A new paper in Nature identifying lists five co-authors, including Professor Emeritus of Geology Mike Retelle.

But ask Retelle about his own contribution, and he’ll point to the long line of talented ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students who’ve supported his and other researchers’ climate-focused work in Svalbard, Norway, over the last two decades.

“Over the years, about 20 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students have gone to Svalbard for summer work or have stayed at the University Centre in Svalbard for a semester,â€� he says. “Mitchel Soederberg ’25 just returned from doing the winter semester, and Jamie Hollander ’24 was in our program last summer.â€� 

Funded by a , the new research by Retelle and his fellow scientists used paleoclimatic data from the last 2,000 years, powerful computer modeling, and in-the-field research on lake sediments and tree rings to determine that certain types of weather over the last 2,000 years have often been due to a meteorological phenomenon known as “atmospheric blocking.”

Atmospheric blocking is what it sounds like: A large, stable weather pattern that blocks the usual movement of weather systems through an area. And in the Scandinavian Arctic, the researchers found that blocking patterns contribute to weather extremes, specifically periods of warm and very wet weather, which are becoming more frequent as the climate warms.

Retelle, who retired from the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty in 2022, remains active in his research in Svalbard, a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean. A popular research site, the Svalbard archipelago is located halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.

When atmospheric blocking events lead to heavy rainfall, the runoff, among other things, causes sediment particles and high levels of calcium to wash into Linnévatnet, a lake in southwest Svalbard. The coarsest sediments, which were consistently deposited during very heavy rainfall, were linked with atmospheric blocking events.

The sediment record from Linnévatnet shows that this pattern has been consistent for the past 2,000 years. The data also indicate that a long-term decrease in precipitation ended in the mid-1800s, and in recent years, as periods of blocking increased, the area experienced an uptick in extreme weather events. 

“As warming continues and sea ice recedes, future Svalbard floods will become more intense during episodes of….blocking,â€� the paper reports.

Retelle’s contributions to the paper include doing field surveys and gathering sediment cores from the bottom of Linnévatnet, which offer scientists a historical record of environmental changes. This work, he says, wasn’t done alone.

“Wes Farnsworth ’11 was part of the project when we recovered the lake sediment cores described in the paper,â€� Retelle says. “He’s now with and was a , supported by the NSF grant.â€�

In this video, researcher Wes Farnsworth ’11 retrieves a core sample from the lakebed of Linnévatnet, located on the west coast of Svalbard. Since 2012, Mike Retelle, seen wearing the red parka, has deployed such instrumentation, which provides crucial and precise data about the timing of sediment pouring into the lake during increasingly frequent rainstorms.

The work is ongoing. In fact, Retelle was on his way back to Svalbard for more research the day after the paper was published, practically passing ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student researchers in the air, including Soederberg, an earth and climate sciences major from Bedford, N.H. (The name of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ major changed from geology to earth and climate sciences in 2020.)

The Svalbard work has created a real pipeline for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students. Hollander, an earth and climate sciences major who graduated in June with honors, is now headed back to Svalbard. “She was just awarded a Fulbright Student grant to study the release of methane, a greenhouse gas, as glaciers retreat,â€� Retelle says.

Based at UiT–The Arctic University of Norway, Hollander will be affiliated with researchers Dimitri Kalenitchenko and Andrew Hodson (one of Retelle’s longtime collaborators). She will contribute to their exploration of the complex relationship between glacier melt, hydrological controls, and methane emissions. “She’s a rock star,� says Retelle.

As for Retelle, he will be in residence at the University Centre (UNIS) in Svalbard until late September. He is presently contributing lectures and field excursions to a doctoral and postdoc summer school for the Norwegian Academy for Polar Sciences, plus leading his regular summer teaching program for UNIS. 

“We got a new grant from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund to go back for two years to keep up the hydroclimate monitoring, and I’m helping out in another UNIS glacier course,� he said. “This is my semi-retirement!�

“Great work, Hannah and Emma!��

That jubilant shoutout came from geology professor Mike Retelle, who posted his congrats right after his honors thesis advisees, Hannah Johnson ’20 of Brewster, Mass., and Emma Wheeler ’20 of Paradis, Norway, submitted their geology theses.�

He also included a happy photo of Johnson and Wheeler in survival suits prior to their plunge into a Norwegian fjord last summer.

For ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors, the honors thesis is the pinnacle of academic achievement — never more so than this year, as seniors and their faculty advisers had to make the sudden move to remote learning due to COVID-19. Moved from the original March deadline, honors were due April 1.

Despite the disruption, there was continuity: ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors supporting their advisees.â�£

“Beginning with field work in the Arctic, which involved hiking over rough terrain and riding in small rubber boats in all kinds of weather, Hannah and Emma have been incredibly great to work with — always positive and always thinking,� said Retelle. �

Hannah Johnson ’20 and Emma Wheeler ’20 pose in survival suits during safety training at the University Centre in Svalbard, prior to the start of summer 2019 fieldwork, which entails travel by boat. They’re about to jump into the fjord to test their suits. �(Photograph by Mike Retelle)

The two theses draw on fieldwork that Johnson and Wheeler conducted with Retelle and other scientists in Svalbard, Norway. The former’s thesis looks at “Late Glacial to Holocene Sea Level History of Kapp Linne, Svalbard.� The topic of the latter is “A Hydroclimate Reconstruction in the Changing High Arctic Environment, Linnédalen, Svalbard.��

Johnson sampled boulders on old shorelines with a hammer and chisel to determine the ages of the shorelines and reconstruct sea level during the retreat of the last ice sheet, as the Svalbard ice sheet 20,000 years ago is an analog of what is happening in Antarctica and Greenland today.

“After she came back she worked at the University of Vermont to dissolve the rock samples in hydrofluoric and perchloric acid, wearing hazmat gear,� Retelle explains.

Meanwhile, Wheeler’s project entailed recovering samples from a glacial lake to reconstruct its hydrology. “Her fieldwork required hauling a mooring by hand over the gunnels of a Zodiac boat, and then recovering samples and electronics from the mooring,� Retelle says. 

During summer 2019 fieldwork in Svalbard, Hannah Johnson stands at an outcrop above Linnévatnet, a lake at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The white quartzite behind her is pockmarked with weathering pits. (Photograph by Mike Retelle)

Wheeler remembers what inspired her to choose geology as a major: a single image.

“After my first year, I remember seeing a picture ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ had posted of two students, one standing on the other’s shoulders, inspecting a small, strange-looking bucket on top of a three-legged structure.â€�

The caption, she recalls, “said something about students doing research in the High Arctic with Professor Mike Retelle. My immediate reaction was, ‘Wow, I want to go there and do that’ — even though I wasn’t even really sure what ‘that’ was!â€� (She now knows the photo depicted the weather station in the Linné Valley on Svalbard. The bucket records precipitation).

“He is always ready to talk about anything, sediment-related or not!�

“Emma and Hannah are also mentally tough — just ask their coaches,� said Retelle. Wheeler is a three-time NCAA champion with the rowing team and a French translator for a local program that provides legal services for asylum-seekers. Johnson is a swim captain who was part of the team’s record-setting 200-yard medley relay at this year’s NESCACs.�

Emma Wheeler ’20 (left) and Inger Marie Aasberg, a student at the University Centre in Svalbard, do geochemical analyses of their sediment cores last September at the R.B. Gilmore XRF lab at the University of Massachusetts. (Photograph by Mike Retelle)

Typically, seniors would upload their theses from the comfort of their campus residence or the library, then celebrate with friends. That part was missing this year, but not the pride of achievement.

“Submitting online from home was not how I envisioned how this project would end,” said Johnson. “But I am still really proud of this accomplishment and incredibly grateful for the thoughtful guidance from Mike throughout this whole process. Not being at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and having face-to-face interactions was difficult, but Mike quickly replaced those with Zoom meetings.”

“Mike has been an incredible mentor,� Wheeler adds. “Not only has he shared his extensive knowledge of and experience in Arctic geology, but he is always ready to listen to new ideas or think through questions I have presented.

“He also really cares about his students, and is always ready to talk about anything, sediment-related or not!�

Netflix options ‘Friday Night Lights’-like soccer story ‘One Goal’ — The Hollywood Reporter

and the reported that Netflix has bought the rights to One Goal by Amy Bass ’92.

The book, whose publication in February gained national attention, tells the story of the Lewiston High School boys soccer team, comprising mostly immigrants from Somalia and other African countries, that won the 2015 Maine state championship.

