Curriculum Vitae Courses Taught Current Course Activities
As is true of all faculty members in the Department of Geology, I have taught at all three levels in our curriculum: introductory courses, including those for nonmajors; courses for undergraduate geology majors; and graduate-level courses.
Every fall semester I taught Geology 121 Prehistoric Life to about 100 nongeology students. The course fulfills a biology requirement. It is a lot of fun to teach and has captured the interest of several students who have decided to major in geology.
In the spring semesters I taught Geology 521 Paleontology, also listed as Biology 622. This is the introductory paleontology course required of most geology majors. Rather than trudging through the phyla, an approach that marks many such courses, I tried to focus attention on the problem areas of paleontology and the ways in which paleontology can provide broader insight into geology and biology. About 35 students enrolled each spring; perhaps a third of these were biology majors, and most of the rest were geology majors. The course was accompanied by a laboratory course that was taught as a separate course, Geology 523, also listed as Biology 623. It is possible to complete the course successfully without taking the laboratory, and a number of students choose to do so.
Every summer I taught Geology 560 Introductory Field Geology. This course is taught at KU's geology field camp north of Ca–on City, Colorado, where we have a permanent facility. Teaching field geology was a high privilege for me, and I regard it as the most important course that I taught. Students typically go to camp at the end of their junior year. They arrive at camp thinking of themselves as geology students and return thinking of themselves as geologists. | 
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| From time to time I taught either paleoecology, micropaleontology, or a graduate seminar on some topic of interest. My courses have typically attracted a few biologists as well as geology graduate students. Having classes comprising students with a wide variety of backgrounds has been a challenge, but it makes the course a lot more interesting. |
My research has been in three areas that are related by the use of a quantitative approach to the study of morphology, ecology, and paleoecology.
This research deals mainly with fossil ostracodes and fusulinids, their population and community paleoecology, their evolution, and their taphonomy, largely through the use of multivariate statistical methods. My students and I have applied these methods of study to rocks that crop out, to those that occur only in the subsurface, and to the study of macroevolution and heterochrony through the quantitative analysis of shape. | ||
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High resolution image (120 K) |  |
 | This research includes study of freshwater ostracodes from the Midcontinent and marine ostracodes from the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the southern oceans. It has included study of geographic variation of morphology, community paleoecology, quantitative analysis of shape and heterochrony, and variation of morphology with water chemistry. |
The Paleontological Society (PS) is the principal scientific society in North America devoted to all aspects of the science of paleontology. It has some 2,500 members, who are from every continent except Antarctica, and it publishes two journals, the Journal of Paleontology and Paleobiology; a memoir series, The Paleontological Society Memoirs; The Paleontological Society Special Publications; and a semiannual newsletter, Priscum. I have served the PS in a number of capacities, which are listed on page 1 of this Curriculum Vitae. As Chair and Convenor of North American Paleontological Convention II, I brought some 500 paleontologists from all parts of the world to The University for three days of meetings under the auspices of the PS. Later, as Treasurer of the Society for six years, I oversaw the increase in assets of the Society by some $200,000 and, by the end of my second term in 1987, dealt with an annual budget and reserve accounts of some half-million dollars. Later I served a three-year term as President-Elect, President, and Past-President of the Society. During that time, the PS Council made fundamental changes in the fiscal management of the Society and its journals, ultimately entering into a long-term relationship with Allen Press of Lawrence, Kansas, as printer and business manager.
The Geological Society of America (GSA) is the principal society in North America that deals with all aspects of the science of geology, including paleontology. I convened a half-day workshop on the topic of electronic publication. I have also presented regularly papers at the GSA's annual or regional meetings, and as Editor of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology I am an ex officio member of the GSA's Treatise Committee.
The International Palaeontological Association, (IPA) is the only broadly international paleontological organization, having as corporate members some twenty national paleontological societies from all parts of the world. A major activity of the IPA is publication of three directories, which I oversee: the Directory of Paleontologists of the World, the IPA Fossil Collections of the World, and PaleoLink, the IPA directory and database of paleontological web sites. Data are collected and disseminated via the Internet. In addition, I have been Treasurer of the IPA since 1989 and am now in my fourth term in that position, a term that will expire in 2006. In my capacity as Treasurer, I oversee an annual budget and reserve accounts of more than $50,000, a net-worth of the IPA that has increased from about $9,000 to $50,000 during my tenure as Treasurer.
The International Working Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) is a formally recognized working group of the IPA. It has some 400 members worldwide. I was Vice Chair from 1985 to 1988 and Chair from 1994 to 1997. In addition, with Professor R. M. Maddocks of the University of Houston, I am co-owner of OSTRACON, a list that is devoted to Internet communications regarding the use of the Ostracoda in teaching, research, and service.
The International Working Group on Paleozoic Ostracoda (IRGPO), also formally recognized by the IPA, is a much smaller organization with only some 25 members. I was elected as Chair of both working groups at a time when many ostracode workers were concerned that ill feeling and fragmentation among the two working groups were beginning to hamper research on the Ostracoda. That tendency was successfully stemmed.
Editorial positions held are listed elsewhere.
Paleontology in the 21st Century (Paleo21), a conference held in September, 1997, at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, was by invitation only. It was attended by 108 paleontologists from 30 countries. The purpose was to develop an agenda for paleontology for the first three decades of the new century. I was a member of the Committee on Electronic Publication. In addition, with H. R. Lane of the NSF, I have edited the final report, which will be published by the Senckenberg Museum later in 1999. The final report will be a volume comprising 36 papers and appendices. It is expected to set the stage for further discussions that will move international paleontology into the new century. The Workshop on Electronic Publication and preparing the IPA directories in electronic form are both outgrowths of the Paleo21 meeting.
Geobiology and the Earth Sciences in the Next Decade, a workshop held in March, 1999, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., was by invitation only. It was attended by 21 academic, governmental, and industrial paleontologists, all from the United States. The purpose of the meeting was to prepare a document that is to be used by the NAS and NRC in providing guidance to the NSF regarding the directions in which paleontology should be moving and the interrelationships between paleontology and other aspects of the earth sciences. A final report is in preparation. My participation was primarily in the work of the subcommittee on databases in paleontology and earth-system history.
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