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Geology graduate Becky Dreibelbis ’02, research associate at McLane Environmental, gave a lecture on “Volunteering with the Student Conservation Association: Geysers, Hot Springs, and Grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park” noon-1 p.m. May 2 in Van Wickle Hall room 108.
Free and open to the public, the talk was part of the Geology Department Seminar Series, held at noon most Fridays this spring, with lunch available at no charge to students and for $3 to faculty and staff.
Dreibelbis spent three months last summer in Yellowstone National Park through an internship with the Student Conservation Association. Her talk covered her research in the park, which was part of an ongoing project to inventory its thermal features, such as geysers and hot springs.
“I worked with one other SCA volunteer, and our job was to backpack into the backcountry of the park and track down areas of thermal activity based on aerial photographs we were given,” she explains. “Then, we would record the exact location of each feature with a [Global Positioning System] unit, take water chemistry measurements at each feature, and photograph and describe the feature.”
Dreibelbis says she also faced challenges in the backcountry, such as dealing with grizzly bears, learning to work in the highly dangerous and unstable thermal areas, and dealing with injuries and other emergencies.
McLane Environmental is an environmental consulting firm that specializes in groundwater modeling. Dreibelbis conducts research on the geology, history, and groundwater flow directions at sites, which she uses to prepare segments of a report for the client. The Internet is a major resource for her research, notes Dreibelbis, who also gathers information at the libraries of Princeton and Rutgers universities.
Her undergraduate geology background has been very useful, she says.
“Much of my research requires me to understand technical journal articles on complex geologic concepts, which my geology courses prepared me to do,” says Dreibelbis. “Often I need to find ways to present my research to other staff members, such as by creating graphs, animations, or other visual aids, another area that I was practiced in from my geology courses, since many of our labs required us to present data visually.”
Her geology courses included practical, “real world” applications, particularly the laboratory components, she adds.
“During my interview for this position, my employer was amazed that I had the opportunity as an undergraduate to do pumping tests in the field as part of my hydrogeology course. Although McLane does not perform any field work, we need to be thoroughly familiar with techniques and procedures used in the field in order to understand the work done by other consultants that we are building upon.”
Career Services also proved to be a valuable resource throughout her time in college.
“My Gateway adviser was Susan Heard, and I thought she was fantastic,” says Dreibelbis. “She always directed me towards opportunities that she thought would be of interest to me, such as an externship with Clayton Environmental in Massachusetts and an alumni-sponsored internship with Environmental Alliance in New Jersey. The facets of environmental consulting that I was exposed to during these two experiences gave me an edge during my job search in a poor economic climate. She helped me find my way to a major I was really interested in and was always there to dispense good advice. She also directed me to resources in the Career Services library to help me define my possible career goals.”
A Marquis Scholar at Lafayette, Dreibelbis graduated magna cum laude with a degree in biology and minors in Environmental Science and German. She received the James L. Dyson Geology Award, given to a student with exemplary character and academic achievements in geology, and the Rexroth Prize in German. She was honored with membership in Phi Beta Kappa and was named to the Dean’s List every semester. She studied abroad in Bonn, Germany in summer 1999 and in Kenya and Tanzania through a Lafayette interim session course in 2001. That summer, she mapped geological structures and studied sequence stratigraphy during a six-week field course at University of Wyoming in Laramie.
Dreibelbis used her Marquis Scholar grant to research the expansion behavior of feldspars at high temperatures with Guy Hovis, professor of geology, at Lafayette and at Cambridge University in England from 2001-02. Hovis presented his work with Dreibelbis and other students last fall at the national meeting of Geological Society of America in Denver, Colo. (see related story). In an internship arranged by Environmental Alliance operations manager Robert Chernow ’80 in 2001, she sampled monitoring wells, cleaned and repaired remediation system parts, mapped contaminant plumes with AutoCAD software, prepared reports, and implemented a recycling program for the office (see related story). As an EXCEL Scholar, she researched the removal of phosphate from wastewater effluent using a fixed-bed column and ion exchange with Art Kney, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, in summer 2000.
Along with four other students, Dreibelbis revived the inactive Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection student group, serving as co-president and leading a committee responsible for planning Earth Week speakers and exhibits, including a display of alternative fuel-source vehicles. She was a McKelvy Scholar and Writing Associate, performed in choir and Pep Band, and volunteered with trail maintenance and cleanup and Habitat for Humanity through the Landis Community Outreach Center.
Previous talks in the geology series this spring have included: