Student Successes
Andrew Barnhart
Andrew Barnhart, a transfer from Pasadena City College, is pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Geology with great zeal. Andrew was recently awarded our Henderson-Valles scholarship in June, 2012 to recognize his academic abilities and efforts to conduct research.
Audra Banks
Recipient of our 2011 Henderson-Valles Academic Achievement scholarship, Audra is a senior Geology major. She has gained much practical experience through geoscience research and various industry internships.
Logan Wicks
Logan Wicks is joining our new Master's degree program this fall (2012) after 2 years away from Cal Poly working as an environmental geoscientist with RMT, Inc.
Jessy Bruns
Jessy Bruns finished her Bacholor's degree in Geology last winter (2012) after completing two research projects on very different topics (volcanic geochemistry and rare earth mineral exploration. Results were presented in separate posters at GSA conferences in Anaheim, CA and Logan, Utah.
Rebecca Greenwood
Rebecca Greenwood is a Senior geology major working this summer (2012) as an intern for Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). Her past research endeavors include investigation of earthquakes induced by Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Shawn Morrish
Shawn Morrish, also joining our Master's program this fall, recently completed his senior thesis project on Quaternary river terraces along the Rio Ora on the central Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica. Shawn is coauthor on sevaral GSA presentations.Recent Internships
Our students have been active gaining practical experience with various internships offered through industry and academia. Below is a list of a few for whom I have information:
- April Davis is starting an internship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena in June 2015.
- Larissa Kupfershmidt spent fall quarter working at Marshal Space Flight Center, applying ArcGIS techniques to analysis of lunar surfaces
- Lara Pannosian is starting an internship at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena on Dec 15. She will be working on rock strength characterization for the upcoming Mars 2020 mission.
- Alex Mundo spent a week last summer in Boulder Colorado as an intern for the SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science) Academy. Among other thing, he gained hands-on experience working with Doppler radar tools
- Ryan Santos spent all summer working with Cal Poly Geology Alumnus Leo Mercy as an intern for Cal Portland. His duties in the Mojave desert included geological mapping of limestone deposits and driving a quarry truck.
- Paula Soto and Danny Miranda were awarded internships through the USDA’s Water Resources Policy Initiative program to support their watershed-related thesis research.
- Steven Pastana was awarded a "Student Investigator" position with NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) working under Dr. Susan Hoban with the Small Bodies Node) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
- Austin Baca was invited back to Los Alamos, New Mexico for a second summer to serve as a teaching assistant with the SAGE (Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience) program.
- Rachel Hatch, Debbie Hernandez, Magail Barba and Jamie Kang have been working various internships with JPL in Pasadena related to Planetary Science investigations. Unfortunately I don’t have the details handy.
Bound For Graduate School
The following Cal Poly Pomona Geology graduates recently started or will start graduate programs. We wish all of you our congratulations and best wishes in your future academic careers:
- Rachel Hatch--University of Nevada Reno Seismology PhD program--Fall 2015
- Michael Vadman--University of Kentucky Tectonic PhD program--Fall 2015
- Austin Baca--University of Nevada Reno Seismology PhD program--Fall 2015
- Kenneth Craig--Cal Poly Pomona Geology MS Program----Fall 2015
- Jonathan Levario--Cal Poly Pomona Geology MS Program----Fall 2015
- Ryan Edgley—Colorado School of Mines Hydrogeology PhD program--Fall 2014
- Hannah Mejia—Baylor University Seismology PhD program--Fall 2014
- Andrew Barnhart—UC Irvine PhD program--Fall 2014
- Wendy Clark—UCLA Atmospheric Sciences PhD program--Fall 2014
- Oliver Wolfe—Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute PhD program--Fall 2014
- Taylor Van Hoorebeke—UC Riverside MS program--Fall 2014
- Rachel Hatch—Cal Poly Pomona Geology MS program--Fall 2014
- Raymond Ng—Cal Poly Pomona Geology MS program--Fall 2014
- Stephen Quimpo—Cal Poly Pomona Geology MS program--Fall 2014