During a visit to Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services in Lewiston in March, Amy Bass ’92 talks to Shobow Saban, a Lewiston High School graduate and key figure in her book, One Goal.  (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

Bass cautioned that a book’s optioning does not necessarily mean it will be produced — but she said the story of the LHS soccer team is an important one to tell.

“It’s very much about Lewiston being a microcosm of bigger things happening right now,� she told the Press Herald. “Communities that come together don’t always stay together. It takes a lot of work.�

Baxter State Park, home of Mount Katahdin, gets new director — Portland Press Herald

The , the , and reported that Eben Sypitkowski ’05 will become the newest director of Baxter State Park, which contains Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak.

An environmental studies major at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ who studied coastal bloodworm digging for his honors thesis, Sypitkowski is currently the park’s resource manager, and he told WABI that he hopes to continue the vision of Gov. Percival P. Baxter, who donated the land for the park in the early 1930s.  

“This is a place to turn off your cellphone and let your relationship with nature be contemplative and not structured by commercial interests,� he said. “This is a place to step out of our connected world, and reconnect with yourself and nature.�

Large study finds colleges that go test-optional become more diverse and maintain academic quality — Inside Higher Ed

and other news media reported the findings of a major study of optional SAT policies co-authored by Bill Hiss ’66 and Valerie Franks ’98.

One of the study’s major conclusions is that SAT-optional policies can lead to an increase in underrepresented students in both the applicant pool and the first-year class.

The study also finds that, once in college, students who did not submit test scores posted lower grades initially, “but they ended up highly successful, graduating at equivalent rates or —  at some institutions —  slightly higher rates than did those who submitted test scores,� according to Inside Higher Ed. “This, the report says, is ‘the ultimate proof of success.’�

As dean of admissions from 1978 to 2000, Bill Hiss ’66 spearheaded the college’s test-optional policy. Since then, he’s tracked the policy’s effect at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and nationally. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The study is the second major SAT-outcome study for which Hiss and Franks have been key players.

Hiss, who was ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ dean of admissions from 1978 to 2000, spearheaded the college’s move to test-optionality in the 1980s. He and Franks have studied the issue extensively as more and more schools — most recently and notably the — drop the requirement to submit SAT or ACT scores.

Working: Building a brand — Sun Journal

The Lewiston caught up with Robert Little ’12, a local filmmaker whose latest projects include shooting for DIY Network’s reality series Maine Cabin Masters.

Little’s company, Sublime House Media, works on “filmmaking that could have a positive impact,� writes Kathryn Skelton. He’s parlayed experience filming in Indonesia and for National Geographic into making videos that help immigrants, and working with kids on filmmaking.

For Maine Cabin Masters, Little is following a crew of builders who fix up cabins in the woods. “Every profession has a wealth of knowledge, and I feel like people forget that about the trades,� Little told Skelton. “Video in a lot of ways is a trade. You’re making a product, and there’s lots of tools involved.�

Researchers to study history and impact of increased rain in the Arctic — The Boston Globe

What happens when, because of climate change, rain replaces snow in the Arctic?

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle and a colleague at UMass Amherst have won a $760,430 grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the phenomenon, reported.

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle poses with Allie Balter ’14 and Greg de Wet ’11 at a field site in Svalbard, Norway, in 2013. (Courtesy of Greg de Wet)

Increased rainfall could have devastating effects on communities like Svalbard, Norway, which could suffer landslides and flash flooding.

According to a , Retelle and Bradley will study lake sediments in Svalbard in order to reconstruct a long climatic history. “This will provide a unique perspective on the nature of recent sedimentary changes and provide insight into the effects of contemporary changes in climate on the hydrological regime of this region,� Retelle said.

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, new focus on ‘Purposeful Work’ — WGBH-FM

Boston public radio station WGBH-FM profiled, a signature ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ program that helps students discover work that aligns with their interests and values.

The station talked to Callie Reynolds ’18, who completed a Purposeful Work internship in her Connecticut hometown in 2015; she also completed the “Life Architecture� course that teaches students how to approach the twin life goals of professional and personal fulfillment.

In 2017, Gerald Nelson ’18 interned at Sports Illustrated Kids as part of the Purposeful Work Internship Program. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Purposeful Work, she says, “is all about figuring out what I want to do with my life.� She’s now heading to Stockholm to work for the nonprofit study-abroad foundation DIS.

