My degrees are from Colgate University,

BA; Syracuse University, MS; and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ph.D. My primary research interests are structure and tectonics and my work has focused in the Michipicoten Greenstone Belt in the Superior Province of Ontario and the Precambrian of the Adirondack Lowlands. My most current project is on the Black Creek Shear Zone in the Adirondack Lowlands in collaboration with Dr. Graham Baird ’98. But my interests are broad ranging. Some examples of student research projects I have supervised are:

Congiu, Brian and Romas, Lisa 2006, CIIS and SLU Fellowships: An Investigation of Contaminants in the Norton Sound Region, Alaska

Nguyen, Tuyet, 2002, CIIS Fellowship: A Study of Peruvian Traditional Healing and Its Encounter With the West

Lewis, Sara, 2001, SLU Fellowship: A Study Examining Substance Abuse Treatment Through Therapy Involving Altered States of Consciousness

Kohn, Steven, 2000, Senior project: A SEM anaylsis of cleavage plane alteration in slates from the slate valley of Washington County, New York and west-central Vermont

Roscoe, John, 1997: Senior project: A stream pollution study near Fort Drum

Harris, Jessyca, 1995. Senior thesis: Structure in the Pope Mills area and the relationship between mafic dikes and amphibolite layers

Boylan, Mary Kate, 1994. Senior thesis: The Evolution and Effects of Iron Mobilization in St. Lawrence County Wetlands

Cherichetti, Lars, 1993. The Bedrock Geology of a Portion of Menzies Township Including the Western Margin of the Michipicoten Greenstone Belt, Ontario, Canada

Taking advantage of St. Lawrence’s program in Kenya, an abroad program popular with our geology majors, I have also been able to contribute to research on Ol Doinyo Lengai, the only active carbonatite volcano in the world (Simonetti, A., Bell, K. and Shrady, C., Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 1996. Trace and Rare-Earth-Element Geochemistry of the June 1993 natrocarbonatitie lavas, Oldoinyo Lengai (Tanzania): Implications for the origin of carbonatiite magmas)
Continuing in the volcanology theme, I along with Dr. Jeff Chiarenzelli and Steve Alexander ‘02 recently led a field trip as part of a course to Craters of the Moon, the Tetons and Yellowstone.

Another research interest of mine is the use of geological materials in healing and, in addition to teaching Structural Geology (link to structure page) and Petrology (link to petrology page) I team teach, with a biologist, a Cross Cultural Perspectives of Healing class. I have taken several research students as well as two summer classes to Peru in conjunction with these ethno-geological and anthropological interests.
In 2006, I and a colleague in Religious Studies took a group of students to Kyoto, Japan to study Japanese gardens. These students, two of whom are geology majors who focused on the rock component of the gardens, have designed a Japanese garden for the St. Lawrence campus. Construction will begin shortly.