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Cordilleran Section

Best Student Papers

The Cordilleran Section recognizes the high quality of science being presented at our meetings in general, and by our student members in particular. The Section acknowledges this excellence by awarding Best Paper and Honorable Mention awards for student presentations in each of the following four categories: Undergraduate Poster, Undergraduate Oral, Graduate Poster, and Graduate Oral. If Professional members are interested in participating in evaluating these presentations, please contact the Section Chair, or the Local Organizing Committee Chair.

Outstanding Student Presentations

2011 Awardees

Jessica Bruns, California Polytechnic University-Pomona, Undergraduate Poster
Rare Earth Mineralization of Southern Clark County, Nevada

Brad Pitcher, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington, Undergraduate Poster
Crustal Assimilation in the Recent Mt. Etna Magma Plumbing System: Evidence From in Situ Plagioclase Textural And Compositional Data

Zachary Anderson, U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona, Graduate Poster
Structural and Kinematic Analysis of Miocene Rocks, Black Canyon, Arizona and Nevada

Rachael Hunt, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington, Graduate Poster
Documenting the Origin of Compositional Diversity of Subduction Zone Magmatism, Alicudi, Aeolian Arc (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) Using in situ Plagioclase Data

2010 Awardees

Jeanette Arkle, California State University, Fullerton, Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation
Focused exhumation in the Southern Alaska Syntaxis

Sarah Nagorsen, Central Washington University, Honorable Mention, Graduate Oral Presentation
Fault kinematics in the Western Mina Deflection: field studies in the Adobe Hills, California

Pamela Clay, San Jose State University, Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation
Tectonic implications of ductile shear zones in the Jurassic Keiths Dome Pluton, Northern Sierra Nevada Batholith, California

Chris Kohel, San Diego State University, Honorable Mention, Graduate Poster Presentation
Forearc basin evolution of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Eugenia Formation: new mapping in the Vizcaino Peninsula, Baja California Sur

Nathan Evenson, Carleton College, Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation
U-Pb zircon geochronology and provenance of the Paleogene–Neogene Kootznahoo Formation, southeast Alaska

Tyanna Schlom, California State University, Fullerton, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Earthquake magnitude and recurrence from scarp morphology, Eureka Valley Fault Zone, Eastern California

Michael Prior, California State University, Fullerton, Honorable Mention, Undergraduate Poster Presentation
Constraining the exhumation history along inferred faults in the Western Chugach Mountains, Alaska

2009 AWARDEES

Josh Goodman, San Francisco State University, Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: New constraints on the style, timing, and rates of post-middle-Pleistocene deformation in the Confidence Hills, southern Death Valley, California
Marc Nabelek, Whitman College, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Developing the Resazurin-Resorufin system as a “smart” tracer to measure microbial respiration and sediment-water interactions
Ben Shapiro, University of Puget Sound, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Unique geochemsitry of Gravelly Lake, Tacoma, Washington: evidence for a deep groundwater component

2008 AWARDEES

Heather Green Lackey, San Francisco State University, Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: New insights on the pluvial history of Lake Manly and tectonic development of Southern Death Valley recorded in Pliocene-to-Recent lacustrine stratigraphy
Michael Stearns, University of Utah, Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: Assembly of the incrementally emplaced McDoogle Pluton, Central Sierra Nevada, CA
Steven Giovannoni, University of the Pacific, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Impact of land use on water quality in the lower Calaveras River watershed
Mimi Pierson, Denison University, Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Geophysical evidence for Neoproterozoic rift basin underlying the Burke River Structural Belt, Eastern Georgina Basin, Central Australia

2007 Awardees

: No information

2006 AWARDEES

Andrew Greene, Univ. of British Columbia, Outstanding student oral presentation: Wrangellia flood basalts: Exploring the architecture and composition of an accreted oceanic plateau
Patrick Hanley, Trinity University, Texas, Outstanding undergraduate poster presentation: Detrital zircon dating of Jurassic Great Valley Group strata: implications for the early evolution of the Great Valley forearc basin