Reporter Kirk Carapezza also interviewed Peter Bysshe ‘93, who was on campus during Short Term to teach a course on brand culture building, part of the Purposeful Work program that offers practitioner-taught courses on practical and applied areas of study.

“When I work with designers, I love watching them get from a stuck place to an unstuck place,â€� Bysshe told Carapezza. “We recognize that liberal arts students can do anything. We have them do real things so they can feel what it’s like, so it’s not just rhetoric anymore.”

Why are poor people in America so patriotic? One man went on an odyssey to find out — Salon

Chauncy Devega of Salon talked to Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina, author of Broke and Patriotic, about why the poorest Americans .

Asked why Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Duina said Trump tapped a backlash against ideas such as political correctness.

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina teaches a course in political sociology. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

For Trump, political correctness amounts to collective demands for unconditional equality. For him, “this is a way of saying that these collective identities — whether it’s blacks, gays, women, etc. — demand things from the government as a matter of right,â€� Duina said.

Yet to Trump and his supporters, such demands are a “non-American thing,� he added, that go “against the tradition of individualism: You have certain basic rights as an individual, not as a group.

“I think the people who voted for Trump by and large could be characterized as more individualistic-oriented. They lack interest in the government providing things for them and are more interested in the government getting out of their way. His voters and other supporters also feel that the government is corrupt and catering to all sorts of people instead of them.�

Can tech save the humanities? — The Boston Globe

The incorporation of technology into subjects like English and philosophy could breathe new life into the humanities, . Moreover, the increasing prevalence of technology in our society makes the humanities more necessary than ever.

Joshua Macht ’91 talks about entrepreneurship with Shaina Lam ’17 of Portland, Maine, in 2014. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Humanities and technology can intersect in promising ways, such as creating a game based on Henry Thoreau’s life or, as students in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ Digital and Computational Studies program did this year, helping dancers compose music with their bodies.

“If the humanities are ever to enjoy a true resurgence, it will come as a result of a reinvention that embraces a fresh new take on old disciplines,� Macht writes.

Studying art, philosophy, or literature could also guide the development of technology. “We’ll need to develop not just the technical skills to build better tech, but also the moral and ethical reasoning to guide how society deploys them,� he writes.

Art review: Prints with a purpose – and power — Maine Sunday Telegram

In curating an exhibition of prints and posters in Portland, Maine, Myron Beasley debunked the myth that good art is “pure in itself and free from any ideological or utilitarian purpose,� the Maine Sunday Telegram’s Daniel Kany.

Beasley, an associate professor of African American and American cultural studies, curated “Print, Protest, Power,� exhibited at Able Baker Contemporary from May 18 to June 22. The prints and posters in the exhibition, created mainly by black artists during and after the civil rights movement, had clear messages of political action and fighting for justice.

“The works make a compelling case not only that there is much to be done, but that such efforts can and will be successful,� Kany writes. “The art builds on successes of the past as well as current topics of change politics, so when it looks to the future, it does so not desperately, but confidently.�

The quest to make super-cold quantum blobs in space — Wired

reported on Associate Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad’s work with the Cold Atom Laboratory, the first-ever environment that is both cold enough and free enough of gravity to create a Bose-Einstein condensate.

In 2014, Associate Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad works with summer student researcher Ben Lovitz ’15 of Portland, Ore., in Lundblad’s ultra-cold atomic physics lab. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The Cold Atom Lab was launched to the International Space Station in May. The “blobs� the lab creates “should yield new insights about how atoms organize themselves,� writes Sophia Chen.

Working remotely, Lundblad will study this entirely new state of matter. “Imagine you were in a culture where you’d never seen ice,� Lundblad said. “You find out that when you cool water past 32 degrees Fahrenheit, this amazing form of H2O appears that is crystalline and regular.�

A camp for Jewish connections — The Jewish Week

The Jewish Week named Carine Warsawski ’07 one of its . Warsawski is the founder of Trybal Gatherings, which creates camp-like retreats for young Jewish adults.

Though she traveled to see family frequently growing up, Warsawski told the magazine that she first felt truly connected to Judaism during a camp, and during college and afterwards she worked at camps and for student tour companies. “It became important to lead experiences that helped people connect to their Jewish culture, no matter the geography,� she said.

“Summer camps are one of the Jewish community’s greatest assets,� she added. “Trybal is an opportunity to take my own transformative experiences from camp and offer [that] to others.�

Implicit Bias: Understanding our own beliefs — Maine Public

Weeks after a Starbucks employee called the police on two black men sitting in the store and Starbucks implemented an afternoon of anti-bias training for its employees, Lecturer in Neuroscience Laura Ligouri on implicit bias.

Ligouri, the founder of a nonprofit that applies psychology and neuroscience to human rights issues, said implicit bias is an unconscious process that influences people’s preconceived ideas about others and can lead to prejudice against groups different from one’s own.

Laura Ligouri, teaches “Neuroscience, Ethics, and Societyâ€� in May. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Ensuring that implicit biases don’t lead to discrimination takes more work than a few hours of training, Ligouri said — to understand and confront their biases, people must slow down and be willing to have uncomfortable conversations on an ongoing basis.  

“To create change, it has to be a commitment to a program that becomes a practice,� she said.   

Diet may influence the spread of a deadly type of breast cancer, study finds — ScienceDaily

Researchers including Charles Perou ’87 have found that blocking an amino acid found in certain foods might stop the spread of a particular type of breast cancer, the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center .

The team discovered that limiting asparagine — found in “dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood, asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy and whole grains,� according to the press release — in mice prevents the spread of triple-negative breast cancer.

The next steps are to test the effects of asparagine in healthy humans and then in cancer patients.

Perou is a leading researcher into variations of breast cancer and precision medicine. In October, the AACI Distinguished Scientist Award for his work in those fields.

To do research at the extreme north or south of the planet, you need a good enough project to get funding from the National Science Foundation or another government agency. You also have to be organized, independent, and technically excellent.

“You have to be able to work alone, be flexible, have a plan and be willing to change it,� says Professor of Biology Will Ambrose, who studies life on the Arctic Ocean floor. “That’s what I tell my students.�

And they listen.

Before they attached video cameras to whales, drilled through 15 feet of ice to lakes below, or tracked ancient glaciers, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumni who conducted Antarctic research in recent months benefited from the same education available to all ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ biology and geology majors — one that involves plenty of fieldwork and close collaboration with professors who involve students in their own research.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Professor of Biology Will Ambrose (center) and Kelton McMahon ’05 (right) ride with Gro Harlaug Olsen of the University of Tromso through Kongsfjorden in Svalbard, Norway. (Courtesy of Kelton McMahon)

“I had the opportunity to conduct some really amazing cutting-edge research with world-class researchers,� says Kelton McMahon ’05, an assistant professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who traveled to Antarctica in 2016 and plans to return next year. “That is not common in a lot of universities for undergraduates.�

McMahon, who’s developed chemical tools to answer biological questions, started studying at the intersection of biology and geochemistry at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. For a marine ecology course taught by Ambrose, he was assigned an independent research project.

Several of Ambrose’s former students, including Ari Friedlaender ’96, Doug Krause ’99, and Carolynn Harris ’11, have gone on to conduct research in Antarctica. For Ambrose, gaining the skills to work independently is critical to success as a scientist.  

Professors Michael Retelle (left) and William Ambrose on the island of Ingøya, Norway. (Randall Hyman)

“My philosophy has always been that by the time students get to be seniors, they have to be functioning like a first-year grad student, or close,â€� he says. “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students are bright, and that’s how I treat them.â€�

McMahon’s interest in aspects of geochemistry also led him to take a course with Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson. He worked with both Ambrose and Johnson for his marine ecology project, which concerned the diets and movements of a killifish species in a Maine salt marsh. That turned into McMahon’s first published scientific paper.

Johnson, who also co-advised Carolynn Harris, is used to working closely with students.

Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson (right) joins her environmental geochemistry students to study the water quality of Lake Andrews. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“They drive the research that I do,� she says. “They come in and often have their own questions, and are eager to get involved in some of the questions I’m pursuing for my own research.�

Working closely with her students benefits both her and them, Johnson says. The students’ work turns up geochemical data that both student and professor can use — and because the data must be carefully collected in a specific way, students learn technical skills that can serve them well in graduate school and beyond.

Students also help Johnson think about her own research in new ways.

“Students bring so much to a project, they really do,â€� Johnson says. “They have different ways of thinking about things. They have different experiences at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ than I had as an undergraduate, so they’ll bring in what they learned from other classes. I consider them more collaborators and colleagues.â€�

“It’s training the next generation of scientists, if not polar scientists.”

