Department of Earth Sciences

Thanks for being a part of the UCR Earth Sciences Family. We really enjoy hearing from you.  If you want to let your fellow Alumni know what you are up to these days.  Please send any news to Jennifer Reising jreising@ucr.edu so that we can post it on our web site. 

 Robert (Bob) Schalla (BS 1974)

              Robert worked for Cities Service Company and OXY USA from 1978 to 1989; then Equitable Resources from 1989 to 1997.  Since then he has been on his own, consulting and exploring for oil and gas.  Bob  has  his own company, Cove Creek Resources, Inc., with oil and gas production in three states, Wyoming, S. Dakota and Montana. 
  Bob lives  just outside of Billings, Montana, with his wife Jeannine, one mule, one horse and two dogs.  Life just keeps getting better.  Bob visited the UCR campus this past spring for the first time since 1974; lots of changes, lots of good memories too. 

"I wonder, whatever happened to that rowdy bunch of guys that went to field camp in the Roberts Mountains with Mike Murphy back in 1973 !!!  (Jim Parelli, can you hear me ???)"

 Frank DeCourten (BS 1973 & MS 1976)
Frank DeCourten has been Professor of Earth Science at Sierra College in Rocklin and Grass Valley, California since 1993.  Prior to arriving at Sierra College, DeCourten taught at the University of Utah and served as Assistant Director of the Utah Museum of Natural History.   Frank has also taught in the geology programs at California State University, Sacramento and Chico and the University of Nevada. 
During his time at Sierra College, DeCourten has also served as Dean of the Truckee Center (2002-2004) and Interim Vice-President for Educational Programs and Services (2005-2006).   He coordinated the Sierra College Interdisciplinary Studies Program from 2000 to 2002 and was named Citizen of the Year in 2005 by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce.
Frank earned his Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees from University of California, Riverside, and has done additional graduate study at the University of Utah and the University of Colorado. His geological research has focused on the paleontology and regional geology of the western United States including the Pacific Coast, the Sierra Nevada, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau. DeCourten has received an impressive number of awards for teaching, research, and citizenship.  His research has resulted in 19 technical publications in geology and paleontology, four books (Earth Essays, Shadows of Time, Dinosaurs of Utah, and The Broken Land) and he has produced 3 educational videos.  He is also the author of Terra Sierra, a quarterly natural history column that appeared in the Sierra Sun newspaper in the Tahoe-Truckee region and is currently being compiled into book form.  His latest project is Geology of Northern California, a supplement to the sixth edition of Physical Geology by Monroe, Wicander, and Hazlett.
An experienced field geologist and researcher, Frank has designed and led geological excursions and symposia for numerous scientific and natural history organizations including the National Park Service, the Geological Society of America, the National Association of Geosciences Teachers, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Geographic Society, and the Squaw Valley Institute.

Brian Casey (BS 1977 & MS 1981)
Brian and his wife, Myriam, just returned to Houston, Texas after living and working for 3 years in the Sultanate of Oman.  This is a wonderful country in the Middle East for work or for tourists; it has high mountains (9,900 ft), running streams, dry deserts and beautiful beaches.  It describes just like California, except the sun rises over the Arabian Sea, sets over the Rub' al Khali desert, and has a comfortable climate only 6 of 12 months.  The summers are incredibly hot and humid, but the winter months are perfect.  While working for Occidental (Oxy) of Oman as the Production Geosciences Manager Brian was deeply involved with the technical and career development of young, mostly Omani geoscientists.  He is now back doing the same job, but on a global basis for Oxy and visiting our offices in the Middle East, North Africa, South America, California and Texas.  Brian and his wifeMyriam have two sons, Brandon (living in Germany) and Kevin (living at A&M University), a house in the Texas hill country, and are looking for a house in Houston.  I can be reached at (brian_casey@oxy.com).
The picture is from the Sierra Nevada in California - not Oman.

James Huning (PhD 1976)
Jim is semi-retired from NSF, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences Directorate on 31 July and on an Expert Appointment with NSF for a year.  He is also working as a senior science advisor for SAIC, involved on airborne science issues and remote sensing.  I transitioned from NASA HQ to NSF in 1999. At NSF Jim was responsible for overseeing the Earth Observing Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado.   He also oversaw the acquisition, modification and instrumentation of the newest research aircraft in the US Federal Fleet, a Gulf stream V owned by NSF and maintained and operated by NCAR. John is pictured here with his wife on their trip February 2006 to Iceland. Jim and his wife spend the winters at their apartment in Washington DC and summer at their house in Maine. Jim is also a private pilot; radio amateur operator; amateur astronomer; and can speak French and Spanish, and read some Russian and German.

Bryan Tallant (BS 2002 MS 2005)
Brian is currently working for a major oil company through Kelly Scientific on environmental and remediation projects ("though I can't tell you which one...just don't look at the hat, heh"). Brian is serving as one of two technical advisors for the West USA region. He gets to do some field work, and very rarely some geology too! Here are a couple of pictures; one is Bryan taking samples for a project that will likely lead to a published paper in the next year using depth-discrete sampling of groundwater for geochemical indicators to create a 3D model of conditions at a service station site with an early 1980's era spill.

Stanley C. Finney (BS 1969 & MS 1971)
Finishing his 23rd year as Professor in Geological Sciences at California State University at Long Beach; finishing 21st (and final) year as Department Chair.
In August 2008 Stan began a 4-year term as Chair of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, having served two terms as vice-chair of ICS (2000-2008) and two terms as chair of the ICS Sub commission on Ordovician Stratigraphy (1996-2004).
In the photo, Stan is with a group of students and faculty from a summer course on paleontology offered by Universidad Madrid Complutense in which Stan participated in the summer 2007.  Stan is the first row, second from the right.

William T. (Ty) Schuiling, (BS 1975)
After graduating from UCR in 1975,  Ty completed an MS in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona.  Ty worked as an exploration geologist and Project Manager for the Anaconda Company, a subsidiary of ARCO, until the liquidation of the company in 1986.  After taking a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of Colorado, Ty worked as a consultant until being named Director of Planning for San Bernardino Associated Governments, the Transportation Agency for San Bernardino County, in early 1990.  Ty has been the Director of Planning and Programming (translation: transportation finance) for the last dozen years.

 
Carter Hull (B.S.1980 & M.S.1984)
Currently: Senior Technical Advisor, Y-12 National Security Complex (Nuclear Nonproliferation)"We've been in exile in Oak Ridge, Tennessee 12 years now and plan to retire in the Eugene, Oregon area - as soon as possible".

Gerald Marshall (BS 1977)
Gerald is the supervising Senior Engineering Geologist for the Eureka office of the California Geological Survey's Forest and Watershed Geology Program.  His wife, Susan Edinger (Marshall) is a full professor in Wildland Soils at Humboldt State University. They have two daughters, ages 8 and 11.

Jeffrey Knott (PhD 1998)
Jeffrey has completed his 7th year at Cal State Fullerton. Jeffrey continues to work on the Quaternary of Death Valley, but has extended into the Pliocene of late. "That's deep time for me". Alex, who was born during my first week at UCR and enjoyed hanging in his bouncy chair in the Office Under The Stairs, turned 16 last month and Sam is 9 -- neither has any interest in geology. "I enjoyed talking dirty with geology/soils alums at the GSA/SSA meeting Houston."

Richard Gundry (BS 1977)
Rick Gundry is a consultant and also a part-time instructor "Engineering Geology I" at Cal Poly Pomona University.

Steve Zappe (MS 1979)
Steve is still a hazardous waste regulator with the state of New Mexico, overseeing the US Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (the deep geologic repository for defense-related transuranic waste) down in Carlsbad, NM. "The entertainment value of when they screw up is priceless - more than compensates for the state salary!" Steve lives in Eldorado, a somewhat rural community southeast of Santa Fe, where he has been the past 14 years. Steve's son Christopher (26) bought a house this past summer, and his daughter Rebecca (24) still lives with him.

Robert Sydnor, (MS 1975)




has retired (effective August 2007) after 25 years in California state civil service.  He is now a consulting engineering geologist working in seismology, landslides, and geologic hazards, and is licensed to practice geology in five western states.  Bob continues to ride his gray Arabian horse in the Sierras.  In November 2008, Bob delivered an NSF-sponsored lecture to the geology department at the University of Nevada, Reno, on the use of shear-wave velocity in liquefaction analysis.  Bob is an active member of AGU, SSA, AEG, AAPG, GSA, EERI, NAGT, AAAS, and AGI. Bob Sydnor is currently serving as the chairman of the Seismic Safety Committee within the Association of Engineering Geologists.

Michael Watson (BS 2002) 
is still working at The Planning Center, where he has been for the last four years.  Mike mostly works helping school districts across the state through the Department of Toxic Substances Control approval process.  For instance, he has spent most of the summer in Los Angeles monitoring the removal of 50,000 tons of clean and VOC-impacted soil, which created a 35-foot-deep pit that also needed to be filled with pre-tested clean soil and a clay cap imported from a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert.  Mike also work to a lesser degree on California Environmental Quality Act documents and general plan updates.  On a personal note, Mike got married to Katrina in September 2007 and for their first anniversary, they went on a cruise to Mexico, including Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.  "The picture was taken on our way to a zipline/rappelling/adventure course where they zipped across canyons, rappelled down cliffs adjacent to 100-foot waterfalls and crossed primitive bridges."  "All in all, it was immensely exhilarating!"  Mike and his wife currently live over the hill in Redlands where Katrina works as a preschool teacher.