Day: September 29, 2021

Haugerud, Ralph

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Ralph is a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Dept. Earth & Space Sciences, University of Washington. He grew up in Seattle and product of local education, first getting his B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Geology at Western Washington University (Bellingham) and then his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences in 1985 from the University of Washington in Seattle. He was a post-Doc with the USGS in Reston, VA from 1985-87, then was hired by Branch of Western Regional Geology and moved to Menlo Park in 1988. He escaped CA in 1990 by being transferred back to Seattle and the homeland.

His work has involved geologic mapping in the North Cascades (1978-1997), Salish Lowland (1996-present), and central Washington (2014-present). Got interested in digital topography in the early 1990s and as a result of his technical skills became the lead scientist for the Puget Sound LiDAR Consortium (1999-2017). However, he considers himself a structural geologist—He watches the Earth move. Ralph spoke about “Understanding Lidar and some interesting applications in 2017.  He currently lives in Ellensburg, WA but works remotely with the U.S. Geological Survey.  (Updated Oct. 2021)

Stanley, George

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Professor Stanley is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of Montana Paleontology Center. In the Department of Geosciences at Montana, he taught and conducted research in paleontology and geology for 35 years.  He is a Fulbright Fellow and former geologist and Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Natural history. His research has helped clarify mass extinctions, the evolution of reef structures and modern and ancient coral lineages. Stanley is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Organization for Tropical Studies and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He’s author of over 300 professional publications and several books. He has done research in western Canada, northern Mexico, the Peruvian Andes, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Japan and China. Currently he lives in Port Townsend where he enjoys hiking, nature and playing guitar. (Updated Oct. 2021)

Nesbitt, Liz

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Dr. Elizabeth Nesbitt is Curator of Paleontology at the Burke Museum and Earth Sciences professor at the University of Washington. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

Much of her research involves the effects of changing climate on marine faunas, from large vertebrates to invertebrates and microscopic forms. She is currently working with Burke colleagues on measuring the health of Puget Sound through examination of the foraminifera in bottom sediments.

She is continually involved with the numerous exhibits at the Burke Museum, emphasizing communicating science to all ages. For example, she curated “Cruising the Fossil Freeway”, an exhibit that featured the science of Kirk Johnson (now leading the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History) and the art of Ray Troll that introduced the huge variety of American fossils through interactive stations and games.

Numerous fossils of whales and other marine mammals collected on beaches of the Olympic Peninsula are housed in the Burke Museum. A new whale from this area was described in a technical paper published in 2015. Visiting paleontologists are currently studying several small whales and an ancestor of seals and sea lions, all collected from western Washington and between 30 million and 35 million years old. (Updated Oct. 2021)