3 Greetings from the Department Head Estella Atekwana This has been a very difficult year for our profession with the price of oil trading below $40/barrel, bringing back dark memories of the 80s. Major layoffs have affected some of our alums and our thoughts and prayers are with them. Nonetheless, we continue to move forward and we had another record year. Our students, faculty and alums (see articles in this issue) continue to win honors on campus and at national meetings and publish ground breaking research. This year, our students and faculty presented a record 150 papers at regional, national and international meetings; with our students winning best paper awards. Our undergraduate student enrollments are 157 down from 170 students in 2014. Nonetheless, our graduate enrollments continue to increase reaching an all-time high of 95 (25 PhDs and 70 MS), making us the second largest graduate program in the College of Arts and Sciences and the largest graduate program in STEM in the College. Graduate applications continue to be strong and we are now receiving applications from top tier geoscience programs nationwide and internationally. We introduced a freshman fieldtrip this year (see picture in this issue) and had 21 participants including graduate students and alumni. Dr. Puckette and I led the trip to Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen and the students were introduced to the geology of the Wichita Mountains and the rifting and filling of the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen. Thanks to the hard work of the faculty and students, we hosted the 2015 GSA South Central meeting and the word out in the street is that this was one of the best attended, organized, and financed South Central GSA meetings. We set the bar really high for future GSA South Central meetings. We graduated 31 BS and 20 MS students. Our Mississippian Consortium (see article in this issue) has just completed its third year and the Unconventional Hydrocarbon Cooperative in collaboration with the College of Engineering is up and running. Of course the drop in oil prices is also affecting us and we are experiencing a drop in our grant production numbers. For the third year in a row we continue to be #1 in the College of Arts & Science in funding/FTE faculty with more than $1.4 million dollars in external funding from faculty research grants. We spent $977,572 in graduate student support with ~$290,000 coming from alumni support. Six companies recruited in the School this year, down from thirteen. In addition, a few of our students received offers from the majors including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and BP. Finally, we are going electronic with some of our courses to better serve the students and the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. We now have two online courses (Geology and Human Affairs and Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Disasters). We are currently developing two more courses (National Parks and Historical Geology) to put online. With the talented faculty and students that are now in place and the support of our alums, we continue to be a department on the rise! Finally, when in Stillwater, be sure to stop by the department so we can show you around. We love to hear from you, so keep in touch. “With the talented faculty and students that are now in place and the support of our alums, we continue to be a department on the rise!”
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