Geology Comes Back to Knox

After a 20-plus year absence, students will once again have the opportunity to study geology and earth sciences at Knox College. Katherine A. Adelsberger, a specialist in earth and planetary sciences, has joined the faculty as assistant professor of environmental studies. Her position is supported by Douglas '66 and Maria Bayer, whose $1 million commitment to Knox is helping fund the new faculty position.

Adelsberger received her Ph.D. and master's degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and bachelor's degree from Beloit College. Her research interests range from climatic and environmental change to geoarchaeology to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping and analysis. Her field experience includes working on the Dubai Desert Survey in the United Arab Emirates, as a member of an excavation crew at the Poverty Point State Historic Site in Louisiana, and in field work in Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and Wisconsin.

Earth sciences are a part of Knox?s interdisciplinary environmental studies program. "Knox has been planning for several years to expand environmental studies in the direction of geoscience," said Peter Schwartzman, associate professor and chair of environmental studies. "I am eager to work with Katherine, who, thanks to her extensive scholarship and experience, will introduce Knox students to a wide variety of environmental issues."

Knox is also in the process of expanding the College's geographic information systems (GIS) research opportunities. A $30,000 grant from the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation will allow the College to expand the resources available to faculty and students, giving them the opportunity for advanced research through the use of GIS.

Existing geoscience resources at Knox include extensive mineral and fossil collections that originated with the work of Albert Hurd, who taught geology and other natural sciences from 1851 until 1906. Knox had a formal geology program from the 1940s until the 1980s; the environmental studies program was created in the mid-1990s as an interdisciplinary initiative drawing on faculty from the natural and social sciences, arts, and humanities.