2005 Awardees

Heather Bleick, Vanderbilt University — Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: Production and distribution of hybridized magma in a replenished, open-system magma chamber; Aztec Wash pluton, Eldorado Mountains, Nevada
Valbone Memeti, University of Southern California — Honorable Mention, Graduate Poster Presentation: Regional and emplacement-related tectonism during intrusion of the Tuolumne batholith: Results from the Benson Lake and May Lake Pendants, Sierra Nevada, California - Honorable mention, Graduate Poster Presentation.
Sunshine Mansfield, Humboldt State University — Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Geology south of Punta Gorda, Mendocino Triple Junction region, CA
Dylan Rood, UC Santa Barbara — Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation: Neogene to Quaternary kinematics of the central Sierran frontal fault system in the Sonora Pass region: Preliminary structural, paleomagnetic, and neotectonic results
Lee Murai, Moss Landing Marine Labs — Honorable Mention, Graduate Oral Presentation.: Trans-terrestrial landslides along the northern rim of the Circum-Pacific and the impact on the marine environment: Big Sur coastline, California

2004 Awardees

: No information

2003 Awardees

Martín Hernández-Marín, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México -- Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Deformability of volcano-lacustrine sediments during subsidence by aquitard consolidation
Sarah Gaudio, College of Wooster — Honorable Mention Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Discrimination and correlation of Peach Springs Tuff and Peach Spring age-equivalent ignimbrites by geochronology, petrology, and immobile element geochemistry, northern Colorado River extensional corridor
Ryan Gold, Whitman College — Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation: A comparative study of aerial photograph sand LIDAR imagery for landslide detection in the Puget lowland, Washington
David Barbeau, University of Arizona — Honorable Mention Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Detrital zircon geochronology of basement and cover rocks from the Santa Lucia Mountains, California; new evidence for limited transport of Salinia
Lorna Jaramillo, University of Colorado -- Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: Remote sensing evaluation of element dispersion characteristics of porphyry copper deposits in the Silver Bell Mountains, Arizona
Ewa Szynkaruk, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México — Honorable Mention Graduate Poster Presentation: Tectonic implications of geomorphologic an structural characteristics of the Morelia - Acambay fault system, central Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
Vlad Constantin Manea, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México — Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation: Thermal models, coupling and metamorphism for the Mexican subduction zone beneath Guerrero
Matthew Forrest, Moss Landing Marine Labs — Honorable Mention Graduate Oral Presentation: Present-day shallow-water hydrothermal venting along the El Requesón fault zone provides possible analog for formation of Pliocene-age chert deposits in Bahía Concepción, B.C.S. México

2002 Awardees

Matthew Silver, Whitman College -- Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Analysis of plan-view geometry of clastic dike networks in Missoula flood slackwater sediments (Touchet beds), southeastern Washington
Robyn Cook, Middlebury College -- Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Differentiation of two Quaternary Mt. Hood lahars by clay mineralogical, quantitative X-ray diffraction and particle size analyses
Tandis Bidgoli, San Francisco State University -- Honorable Mention Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Determining uplift rates and patterns from Quaternary marine terraces of the Point Reyes Peninsula, California
Jessica Olsen, California State University, Northridge -- Honorable Mention Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Changes in the hydrogeology of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah defined by shifts in mineralogy and Sr-isotope composition
Brian Collins, University of California, Berkeley -- Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation: Geotechnical observations and analyses of recent coastal bluff failures, Pacifica California
Derek Ryter, University of Oregon -- Honorable Mention Graduate Oral Presentation: Quaternary tectonic evolution of the central San Jacinto fault zone, southern California
Heather Petcovic, Oregon State University -- Honorable Mention Graduate Oral Presentation: Dike-wallrock interactions in granitoids of the Wallowa Mountains, NE Oregon
Michael O'Neal, University of Washington -- Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation: The effects of moraine degradation on lichenometric dating of Little Ice Age moraines
Brandi Molitor, Western Washington University -- Honorable Mention Graduate Poster Presentation: Extent and climatic implications of the Upper Truckee Glacier during the Tahoe glaciation -Assessing conflicting scenarios
Todd Williams, Humboldt State University -- Honorable Mention Graduate Poster Presentation: The geodetic signature of modern deformation within the southern Cascade margin, northwestern California
Sean Fleming, University of British Columbia -- Honorable Mention Graduate Poster Presentation: Single and multiple mass transfer rates: Implications to groundwater contaminant transport at large temporal and spatial scales from deterministic and stochastic analysis