FACULTY NEWS

John P. Buchanan - The 1994-95 academic year kept my graduate students and
I busy with an interesting mix of regional environmental studies.  Three
earned their M.S. degrees:  Nasir Aziz completed a study on West Medical
Lake where he developed a water budget for the lake system, carefully
considering the role of groundwater in maintaining this scabland lake; Bill
Deobald investigated the hydrogeology of the West Plains area in Spokane
County, focusing on the basalt aquifers and their water quality; and Eric
Johnson compiled a radon potential map of the Spokane area, based on more
than 150 soil gas radon measurements.  At present, additional contract
funding is supporting Reanette Boese in her description of aquifers in the
Little Spokane River watershed.  Doug Christenson is preparing a stormwater
runoff plan for the city of Cheney, and Tim Orr hopes to continue a mine
study with the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

	I continue my work on developing and maintaining the groundwater flow
model for the Rathdrum Prairie-Spokane Valley aquifer system, assisting the
EPA and the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality in delineating a TCE
(contaminant) plume near Coeur d'Alene.  I attended the first symposium on
the Hydrogeology of Washington State in Olympia this past summer, where I
delivered several papers (some co-authored with graduate students) on
recent work performed here at EWU; I'm working on organizing this
conference in Spokane in 1997.  In addition, I also am continuing my cave
and karst studies in Belize, Central America (a summary article of this
work was published in the October 1995 issue of The World & I magazine).
Throw in a bit of private consulting, expert witness testimony and some
more caving adventures, and it's been a fascinating year.

Ernest H. Gilmour - 1995 has been a vintage year - lots of fun teaching;
good year with the bryozoans; and lots of service for the department.  For
the first time in many years, I was able to teach carbonates winter
quarter, and I had a ball.  I had forgotten how
much fun it is to delve into the world of reefs, banks, and organisms.
Also taught my share of Geology 100 and paleontology, but really missed my
spending three weeks in the field teaching field geology.  Some of my best
teaching memories relate to field camp.

	Research on Paleozoic Bryozoa has been in high gear all year.  Our article
on the Fenestrida and Rhabdomesida of the Otter Formation, central Montana,
came out in the September issue of the Journal of Paleontology.  Mimi
McColloch (MS, 1992) and I just submitted another article to the Journal of
Paleontology entitled "Bryozoa of the Murdock Mountain Formation,
northeastern Nevada."  We also finished another article to be published in
New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics.  The paper I gave in China
on the "Paleobiogeography of Late Permian Bryozoa" has been published in
the Chinese journal Palaeoworld.  I also co-authored two papers with
Professor I. P. Morozova which she presented at an International Symposium
in Moscow, Russia last summer.  These will be translated into Russian and
published in a Russian journal.  I also co-authored a paper with Ed Synder
(BS, 1975; MS, 1976) on the "Fenestrate bryozoans of the Gerster Limestone,
northeastern Nevada," at the Rocky Mountain GSA Section meeting at Bozeman,
Montana.  Ed, his wife Nan, my wife Peggy, and I spent three days hearing
papers, presenting papers, eating exotic Montana food, and visiting the
local Bozeman geology - wonderful time.

	The grants year was good too, as I received funding for the eighth
consecutive year to compile and publish the Math/Science Bulletin for
teachers in the State of Washington.  Also received a summer faculty
research grant which has enabled me to keep Mimi McColloch employed
half-time to work in the paleontological research lab as we continue to
study the Permian Bryozoa of the world.

	I'm still advisor to the Geology Club, and we have another good bunch of
officers this year which translates into an active club.  The students held
a banquet in October and honored Felix Mutschler who is retiring.  They've
had pizza parties and field trips which adds lots of excitement and
interest to the Department.

	Served as chairman of the Student Poster Session at the Northwest Mining
Association meeting and was elected secretary of the Rocky Mountain Section
of the Paleontological Society.

	As I mentioned last year, my daughter Laura and I continue to show our
purebred rabbits around the Northwest.  It's a fascinating hobby that
requires a thorough understanding of the genetics involved in breeding show
rabbits.  We have several grand champions in our rabbitry.  My son Bill
made a lateral move with Waste Management Inc. and is now involved with the
government regulations concerning one of the largest landfills in the State
of California near San Francisco.  The heavy rains last spring gave him
lots of headaches.

Mohammed Ikramuddin - I continue to work with graduate students and
researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey on heavy metal contamination of
sediments, soils and plants from the Coeur d'Alene River, Idaho.  We
published and presented several papers including a presentation on Coeur
d'Alene River sediments at the 17th International Geochemical Exploration
Symposium held in Townville, Australia.  Recently students from the
Chemistry and Biology Departments have been working with me on several
research projects.

Eugene P. Kiver - Activities this year include the usual teaching schedule,
professional leave (fall quarter), and continued research on surficial
sediments of eastern Washington.  Professor Buchanan and I continue to
insure that students have an opportunity to acquire field experiences with
our week-long excursions to areas of geologic significance.  Weather can
be, as usual, very unpredictable as we discovered when we woke up the first
morning in Utah with two inches of snow on our sleeping bags!  Our Oregon
volcanoes trip in the fall made up for it by being unusually warm, like in
the high 80's.  For you statisticians out there, I guess that means that,
on the average, we were very comfortable!

	Beginning next year I will be on reduced teaching (with reduced salary) to
provide more time for my book writing and other research activities.  Much
of my shared research with Professor Stradling, Buchanan, the State
geologist office, and the USGS is on hold while the geology of the national
parks book is being rewritten.  With all the budget cutting, including
eliminating some of the national park service areas, hopefully Congress
leaves some national parks for us to visit!  So far this year Professor
Stradling and I have published a chapter on Landforms in the Geography of
the Pacific Northwest, a USGS surficial map of the Chewelah quadrangle, and
we have a manuscript accepted by the Canadian Journal of Earth Science.

Linda B. McCollum, Chair - I am well into my third year as chair, and that
has kept me busy with budget cuts, both in the department and in the
library, plus personnel matters.  I continue to teach Historical Geology
and Stratigraphy for the undergraduate majors.  Due to the budget cuts and
lack of funds, we have not been able to offer the spring geology field camp
for a number of years now, and I really miss that experience with the
senior graduating class.  There is a possibility of starting a summer camp,
but it would have to be self-supporting.  Over the last three years, I have
managed to create an opportunity to spend two weeks in the field with
students in late summer.  Research grants have covered the expense of
involving undergraduate students in a meaningful experience, including the
fundamentals of collection and analysis of data, describing geologic
sections, and mapping small areas.  The enjoyment of sitting around a
campfire in the evening and discussing the day's progress, and looking
forward to tomorrow's challenges, cannot ever be duplicated in a classroom
environment.  The summer research, which was aimed at documenting one  of
the earth's earliest extinction events and subsequent faunal recovery at
the Lower-Middle Cambrian boundary, resulted in the unexpected discovery of
a Burgess Shale-type fauna.  If you're not sure what this fauna is, look at
the December 4, 1995 issue of Time magagzine or check out a library copy of
Stephen Jay Gould's best-selling Wonderful Life.  Anyway, these soft-bodied
forms are seldom preserved as fossils and are extremely important in
understanding the evolutionary beginnings of the major forms of life on the
planet today.

	Julie Eddy is diligently working on the Middle Cambrian faunas of the
Pioche Formation in the Delamar Range in southern Nevada.  She is working
on a very important part of the recovery interval for her M.S. degree.

	I presented a poster session on the Lower-Middle Cambrian extinction at
the GSA national meeting in Seattle in late October, 1994.  This was
followed by an oral presentation at a symposium sponsored by the
InternationalGeological Correlation Project on Biotic Recoveries after
Mass Extinctions at the Geological Association of Canada meeting in
Victoria, British Columbia.  I also spent two weeks on a field excursion to
the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco to investigate the Lower and Middle
Cambrian faunas and facies there and compare them with those of North
America.

Felix E. Mutschler - Felix retired from his teaching position at the end of
1995 to become professor emeritus.  He plans to continue research on
volcanology and the genesis of ore deposits as a volunteer with the U.S.
Geological Survey.  To celebrate Felix's 26 years of iconoclastic service
to the University, the Geology Department erected a basalt column with a
commemorative plaque behind the Science Building.  Dale Stradling remarked
that the column does not measure up to Felix's stature.

William K. Steele - The major new development in my life is a health
matter.  While hiking in the Cascades near Leavenworth last summer, I
slipped on a grassy slope, threw my right arm in a big arc to regain my
balance, and in the process tore a muscle in my rotator cuff from the bone.
After no response to several weeks of physical therapy, I was sent for an
MRI, and on that basis was signed up for shoulder surgery.  The operation
was 10 October 95, and I'm presently recuperating.  I must have my arm in a
sling for six weeks and do passive exercises several times a day to regain
motion.  Of course I'm right-handed, so the injury has been a major
inconvenience in teaching as well as life in general.  I've been using the
overhead projector instead of my usual writing on the board.  The sling
comes off Thanksgiving Day, and then I need to do strengthening exercises.
Other people who've had this problem say it takes about six months to get
back to normal.  My wife says I was never normal.

	To the most interesting aspect of this whole episode has been the
introduction to MRI technology.  The basic principle is the same as for the
proton magnetometers used in geology to measure the geomagnetic field.  The
difference is that the magnetic field is the unknown in magnetic surveying,
but a known field is applied in MRI.  The images of the body obtained in
MRI are far superior to anything in geophysics; you can even see individual
muscle fibers.  If you would like more information about MRI methods and
have access to the Internet, go to http://kayla.wustl.edu/ or
http://www.xray.ufl.edu/~rball/teach/491.html or simply search "MRI."  Some
of the images on the net are really spectacular.

Raymond Tekverk/Jan Fay - We are very pleased to be joining the EWU Geology
faculty this year, taking over the crystallography, mineralogy, petrology
sequence and the Rocks and Minerals course.  Additionally, we look forward
to offering a new course this spring, Environmental Ethics, at the Spokane
site.

	When we are not involved on campus, we own and operate a geological
consulting business in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  Our academic backgrounds in
geology were primarily in crystallography, mineralogy and economic geology.
As a company, we consult to the remains of the mining industry, and
assorted environmental work, particularly in the area of
naturally-occurring radiation.  During the last year, we've completed
several research projects including a large study of the Washington State
Indoor Air Quality Building Code.  We addressed areas of the code which
concerned radon.

	We were invited to present a paper at the Annual Conference of the
American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists.  Ray went to
Nashville in September to report our findings on Passive stack
effectiveness in radon resistant new construction.

	In our leisure (?) time, we have three fantastic daughters who keep us
ever challenged.  Ray periodically commutes to Boise to serve as Chairman
of the Board of Registration for Professional Geologists in Idaho.

	We have enjoyed this opportunity to work with the Geology Department and
look forward to the rest of the year.

	Final note:  We have been orchestrating a major reorganization of the miner
alogy collections.  We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to
remember EWU any time you have specimens to donate - either good display
specimens, or standard teaching materials.