Message from the Chair

Welcome to the Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, cherished by generations.

Our alumni keep coming back to beautiful Bloomington the principal seat of Indiana University. The attraction is the sweet memory of time spent with peers and faculty, the research they conducted, the classes they took, the labs they taught, the Jordan River rippling over limestone ledges, the Dunn Meadow, and that small office in the Geology Building on the 10th Street shared with peers and littered with notes and books. A few, such as F. Hubert ("Hue") Latimer (BA 1937), remember being in the Owen Hall, the wooded campus, the wooded city that they support to preserve. Our alumni support our students not only with awards, fellowships, funding for research, attending meetings to present papers, laptops, loan-funds and field trips, but also with excellent networking opportunities throughout the industry, research institutions, and universities.

Ours is an expanding Department with several new faculty, new courses, new equipment and new laboratories, some of which we build on our own. The quality of our education provides immediate gainful employment. Recruiters come to Bloomington and compete to sign up students even before they graduate. Our graduates are employed throughout the industry (fuel, minerals, environment), in government agencies, in university and college teaching, and in research institutions, rising through ranks to the zenith. We are spread out in countless countries in all continents. Come and join our ranks with pride.

Our course offerings take students to far corners of the country, especially to our permanent Field Station in the Rocky Mountains, and beyond. Some reach out to the inner planets in the solar system. Our research takes students and faculty to all continents—yes, including the Antarctic— if you were musing; and, from nanoscale to planetary-scale observation and measurements, from archeological geology on the shores of Greece to tectonic signatures in desolate peaks in China.

Welcome to our world of exhilaration.

Abhijit Basu
Herman B Wells Professor and Chair