Both Ambrose and Johnson again advised McMahon for his senior thesis, on ice algae and phytoplankton in the Arctic Ocean. He did fieldwork in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago above the Arctic Circle. It’s an area where scientists can see up close the rapid effects of climate change on the polar regions, and it’s a popular destination for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and faculty interested in polar science.

One of them is Professor of Geology Mike Retelle, who studies the movements of glaciers on the islands and usually brings students with him on his trips. While ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ undergraduates work within the scope of Retelle’s ongoing research, they design and execute their own projects.

“They help with the preparation before they go into the field, and they see the project right through the end,� Retelle says. “It’s how field science is done. It’s not a canned experiment.�

The opportunity to work directly with students was what drew Retelle to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the first place, he says.

“It’s fun seeing them experience something you’re so passionate about,� he says. “Importantly, it’s training the next generation of scientists, if not polar scientists.�

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle poses with Allie Balter ’14 and Greg de Wet ’11 at a field site in Svalbard, Norway, in 2013. Balter, now a graduate student at the University of Maine, conducted research in Antarctica in recent months. (Courtesy of Greg de Wet)

One of Retelle’s first students to catch what he calls the “Arctic bug� was Brenda Hall ’90. Now a professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at the University of Maine, she studies glacial history and paleoclimatology. She’s made more than two dozen research trips to Antarctica.

As an undergraduate, Hall traveled with Retelle to Canada’s Resolute Island to research lakes.

“He’s really good at explaining things in the field especially,� she says. “One of the things I like about fieldwork is that it’s fun, and Mike really managed to make the work interesting. That’s something that I’ve kept with me.�

Retelle later mentored Hall during her graduate school search and connected her with faculty at UMaine, where she earned a doctorate. Now herself a teacher and adviser to students — including Allie Balter ’14, who traveled to Svalbard with Retelle as a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student and went to Antarctica with Hall this year — she brings both undergraduate and graduate students into her research, early and often.

Brenda Hall ’90 and UMaine undergraduates Laura Mattas and Tyler Pollock take notes about an Antarctic boulder they’re about to sample. (Courtesy of Allie Balter)

“Getting students involved in research early is really critical,� she says. “Mike did that with me, and I do that with my own students.�  

After his own Arctic research experience, Kelton McMahon wrote a senior thesis that was also published as a scientific paper. He’s since collaborated with both Ambrose and Johnson on several projects as he moved through graduate school at the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and now in his faculty role at the University of Rhode Island.

Working with his advisers was “a phenomenal opportunity to think transformatively, to learn how to think like a scientist,� McMahon says.

“It gave me an incredible leg up as I got to graduate school — I had done oceanographic cruises, I’d published multiple papers, I’d presented at conferences, all because I had been able to work with these professors.�

Each year when I ask faculty what they’re excited to teach, there’s a shared vibe — optimism for a new academic year and new students — in their different answers. But this year, I heard something new: urgency.

Associate Professor of History Joe Hall, for example, feels the force of current events as he launches his course on .

Hall says that following “horrible misreadings� of U.S. history by President Trump and following the violence in Charlottesville, his course “offers a wonderful opportunity� to set the record straight.

Current events, he says, offer the chance to talk “not just about understanding why history matters, which is frankly true of any history course, but to talk about the origins of slavery, which are at the center of this country, and later the founding of the Confederacy and race relations that still make our lives so complicated.�

Ian Shin, a lecturer in history and C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, is bringing a new course to the college, .

As noted in the Catalog, the course will suggest that the “contemporary discourse of Asian Americans as the ‘model minority’ obscures a long history of struggles for equality and glosses over the community’s rich diversity.�

Ian Shin, a lecturer in history and C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, brings a new course to the college, “Making Asian America: Citizenship, Identity, Belonging.” (Jay Burns/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“To my understanding, this is the first time this topic has been taught at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½,â€� Shin says. “So there are a lot of stories that haven’t been told and a hunger among students of Asian descent to hear these stories.â€�

Moreover, he says, the course “offers a new way to think about U.S. history� by setting aside the usual narratives of American history, ones that often focus on transatlantic immigrants, to take a new perspective, looking at those who came “over the Pacific from Asia and Southeast Asia� to America.

