This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
“It can be thrilling to look a land form that is millions of years old and try to figure out the forces that shaped it. You become a sort of geological detective,” says Lisa, a junior geology major from Wayne, N.J., and a graduate of Wayne Hills High School. “Here at Lafayette I not only have a role in research but I am working with a professor who welcomes my suggestions.”
There’s a special magnetism to Lisa Wasiowich as she studies what is known as the Coffman Hill sill, an intrusion of igneous rock that occurred some 240 million years ago. As an EXCEL Scholar with Lawrence L. Malinconico Jr., associate professor of geology and environmental geosciences, Wasiowich is continuing an effort begun by Meghan Keohane ’98.
Where her predecessor on the project studied the sill in Bucks County, Pa. with an emphasis on gravity data, Wasiowich is helping map the site using magnetic data.
“The chance to get out in the field is enjoyable,” she says. “It is interesting to be able to see something you learned in class. It’s also interesting to realize the effort it takes to do the research that we wind up reading about in textbooks. It’s sometimes very hard work — a real challenge compared to sitting in a classroom.”
The project has solidified Wasiowich’s desire to major in geology, she says.
“In geology, you look at a whole mountain, a large piece of land, you try to figure out how it happens. It can be thrilling to look a land form that is millions of years old and try to figure out the forces that shaped it. The mountain is never going to tell you how it came into being, so you become a sort of geological detective.”
Malinconico says his study, entitled “Geophysical Examination of the Coffman Hill Diabase Sill” – will utilize Wasiowich’s field work and data interpretations with the long-term goal of helping geologists better understand the thermal history of the area, which is crucial in understanding how the intrusion of igneous rock into sedimentary layers shapes our terrain and leads to the accumulation of oil.
The combination of field and laboratory work, Malinconico says, requires a student who has “classroom smarts” and “field smarts.”
“Lisa has proven herself in her academics, in her math and geology and physics courses,” he says. “She is equally adept at the hands-on work. I like to leave my students alone, set them up on a project and let them do their work. There is little hand-holding. Much of their learning comes in making judgments on their own. Lisa is doing a commendable job and making a solid contribution.”
“I doubt I’d have the chance to work with a professor on a major project at bigger schools,” Wasiowich says. “Here at Lafayette I not only have a role in research but I am working with a professor who welcomes my suggestions.”
Wasiowich says she might like to enter the environmental field upon graduation, perhaps to safeguard water supplies. She is a teaching assistant and tutor in geology.
Another side of Lisa
In March she was stage manager for the Lafayette College Theater production of Six Characters in Search of an Author. She will be the sound technician for the Marquis Players’ production of Pippin April 9-11 at the Williams Center for the Arts.