9 resolution sequence stratigraphy. Included in my research include three papers on Mississippian stratigaphy and biostratigraphy. This past year I also continued to publish articles in Pennsylvanian stratigraphy and biostratigraphy. Currently, work on both fronts continue, and along with departmental colleagues, we are in the initial stages of adding a Pennsylvanian Consortium to the research mix. Additionally, I am supervising for masters theses and three doctorate students on projects related to the Mississippian. All of these are directly applicable to our research in the Mississippian Consortium. During the spring, 2013 semester I taught Paleontology and Sequence Stratigraphy. I offered a new class Regional Stratigraphy of the Midcontinent in the Fall 2013 semester. This course combined, lectures, paper discussions, and three weekend field trips. These included a survey of Paleozoic Stratigraphy of the Ozark Mountains, Paleozoic Stratigraphy of the Arbuckle Mountains and Pennsylvanian Stratigraphy of the Northeast Oklahoma Platform. Oil and Gas Field applications were a primary focal point of the papers and field work. I served on numerous thesis committees, while having one student Austin McMabb successfully defend his thesis. Three other students are on course to defend this spring including Beth Stevenson, Jared Morris and Joey Dineen. Among doctoral students Cory Godwin is on track to complete his dissertation on Middle Mississippian surface stratigraphy of the Ozarks this spring. I will be leading a GSA Field Conference at the South-Central GSA meeting from March 14-16, followed by a Mississippian Field Conference for Consortium Members in May, 2014. Dr. Jeffrey Byrnes Over the past year, I have been continuing developing my courses, research program, and collaborations with external colleagues in industry and academia. In addition to my standard teaching responsibilities, I also helped develop and teach a course through a special program of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The program paired me with the Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at Indiana University, Dr. Lisa Pratt, for an interdisciplinary class entitled “Life on Mars?” that was open to students from any of the universities and colleges under the purview of the Board of Regents. Students representing a wide range of backgrounds participated and made for a rich educational experience for everyone involved. My research efforts related to petroleum interests continued to increase over the past year. Notably, I spent three months in Houston at the ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company helping them develop some new capabilities. Although it was difficult being away from Stillwater and my family for such an extended period, I had an excellent experience in which I interacted with many exceptional scientists, learned a lot, and was able to conduct research that I otherwise do not have the resources to undertake. I have also had the opportunity to continue working with a small Texas-based exploration company, for which I get to synthesize geophysics, geochemistry, and geomorphology. Within the department, I currently am formally advising 1 PhD, 4 MS, and 2 BS students in research projects ranging from hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir rock characterization to volcanology and geology of Mars. On the home front, my son and daughter continue to impress me with their abilities in science and math, music and graphic arts, and language and sport. Both are in preschool and have more interests than time and energy allow. Best of all, they are always able to make me smile at the end of the day. Dr. Joseph Donoghue I have been busy over the past year establishing a sedimentology program and the sedimentology research lab. My research examines sedimentary processes and products in marine and aquatic environments, Quaternary paleoclimate, the sedimentologic effects of sea-level change, and environmental geology. Along with my colleagues and students, I published two journal papers on these topics in the past year, with two currently in revision, plus two articles in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Estuaries. I’ve also served as co-PI on two NSF proposals submitted in the past year. At OSU I have been teaching the Stratigraphy-Sedimentology course for our undergraduate majors (GEOL-3034), the Marine Geology grad/undergrad course (GEOL-5513/4413), the Quaternary Geochronology course (GEOL-5093) and the large lecture course Geology and Human Affairs (GEOL-1014). We are currently reconfiguring the GEOL-1014 labs for next fall to take advantage of the many new interactive geoscience materials available on the Web. We applied for and received an OSU Technology Fee grant to purchase two dozen new laptops and associated hardware to facilitate the GEOL 1114 lab upgrade. I’ve been continuing the advisement of some remaining students at Florida State University, from which I arrived nearly two years ago. One of the PhD students graduated last year. A second one is due to finish at the end of 2014. A third should finish in 2015. One of the master’s students graduated this past December, and another one should finish next spring. I am currently also advising two master’s students at OSU, Tyler McNabb, and Mark McCollum, and have joined several graduate student committees in Geology and Geography. Both Tyler and Mark have made good progress on their thesis projects, both of which involve extracting paleoclimate proxies from the Quaternary sediment record. In the fall I assembled ten faculty investigators from five departments (BPSG, Physics, Geography, Sociology, and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering) to resubmit a proposal to the OSU Core Facilities Support competition. The proposal was for the development of an optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating facility at OSU. The lab would serve OSU researchers and students who utilize this new dating tool, and would provide dates for external users on a fee basis. There is a strong need for such a facility in this region of the country. The proposal was well reviewed but funding was again hampered by the lack of a mechanism to support a dedicated technician. We are hopeful of trying to resolve the technician issue and develop the lab.
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