Jane Costlow, the Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies, says she’s been “inspired by where we are right now” to shake up her environmental humanities course, ““

So while students will still read canonical writers like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Edward Abbey, she’s been introducing new and more diverse voices, such as those in “” essays edited by cultural geographer and writer Carolyn Finney and published in Orion magazine in 2016.

Costlow says that her love of writers like Thoreau, Muir, and Abbey includes “fighting with them sometimes”; for example, dealing with Abbey’s misogyny. But then “there are his moments of insight into the world, where his orneriness is directed against things that drive me nuts, too, such as materialism and superficiality.”

“I tell students that I hope they will discover writers who resonate with them who are, at some level very different from they are.”

Assistant Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque is keen to teach his own new course, “.�

Rocque says his course will go beyond the criminal justice system to look at the “philosophy and social reasons of why we need to control and sometimes correct behavior.�

A criminologist, Rocque has correctional-system experience, including a stint as director of research for the Maine Department of Corrections. “I plan to use some of my connections, on both the inmate and staff sides, to show students an inside perspective on that whole world.�

Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina is the author of the forthcoming book, Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country. (H. Jay Burns/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Rocque’s colleague Professor of Sociology Francesco Duina, author of the forthcoming book (Stanford University Press), says it’s a great time to teach his course on . “Very timely,â€� he says. “Given the current political climate, I think students will feel interested in topics such as national identity and populism.â€�

Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture, is excited to teach her long-running First-Year Seminar “.�

The course looks beyond the familiar public face of museums to the complex world of collecting: “the art market, art law, and their sinister underside, art crime.�

Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture, teaches the First-Year Seminar “Fakers, Forgers, Looters, Thieves.” (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

It’s a “topic that keeps on giving,� she says, referencing two recent news stories, one about the on the suspicion that it was looted from Italy in the 1970s and the other about an of 13 priceless pieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Like all ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ geologists, Professor of Geology Mike Retelle is happiest when he’s out in the field, which is why he’s jazzed to teach his course on .

“It’s an intensive field laboratory course that gets students working like geologists,� he says. The class will visit what Retelle calls his “classic sites in Maine,� on the coast, rivers, and lakes. “They get a chance to get their hands dirty, literally.�

Assistant Professor of Physics Aleks Diamond-Stanic looks forward to his newly created First-Year Seminar on .

“We’re doing readings on stereotype threat, on , and how to be successful in sciences, and we’ll have discussions to help students contextualize various current events.�

Marcus Bruce ’77, the Benjamin E. Mays Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, took a broader perspective than his colleagues.

He’s teaching courses on from 1550 to 1840 and , plus a for majors in religious studies.

Professor Emeritus of Sociology Sawyer Sylvester talks with Professor of Religious Studies Marcus Bruce ’77 after Convocation on Sept. 5, 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

For Bruce, excitement comes from “teaching a new group of students. It’s always interesting to see what they bring to the classroom.�

As he engages his students in dialogue, “something happens in that moment when you exchange ideas,� Bruce says. “You tell them a little bit about America’s religious history, and they bring their insights and perspectives. And that keeps it fresh.�

Professor Emeritus of Geology John Creasy, whose appointment to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty in 1975 ushered in the thriving modern era for geology studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, died June 21. He was 71 years old.

Creasy earned a B.S. with high distinction in geology from Colorado State University in 1967 and completed a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1974. He taught briefly at Middlebury College before joining the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty. He retired in 2014.

John Creasy marches in the academic procession at Commencement in 2012. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Creasy’s arrival at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ coincided with seismic shifts both at the college and in the discipline of geology. At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, he was part of a major expansion of the faculty and an invigoration of the curriculum under President Hedley Reynolds. At the same time, Creasy’s coming of age as a geologist coincided with the field’s embrace of the revolutionary theory of plate tectonics, the idea that the earth’s crust is made of massive plates that can move around.

Against that backdrop, Creasy used the resources at hand, including ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ relatively new Short Term option and the senior thesis program, to expand and deepen the geology major into today’s highly rigorous program, one emphasizing extensive fieldwork (a tradition fostered by his predecessor, Roy Farnsworth), intensive lab work, and a required two-semester thesis.

