History of the Geological
Sciences in the University at
Albany
"Progress, far from consisting in
change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana (in The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason
in Common Sense)
The Geological Sciences at Albany consisted of one staff member
(Peter Benedict) in the years prior to the promotion of the
institution in the early 1960's from a teachers college to one of
the four University Centers of the State University of New York. In
the years after the creation of the Department of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences in 1962, several faculty were gradually added
in the Geological Sciences (Jack Bird, Win Means, George Putman, and
Paul Williams). In 1968, these faculty became the founders of the
separate Department of Geological Sciences, soon to be joined by
John Dewey, Akiho Miyashiro and Jeff Fox and the establishment of
the PhD program. Jack Bird left for Cornell in 1972, and Paul
Williams for UNB in 1973; Kevin Burke, Steve Delong, and Bill Kidd
arrived in 1973-4. With the pioneering publications of Dewey, Bird,
and Burke on the geological consequences of plate tectonics, and the
wide visibility of the Structural Geology text of Hobbs, Means and
Williams, the Department, while small relative to most others,
rapidly achieved international visibility and distinction.
1983 - Ranked by the National Academy of Sciences in the
top 25 PhD-granting graduate programs in Geological Sciences
Dewey departed for Durham (UK) in 1981, Fox for Rhode Island in
1982, and in 1983 Burke left for the directorship of the LPI in
Houston, and Peter Benedict retired. Mark Harrison arrived in 1982,
John Delano in 1983, and Greg Harper in 1984, so while the
Department had a net loss of one faculty position, it rapidly
developed strength in geochemistry and maintained a strong presence
in the structural and tectonic fields.
1985 - The Department brochure for
graduate programs (9MB pdf)
Harrison left for UCLA in 1989, and shortly after that the
Department was the victim of a devastation in the failure to replace
departing (Harrison), redeployed (Delong), or retiring (Miyashiro,
Putman) faculty. This failure to replace 50% of the total Department
faculty, some of international distinction, was ultimately a
consequence of substantial state-imposed budget cuts, but
nonetheless was a deliberate choice of the President and Academic VP
of that time. A plan to recover vitality with three new hires in
Environmental Geochemistry, and to maintain strength in
Structure/Tectonics, was approved by those administrators in 1993-4,
and lead to the arrival of Brad Linsley in 1995. A merger with the
Atmospheric Science Department in 1996 resurrected the Department of
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, but further progress under the
previously approved plan for renewal of the Geological Sciences did
not happen. Means retired in 1998, leaving four permanent faculty to
try to continue to run a PhD-level program. John Arnason's transfer
to a tenure-track position in 2004 was a welcome improvement, but on
Harper's resignation in December 2004, and the refusal of the
administration to authorise a replacement in structure/tectonics,
the Department then requested that the BS in Geology be closed to
future enrollment. The last undergraduate students majoring in
Geological Sciences at Albany graduated in 2009. A few courses
containing some geological science occured in the confines of a
track of the Environmental Sciences BS degree until Bill Kidd
retired (end of 2010), and Brad Linsley resigned (May 2011).
On January 22nd 2007, the faculty of the Department of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences voted 10-1 to recommend immediate suspension of
admission to the Geology graduate program. On 7 December 2007 the Interim President
signed Senate
Bill 0708-09 formalising the suspension of admission
to the Geology graduate program. The last students
graduated from this program in 2009.
Honours and
awards to present or former members of the Geological Sciences
at Albany
Former and emeritus faculty and staff
listing for Geological Sciences
Photos of Department of Geological
Sciences groups
Seminars presented by visiting speakers - a continuous series from 1975, started by Kevin Burke
- 1975-1994 at Albany - 1995-2008 joint series with RPI Earth
Sciences
PhD degree recipients graduated from the
Albany Geological Sciences Program and their dissertation titles
MSc degree recipients graduated from the
Albany Geological Sciences Program and their thesis titles
Return to Geological Sciences index page
Department of Atmospheric
and Environmental Sciences