UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
The Geoscience faculty provides student centered research experiences and pride themselves on being active scholars. The funding to support student research opportunities has come from the National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society – Petroleum Research Fund, Environmental Protection Agency, New York State, and a host of local and nationally recognized foundations including numerous awards from the Andrew Mellon Foundation.
Students routinely work with Geoscience faculty on independent study courses and honors research for course credit toward their Geoscience major. In addition, numerous students (10-16) are hired to work for 8 to 10 weeks on Geoscience faculty-led research projects during the Hobart and William Smith Summer Research Program.
Here is a recent sampling of projects completed by geoscience majors:
- Chase Bell '22: First Look at Microplastics in the Human Water Cycle of Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes Regions of New York, USA
Nan Crystal Arens, Adviser - Gabrielle Alyce Linscott ’21: Atmospheric Rivers as Drought Busters in the Northeastern United States
Nicholas Metz, Adviser - Patrick Alexander Stone McMillan ’21: Examining Conditions that Facilitate Shore-Parallel Lake-Effect Snowbands through the Mohawk River Valley and Over the Adirondacks
Nicholas Metz, Adviser - Jacob L. Kotcher ’20: Origination in the Phanerozoic
Nan Crystal Arens, Adviser - Darby Johnson ’19: “Convection Associated with Warm-Season Stationary Fronts East of the Rocky Mountains”
Nicholas Metz, Adviser - Jonas Toupal ’19: “Using Remote Sensing to Analyze Mercury Contamination in Vegetated Areas: The Case of Tarkwa, Ghana”
Nan Crystal Arens, Adviser - Samuel Bartlett ’18: “The Spatial Distribution of Severe Weather Reports and Lightning Strikes near Warm-Season Stationary Fronts East of the Rocky Mountains,”
Nicholas Metz, Adviser - Morgan Bayreuther ’18: “Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, and pH Study of Maine and Minnesota Lakes for Trout Stocking”
David Finkelstein, Adviser - Peyton Capute ’18: “Warm-Season Stationary Fronts East of the Rocky Mountains and their Associated Synoptic Patterns”
Nicholas Metz, Adviser - Caroline Carr ’17: “Phenetics as an Effective Approach to Classify Late-Cretaceous Angiosperm Macrofossils”
Nan Crystal Arens, Adviser - Mikhail Fischer ’17: “A Phenetic Approach to Recognize OTU’s in Modern Leaves”
Nan Crystal Arens, Adviser - Matthew Sanders ’17: “Cold-Season Easterly Wind Events and Associated Lake Effect Influences over the Eastern Great Lakes”
Nicholas Metz, Adviser