History of the Geological
Sciences
in
the
University at
Albany
"Progress, far from consisting in
change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana (in The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason in
Common Sense)
The Geological Sciences at Albany consisted of one staff member (Peter
Benedict) in the years prior to the promotion of the institution in the
early 1960's from a
teachers college to one of the four University Centers of the State
University of New York. In the years after the
creation of the Department of
Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in 1962, several faculty were gradually
added in the Geological Sciences (Jack Bird, Win Means, George Putman,
and Paul Williams). In 1969, these faculty became the founders of the
separate Department of Geological Sciences, soon to be joined by John
Dewey, Akiho Miyashiro and Jeff Fox and the establishment of the PhD
program. Jack Bird left for Cornell in 1972, and Paul Williams for UNB
in 1973; Kevin Burke, Steve Delong, and Bill Kidd arrived in 1973-4.
With the pioneering publications of Dewey, Bird, and Burke on the
geological consequences of plate tectonics, and the wide visibility of
the Structural Geology text of Hobbs, Means and Williams, the
Department, while small relative to most others, rapidly achieved
international visibility and distinction.
1983 - Ranked by the National Academy of Sciences in the
top 25 PhD-granting graduate programs in Geological Sciences
Dewey departed for Durham (UK) in 1981, Fox for Rhode Island in
1982, and in 1983 Burke left for the directorship of the LPI in
Houston, and Peter Benedict retired. Mark Harrison arrived in 1982,
John Delano in 1983, and Greg Harper in 1984, so while the Department
had a net loss of one faculty position, it rapidly developed strength
in
geochemistry and maintained a strong presence in the structural and
tectonic fields.
1985 - The Department brochure for graduate
programs (9MB pdf)
Harrison left for UCLA in 1989, and shortly after that the
Department was the victim of a devastation in the failure
to replace departing (Harrison), redeployed (Delong),
or
retiring (Miyashiro, Putman) faculty. This
failure to replace 50% of the total Department faculty, some of
international distinction, was ultimately a consequence of
substantial state-imposed budget cuts, but nonetheless was a deliberate
choice of
the President and Academic VP of that time. A
plan to recover vitality
with three new hires in Environmental Geochemistry, and to maintain
strength in Structure/Tectonics, was approved by those administrators
in 1993-4, and lead to the arrival of Brad Linsley in
1995. A merger with the Atmospheric Science Department in
1996 resurrected the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences,
but further progress under the previously approved plan for renewal of
the Geological Sciences did not happen. Means retired in
1998, leaving four permanent faculty to try to continue to run a
PhD-level program. John Arnason's transfer to a tenure-track position
in 2004 was a welcome improvement, but on Harper's resignation in
December 2004, and the refusal of the administration to authorise a
replacement in structure/tectonics, the Department then requested that
the BS in Geology be closed to future enrollment. Undergraduate
Geological Sciences at Albany was confined to a track of the
Environmental Sciences BS degree until December 2010, when Bill Kidd
retired.
On January 22nd 2007, the faculty of the Department of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences voted 10-1 to recommend immediate
suspension of admission to the Geology graduate program. On 7 December 2007 the Interim
President signed Senate
Bill
0708-09 formalising the suspension of admission to the
Geology graduate program.
Honours and
awards to present or former members of the Geological Sciences at Albany
Former and emeritus faculty and staff
listing for
Geological Sciences
Seminars presented by visiting speakers - a continuous series from 1975, started by
Kevin Burke
- 1975-1994 at Albany -
1995-2008 joint series with RPI Earth
Sciences
PhD degree recipients graduated from the Albany
Geological Sciences Program and their dissertation titles
MSc degree recipients graduated from the Albany
Geological Sciences Program and their thesis titles
This
page is duplicated, and others related to the Geological Sciences at
Albany can be found, through this link