Devin Levang
Devin joined our MS program after completing his BS at Sonoma State University. For his research, he studied magnetic fabrics using Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS) in the Pulo do Lobo formation affected by the Southern Iberian Shear Zone. He completed his MS degree in 2022. For more information, see his digitally published thesis. After graduation, Devin worked as a lecturer right here at UWM; the structural geology students were lucky to have him! Now he is working at an environmental consulting firm in Milwaukee.
Eric Schuemann
Eric received his BS at Grand Valley State University prior to joining our MS program. For his research, he analyzed strain development and partitioning across a transpressional shear zone along a quartzite – metagabbro contact in the Black Hills Uplift, South Dakota. He completed his MS degree in 2022. For more information, see his digitally published thesis. After graduation, Eric taught students and managed labs at Grand Rapids Community College, the same place he got his geologic start before transitioning to her current role at the Michigan Geological Survey.
Eric collecting data for his thesis in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Kayla Kopinski
Kayla joined UWM after completing her BS at Buffalo State University. For her research, she studied microstructures in the Pulo do Lobo formation affected by the Southern Iberian Shear Zone using petrography and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). She completed her MS degree in 2022. For more information, see her digitally published thesis. After graduation, Kayla has worked as a geologist for geotechnical companies in Buffalo, NY and currently in St. Louis, MO.
Kayla at Twelve Foot Falls County Park (Wisconsin) on our Advanced Structural Geology class fieldtrip.
After years of pandemic delays, Kayla finally saw the Pulo do Lobo formation in person.
Falyn Strey
Falyn graduated with her MS degree from UWM in 2021. Prior to joining our MS program, she completed her BS degree from UW-Oshkosh. For her research, she studied quartz CPO (crystallographic preferred orientation) fabrics in rocks deformed along the Willard Thrust Fault. For more information, see her digitally published thesis. After graduation, Falyn taught at UW-Oshkosh and now works for an environmental consulting firm in Milwaukee.
Falyn taking a break from fieldwork on Antelope Island.
Falyn cutting a sample on a rock saw.
Nancy (Duque) Carman
Nancy graduated with her MS degree from UWM in 2020. Prior to joining our MS program, she had BS degrees in Physics from UC-Merced and Geosciences from UWM. For her research, she studied kinematic partitioning and fluid interaction in the Pulo do Lobo metasedimentary rocks affected by the Southern Iberian Shear Zone. For more information, see her digitally published thesis. Nancy is currently a PhD student studying planetary geology.
Nancy at a Pulo do Lobo outcrop in Almonaster la Real.
Chad Martin
Chad graduated with his MS degree from UWM in 2020. He joined our program after working in the petroleum and environmental fields after obtaining his BS from Wittenberg University. For his research, he used SEM cathodoluminescence and synchrotron sourced FTIR to study water that infiltrated quartz grains during deformation. For more information, go to Chad’s abstract from the 2019 GSA annual meeting in Phoenix, AZ and his digitally published thesis. Chad currently works as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm in Milwaukee.
Chad found a lovely winged porphyroclast on Antelope Island, Utah.
Chad used an FTIR instrument at the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley National Lab.
Ernest Thalhamer
Ernie joined the MS program at UWM after finishing his undergraduate degree at Buffalo State University. He studied the geometry of shear zone networks within the Grassy Portage Sill in Ontario (Rainy Lake District). For more information, you can read his abstract from the 2011 GSA Annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN or his digitally published thesis. Ernie completed his MS degree in 2018 and currently works as a geologist in Buffalo, NY.
Ernie with the sheared gabbros in Ontario!
Ernie presents his poster at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Sheryl Stephenson
Sheryl graduated with her MS degree from UWM in 2018 after completing her undergraduate work at Winona State University. For her research, she performed a geochemical investigation of metabasite rocks affected by the Southern Iberian Shear Zone. For more information, go to Sheryl’s abstract from the 2017 Annual GSA meeting in Seattle, WA and her digitally published thesis. Sheryl currently works as a hydrogeologist for an environmental consulting firm in Milwaukee.
Sheryl investigates the spectacular boudinage in nearby Aracena.
Sheryl takes notes while observing the Beja-Acebuches Metabasites (BAM!).
Jane Block
Jane graduated with her MS degree from UWM in 2014 after completing her undergraduate work at Purdue. For her research, she performed a kinematic analysis of the Rice Bay and Northeast Bay gneiss domes in the Rainy Lake region of Ontario. For more information, go to Jane’s abstract from the Annual GSA meeting in Denver, CO and her digitally published thesis. Jane currently works as a geologist for a regional agency in Pennsylvania.
Jane studying boudinage within the Rice Bay gneiss dome.
Justin Calhoun
Justin completed his undergraduate degree at Illinois State before joining us at UWM. He studied granite emplacement in the beautiful Scottish Highlands using magnetic fabrics and microstructural analysis. He completed his MS work in 2014. You can read more in his abstract from the 2013 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO and his digitally published thesis.
Justin acts as scale for gneiss in the Quetico Subprovince of northern Minnesota.
Justin gets style points for demonstrating refolded folds at the famous Soudan Iron Formation outcrop in Minnesota.
Kim Johnson
Kim joined the MS program after completing her undergraduate work at SUNY-Geneseo. For her research, she used synchrotron-sourced FTIR to study water content in deformed diamictites at a variety of strains from Antelope Island, Utah. For more information, go to Kim’s abstract from the 2008 GSA Annual Meeting in Houston, TX and her digitally published thesis. Part of our Journal of Structural Geology paper highlights her work. Kim finished her MS in 2013 and currently is a teacher in Albany, NY.
Kim in her MS field area, Antelope Island State Park in UTAH.
Kim gets a close look at the deformed conglomerates in Ontario.
Christine Barszewski
Christy joined the MS program at UWM after finishing her undergraduate degree at Grand Valley State. She joined Team Utah and studied deformed diamictites on Antelope and Freemont Islands. In particular, Christy used a petrographic microscope and SEM-scale cathodoluminescence to study microstructures. Christy finished her thesis in 2012. For more information, go to Christy’s abstracts from the 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN and the 2013 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO.
Christy snags an oriented sample of deformed diamictite on Fremont Island, Utah.
Christy presents her poster at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Jolene Traut
Jo graduated with her MS degree from UWM in 2011 after completing her undergraduate work at Winona State University. For her research, she studied deformation and rheology in the Baraboo (WI) quartzite by analyzing cleavage refraction, boudin shapes, and microstructures. For more information, go to Jo’s abstract from the 2010 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. We also published our work in a Special Publication from the Geological Society of London. Jolene currently works as a geologist for the state of Michigan.
Jolene finds layers with refracted cleavage at a quarry near Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Amelia Nachbor
Amy graduated with her MS from UWM in 2011 after completing her undergraduate work at University of Wisconsin-River Falls. For her research, she studied deformation in the Antelope Island (Utah) diamictites. She did lots of XRF work to constrain the geochemistry and also looked at details of quartz grains at the UW Synchrotron Radiation Center.
Amy is pointing along a small shear zone within the diamictite on Antelope Island (Utah).
Amy is loving the scenery on Antelope Island.
For more information, go to Amy’s abstract from the 2010 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. Part of our Journal of Structural Geology paper highlights her work.
Michael DeVasto
Mike taking a GPS reading at the Economy River in Nova Scotia.
Mike is getting to know the mylonite.
Mike earned his MS in 2011 at UWM after completing his undergraduate work at SUNY-Oneonta. For his research, he used GIS to study fabric evolution across granitic shear zones from Mountain, WI. He now works for an exploration company in Minnesota.
For more information, go to Mike’s abstract from the 2010 GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, CO
and Mike’s abstract from the 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. We also published our work in Computers & Geosciences.
Terra Anderson
Terra collecting deformed metaconglomerates in Ontario.
Terra looking at deformed conglomerates on Antelope Island in Utah.
Terra was a student in the MS program who joined us after completing her undergraduate work at Michigan Tech. For her research, she studied deformed conglomerates. In particular, she used EBSD to study quartz fabrics within the conglomerates to see how they evolve with increasing strain.
For more information, see Terra’s abstract from the 2008 GSA Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Becky Byars
Becky finished her MS in May 2008. Her research involved using wavelets (mathematical functions) to characterize fabrics in cataclasite zones. Her project focused on small-scale deformation bands in New Mexico. For more information, go to Becky’s GSA abstract from Salt Lake City 2005.
Becky in Mountain, WI.
Becky looking at tuffs in New Mexico
Darlene Fissler
Darlene completed her MS in May 2006 after joining us from Buffalo State. For her thesis, she determined strain in the deformed Seine River conglomerates in Ontario. Her work was part of a larger group project to determine how rheology relates to finite strain by using the various degrees of deformation in different clast types. For more information, go to Darlene’s NC GSA abstract from Minneapolis 2005 and Darlene’s GSA abstract from Salt Lake City 2005. We also published results from her work in the Journal of Structural Geology. Since graduating, Darlene worked for a variety of environmental consulting firms in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Darlene presenting her poster at GSA in Salt Lake City, UT.