Chris Johnson (B.S. GEOE, 1999; M.S. GEOE 2001) is now working for Re/Spec in Rapid City.
Mark Stafford (B.S. GEOE, 1984) is still in Alaska and requested a copy of Dr. Gries’s history of the department.
Scott Cooper (B.S. GEOL, 1997) is at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Dave Kyllonen (M.S. GEOE, 1984) is Technical Support Manager for Geotechnical Computer Applications (gINT Software) in Windsor, California.
Rick Kiel (B.S. GEOE, 1979) is with Golder Associates in Denver, Colorado.
Dr. Mustafa Hariri (Ph.D. GEOL, 1995) is Chairman of the Earth Sciences Department at King Faisal University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Belal Hansrod (M.S. GEOL, 2001) is an economic geologist for Mauritius.
Kate Kleiter (M.S. GEOL, 1988) is a senior hydrogeologist and principal geologist with American Engineering Testing, Inc., in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is president of the AIPG’s Minnesota section and serves on the Minnesota state well board.
Fred Beeman (B.S. GEOE, 1950) is retired and living in Kingman, Arizona.
Uday Gollapudi (M.S. GEOE, 1993) is Mid-Michigan Operations Manager and Project Manager for ATC Associates, Inc., in Novi, Michigan.

If you have news to share, or a change of address, please let us know. We enjoy hearing from our graduates.

From Larry Stetler (Associate Professor, Geological Engineering):
I have had a very busy teaching semester this fall. As coordinator of the GE 115 program, which is the first-year engineering course, we have made a major switch to offering classes every semester but have capped the sections at 25 students. We have a single classroom complete with wireless PCs and use tables and chairs instead of desks. This course is required by all engineering programs so we see approximately 370 students per year, have 15 sections and I deal with about 13 to 15 faculty, write curriculum, set-up labs, find equipment, etc. Enough said.
I have several research programs at present ranging from design and construction of an underground dam (see below photos) to geologic mapping and hazard mapping to classifying surface watersheds for the state of South Dakota. Working with these students, 5 in all (1 Ph.D., 4 MS), is something I enjoy, particularly when able to get into the field, which was most of last summer.
On the personal side, my daughter turned 2 last September and she is a very active little girl who wants a horse, loves animals, and says she wants to go to work with me! Her favorite toy is a calculator we gave her for her first birthday. I’ll try my best to turn her into a real field-hand and engineer. 

   Constructing an underground dam at Lakota Springs near Hermosa.

Constructing a weir at Lakota Springs with Perry Rahn and Ph.D. student Heidi Sieverding.

From Colin Paterson (Professor, Geology):
The SDSM&T Student Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists sponsored a field trip to the Stillwater palladium-platinum mine near Nye (MT) on Oct 10-12, 2003. Nine students and chapter advisor Dr Colin Paterson spent the Saturday learning about the deposit and touring the underground operations and surface geology. Assisting with the tour were mine geologists, Doug Alexander (MS Geol,2002) and Liz Wagar (MS Geol, 2003). Doug and Liz both started with the Stillwater Mining Company during summer 2003, and along with Ian Hardesty (MS Geol, 2002), are part of a 27-person team of geologists at the mine. We all adjourned to Red Lodge for happy hours after the tour. Special thanks go to Chris Pellowski (President, SEG chapter, current Ph.D. student) for setting up the visit.
On November 14, the SEG chapter hosted a visit and lecture by Dr Robert Kerrich (University of Saskatchewan) on “Global gold metallogeny in the Supercontinent Cycle framework”.
To assist with fundraising, the chapter continues to sell ore/rock suites from the closed Homestake gold mine in Lead – visit web page for details: http://seg.sdsmt.edu/homestake.htm

From James Fox (Professor):
As many of you know, over a period of many decades J. Paul Gries provided expertise to the Black Hills region, assisting many individuals and companies in their search for water and petroleum resources. Dr. Jim Fox has been making an inventory of the well files in the J. Paul Gries Collection, a task that has never been done before. Upon completion of this inventory, and from this data, Jim will begin to construct a series of subsurface well-log cross sections, and structure contour and isopach maps, to document the sedimentary geology and stratigraphic framework of western South Dakota from Cambrian through Cretaceous times.
A few years ago, supported by the U. S. Geological Survey, Dr. Fox published such a study of the Powder River basin, which is adjacent to, and west of, the Black Hills. Subsurface information from the Gries collection will provide him with data critical to linking the two regions thereby expanding our understanding of the sedimentary geology of a very large part of the Great Plains with significant resource potential.

From Alvis Lisenbee (Professor, Geology):
Two areas of my current research interests are the Rio Grande rift of north-central New Mexico and the Black Hills. The work in the Black Hills is more extensive and I am helping to organize the research effort there.
Urbanization of the Black Hills is rampant along a 90-mile long corridor extending southeastward from the Wyoming-South Dakota border to Rapid City, along either side of Interstate 90, and continuing southward along SD Highway 79 (including Spearfish, Whitewood, Sturgis, Black Hawk, Piedmont, Rapid City, and Hermosa). Studies of 7.5-minute quadrangles within the development corridor by faculty members and students of the GEOL/GEOE department are examining geology (Lisenbee, Redden, Stetler, Uzunlar), ground water (Davis, Rahn), geologic hazards (Stetler and Roggenthen), and economic resources (Paterson). Results to date include completion of four geologic maps and three M.S. theses. Mapping presently continues on four additional quadrangles and one Ph.D. and five M.S. theses are presently underway. We are currently preparing an atlas as a pilot study of the Rapid City West quadrangle that includes maps of geology, economic resources, ground water vulnerability, depth to water reservoirs, geologic hazards, etc. These maps will be presented in a GIS format, directed by Dr. Price, and will become available through a department web site. Financial support for the studies is by West Dakota Water Development District, the U.S. Geological Survey EDMAP program, and the South Dakota Geological Survey (which publishes the geologic maps).

From Edward Duke (Professor, Geology):
In addition to his role as Professor of Geology, Ed Duke also acts as Manager of Analytical Facilities for the Engineering and Mining Experiment Station. This fall there are two major additions to the analytical facilities for geological and materials research.

LECO Carbon-Sulfur and Nitrogen-Oxygen-Hydrogen Determinators.

Rigaku-MSC Ultima X-Ray Diffractometer.

Maribeth Price (Associate Professor, Geology):
Maribeth had a book published in October 2003 by McGraw-Hill, titled Mastering ArcGIS. It is a college-level introductory text for Geographic Information Systems, and features detailed tutorials with demonstrations provided by over 880 narrated video clips that come on an accompanying CD. She also continues to work with the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences on C-lock, a system to quantify and accumulate carbon emission reduction credits for agricultural producers.

Carrie Herbel (Instructor in Paleontology):
Carrie graduated from the 2003 Leadership Rapid City class on November 14, 2003. This 12-week course encourages leadership and community service.

Jim Martin (Professor, Paleontology):
Jim is presently on the Antarctic Peninsula conducting research along with current graduate students and alumni:

Gale Bishop (Director, Museum of Geology):
Gale presented posters at the 2003 Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists meeting in St. Paul and at the 2003 Annual meeting of the Geological Society of America meeting in Seattle. He will attend the 24th International Sea Turtle Symposium in February where he and graduate student Michael Knell (along with Mark Dodd, Sea Turtle Coordinator for Georgia Department of Natural Resources) will present a paper on the importance of including geological assessment of sea turtle habitat and parameters in development of management plans for conservation of all endangered sea turtles on a world-wide basis. Bishop and Kata McCarville continue their collaborative research on dinosaurian urination structures under sponsorship of a grant from the Jurassic Foundation. Bishop is currently developing processes for assessment of South Dakota tribal paleontological resources under sponsorship of a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and collaborating with colleagues at Oglala Lakota College to develop protocols for use of a Leica HDS Cyrax Camera (Lidar) in documentation of paleontological sites and for forensic paleontology. The St. Catherines Sea Turtle program http://gsaix2.cc.gasou.edu/cturtle/002over.html, now funded for summer 2004, produced a 15 year record during 2003...11,643 baby sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean!
Bishop continues supervision of six Paleontology Masters theses being written by some of the best graduate students at Mines. He taught Geol 271: Search for Our Past during Fall Semester, 2003.

SDSMT Professor Gale Bishop and Georgia Southern University colleague Dr. James Darrell swapping lies in front of Bishop's poster on trophic analysis of Cretaceous crabs at GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle.