•WSU junior Sara Summers recently received the outstanding geosciences student poster award at the annual meeting of Sigma Xi Research Society in Washington, D.C.

Summers was honored for her research, “Atomic Force Microscopy Arctic Study of Calcite Surfaces,” which she presented at the conference. The research examines the ways global warming is changing the dynamics of arctic geochemical and microbial processes.

The project required Summers and other WSU researchers from the physics and geosciences discipline to collaborate with research centers in Poland. Summers worked closely with geosciences professor Marek Matyjasik, physics professor Colin Inglefield and other students.

The research team looked at calcite samples buried for one year, three years and six years in the glaciers of Spitsbergen Island, located off the coast of Norway. The data revealed changes in the carbon cycle as the glacier retreated.

•Dr. Adolph Yonkee (Geosciences Chair) was named a Presidential Distinguished Professor at Weber State University.

•Dr. Rick Ford serves as National President for Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the National Honor Society for the Earth Sciences.

Geosciences Faculty and Students Presenting at Upcoming National Conference:

Faculty and students in the Geosciences Department ( http://weber.edu/geosciences/) will be presenting several talks and posters at the upcoming Geological Society of America ( http://www.geosociety.org/ ) National Meeting being held in Portland Oregon.

•Sara Summers (student), with co-authors Dr. Marek Matyjasik and Dr. Colin Inglefield (Physics) will present a poster entitled: Weathering Patterns and Dissolution Rates of Calcite Buried in Arctic Soils on Spitsbergen: An AFM and SEM Study, as part of a session on “Frontiers in Mineral Sciences: Mineral/Melt Energetics, Mineral Surface Chemistry, Mineral Nanoscience, and High-Pressure Mineralogy.”

•Dr. Marek Matyjasik, with co-authors Dr. Michael Hernandez and Dr. Jim Wilson will present a talk entitled: Applied Environmental Geosciences at Weber State University, as part of a session on “Interactions and Interdependencies of Academic and Applied Geosciences: Advantages, Challenges, and Ways Forward.”

•Dr. Adolph Yonkee, with co-author Dr. Arlo Weil (Bryn Mawr College), will present a talk entitled: Determining the 3-D Kinematic History of the Wyoming Laramide Foreland: Preliminary Results From Detailed Structural Analysis of the Triassic Chugwater Group, as part of a session on “New Developments in Understanding the Mesozoic Cordilleran Orogen: Linking Forearc, Arc, and Backarc Processes.” A related talk entitled Determining the 3-D Kinematic History of the Wyoming Laramide Foreland: Preliminary Results From a Paleomagnetic Investigation of the Triassic Chugwater Group, will be presented by Dr. Weil in a session on “Tectonics: Advances in Understanding Tectonics and Orogenesis Ancient and Modern.”

•Dr. Adolph Yonkee is also a co-author with Dr. Dyana Czek (University of Wisconsin (http://www.wisc.edu/ )) who will present a talk entitled: Linking Fluid-Rock Interaction and Strain Accumulation in a Naturally Deformed Diamictite, in a session on “Geofluids and Deformation: Integrated Studies for the 21st Century.”

•Dr. Rick Ford, as National President of the Sigma Gamma Epsilon (http://www.uni.edu/earth/SGE/ ) student honor society in geosciences, will oversee judging of student posters in a special session on undergraduate research; 62 student posters will be in this session - a record.

•Dr. Michael Hernandez, along with Dr. Marek Matyjasik, Dr. Rick Ford, and students Sonya Welsh (alumnus, now in graduate school at Utah State University, Lee Bartholomew (alumnus, now in graduate school at Bowling Green State University, and James Arnold (Botany) recently presented a poster on Comparison of Alipine Wetlands Vegetation Between the Reader Lakes and Dry Fork Drainage Basins, Uinta Mountains, Utah, at the Association of American Geographers Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Division ( http://geography.unco.edu/GPRM/ ) Meeting in Logan, Utah.