a senior-year capstone course involving actual field and laboratory problems. They are taught to make careful observations, record those observations, and interpret them using critical analysis of multiple working hypotheses.

The department features state-of-the-art computer hardware and software, as well as the full range of equipment used for geological study. Students learn to formulate and effectively communicate both oral and written solutions to the scientific problems they study.

The professional, yet informal, atmosphere for which the department is widely recognized commonly leads to lifelong friendships between faculty and students. Good times and collaborative work are fondly remembered long after graduation.

Special Opportunities

Field and laboratory experiences are an integral part of geologic and environmental studies. All courses include field trips and other experiences that bring the Earth to life.

On-campus geology courses take advantage of the varied local geologic environment through field trips, student field projects, and independent study and thesis research. The department maintains a well field and stream monitoring network on the Bushkill Creek watershed adjacent to campus for hydrologic studies.

Students in the oceanography course take three weekend field trips to: Seneca Lake, New York aboard a research vessel to collect lake bottom cores, the New Jersey coast to study beach erosion and coastal management, and Boston to see the New England Aquarium and take a whale-watching cruise.

During January interim, students may enroll in two courses offered by the department in alternate years: coral reefs and caves in the Bahamas, and volcanoes and landform evolution in the Hawaiian Islands.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in the Semester in Environmental Science at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Mass.

Department majors are encouraged to participate in independent research and/or a senior year thesis. Such research has taken students to Alaska, Nevada, the Canadian Rockies, Cambridge University (England), France, and Mexico in addition to numerous localities nearer the college.

Lafayette is tied for 10th place in the number of student-authored or coauthored papers published in geology journals among 50 liberal arts colleges for the period 1970-96, according to the May 2001 issue of Journal of Geoscience Education.

Excellent Facilities

The department is located in Van Wickle Hall, architecturally one of the most distinctive buildings on campus. Recently renovated, the building includes two laboratories equipped with “smart” classroom technology consisting of a video projector connected to a full array of audiovisual devices and a computer. A student computer lab with both Macintosh and Windows-based desktop computers was completed in 2001. The lecture hall, fully renovated in 2000, also includes smart classroom technology in a comfortable teaching and learning environment.

A recirculating hydraulics flume to study river behavior in a laboratory setting was installed in 2002. The flume, 1.75 meters (5 feet) wide and 9 meters (28 feet) long, was designed with maximum versatility and, among other things, can be used to study sediment transport or to create miniature rivers and drainage networks.

Other facilities include an x-ray diffractometer, and hydrologic, optical, and fluid inclusion equipment; a complete array of geophysical equipment, including a 24-channel seismometer, two gravimeters, an earth resistivity meter, and a magnetometer; a sedigraph automated particle size analyzer; and a collection of mineral specimens and fossils. Students have full access to facilities at all hours.

After Graduation

Among majors graduating in 2000 and 2001, 80 percent accepted full-time jobs, and 10 percent were volunteering, traveling, or working part-time by choice.

In the past, majors have gone on to graduate study at Arizona State University, Brown University, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Penn State, University of Pennsylva-nia, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Texas, University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University of Washington, and Yale University.

Others have pursued graduate work in BUSINESS—University of Massachusetts; LAW—Harvard Law School and St. John’s Law School; and MEDICINE—Brown University Medical School and Hershey Medical Center.

Graduates have found jobs as geologists, environmental geoscientists, gemologists, geophysicists, high school science teachers, mineral and oil consultants, research scientists, soil engineers, technicians, university professors, water pollution control specialists, doctors, and lawyers. Employers include Accenture, Baker, Inc., ExxonMobil, Hart Environmental Management Corporation, Layne Drilling Company, Loyola (Chicago) Medical School, Lycott Environmental Research, New Jersey Conservation Commission, R&G Engineers, Raytheon Corporation, Recon Environmental Corporation, SUNY-Stony Brook, Texas Instruments, University of California-Riverside, University of Nebraska, University of Texas, and United States Geological Survey.

Faculty and Staff

Dru Germanoski, Dr. Ervin R. VanArtsdalen '35 Professor and Head. Ph.D., Colorado State University. Special interests: earth's surficial processes (geomorphology), environmental geology, hydrogeology, fluvial geomorphology, fluvial sedimentology. Two-time winner of the Student Government Superior Teaching Award, recipient of Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award and Jones Lecture Award.

Guy L. Hovis, John H. Markle Professor. Ph.D., Harvard University. Special interests: mineralogy, thermodynamic properties of earth materials, X-ray powder diffraction, solution calorimetry, high-temperature geochemistry. Recipient of Jones Lecture Award, Jones Award for teaching and scholarship, and the Van Artsdalen Prize for scholarly achievement.

Lawrence L. Malinconico Jr., (Home Page), Associate Professor. Ph.D., Dartmouth College. Special interests: applied geophysical, tectonic, structural, and environmental studies; volcanology; computer applications in geology. Recipient of Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dru Germanoski
Head, Geology and Environmental Geoscience
(610) 330-5196
germanod@lafayette.edu

For general information:
Office of admissions
Lafayette College
Easton, PA 18042
(610) 330-5100
FAX (610) 330-5355
admissions@lafayette.edu