David Bailey ’81, professor of geosciences and chair of the department at Hamilton College, was one of Creasy’s early students, and he recalls how the 1973 oil crisis also contributed to making geology “an up-and-coming field of study.â€� The hiring of Creasy and another young geologist, Patricia Cashman (who would go on to a long career at the University of Nevada in Reno), added to the sense that suddenly, geology at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was hip.

“My freshman year, I took a geo course on a whim,� recalls Professor of Geology Dykstra Eusden ’80. “Here was this young guy who was so into plate tectonics, which was brand-new. He just captivated me and a whole bunch of other kids.�

Eusden, who was hired by Creasy in 1988, recalls Creasy leading a special-topics course on plate tectonics that involved “reading the brand new peer reviewed papers.� It was more than a thrill, Eusden says, “trying to get our heads around this new global paradigm — it was awesome!�

Near Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2011, on his final Short Term trip to the U.S. Southwest, John Creasy poses next to examples of “volcaniclastic” rock, which has been moved or affected by wind, water, or similar action. (Photograph by Dykstra Eusden ’80)

For many geology students, the excitement of that youth movement — and Creasy’s high expectations as a professor — was felt during excursions far from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ that created, in some cases, lifelong bonds.

Bailey, for example, was a first-year when he took what would become Creasy’s signature course, a five-week Short Term trek to map the geology of the U.S. Southwest. Bailey thought the course would be a lark. Then he got into the van for the trip West.

“But it was so good for me, and I am where I am because of him.�

Driving upwards of 15 hours a day, the 20 students riding in two vans were expected to observe the passing terrain, all the way from Maine to Arizona, and make field notes. “At the end of every day, after dinner and doing dishes, we would have a quiz on the geology of the states we drove through,” Bailey says. “John ran the course like a boot camp in geology.â€�

And his students loved it. Tall and reserved in manner — the actor James Cromwell could be his doppelgänger — Creasy looked the part of the taskmaster. “We were in awe of him, but his intensity was contagious,� Bailey said. “There was so much respect for him: I wanted to work my butt off to impress John, to achieve for John.�

By 1981, Bailey’s senior year, Creasy had ramped up the department’s thesis program. “My thesis defense at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was the hardest of my career,â€� he says. “John brought in a big-name Ph.D. as part of the examining committee, and they put me in my place. My master’s and Ph.D. defenses were love fests in comparison.

“But it was so good for me, and I am where I am because of him.�

A few years ago, several geo majors from that Short Term, joined by Creasy, enjoyed a mini-reunion at an alum’s camp on Sebago Lake. “The geology department was our home at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, academically and socially,â€� Bailey says. “When you spend so much time in the lab and in the field together, you bond. That speaks to the power of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ geology department.â€�

“His philosophy was to teach to your strength; he didn’t shoehorn us into one area. Thirty years later, I so appreciate that gift.â€�

Equally powerful was Creasy’s support of the junior faculty members in his department, and he helped them build teaching and research careers by giving them the freedom to follow their interests.

John Creasy poses with geology majors Saebyul Choe ’14 and Sula Watermulder ’14 during a mapping project in the Gilead Quad in western Maine. The two majors had given Creasy the matching blue bandana for the trip. (Photograph by Dykstra Eusden ’80)

“John gave us direction when we needed it, but also allowed us to explore and follow our passions,� Eusden said. “His philosophy was to teach to your strength; he didn’t shoehorn us into one area. Thirty years later, I so appreciate that gift.�

That open-minded approach extends to the department’s hiring practices, says his colleague Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson. When Johnson, whose expertise is in biogeochemistry and paleoclimatology, was hired, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at the time was actually seeking a hydrogeologist. “But John had the openness to consider candidates like me with other abilities,â€� she says.

“He was a mentor and friend, almost like an older brother — a calming influence.”

As a young graduate student in the 1980s, Professor of Geology Mike Retelle had a one-year appointment to the geology faculty. His youth and energy showed; as a teacher and researcher, “I was all over the map,� he recalls.

Still, Creasy hired Retelle to a tenure-track position in 1987. “He must’ve known that I could direct that energy,� Retelle says with a shake of his head. “John hired people and let them do what they were best at. He let us rock and roll.�

John Creasy in 2004.

Importantly, adds Retelle, Creasy chose to serve as department chair for long stints in the 1990s, shouldering loads of administrative work as Retelle and Eusden were establishing themselves. “He protected us,� Retelle says. “For me, he was a mentor and friend, almost like an older brother — a calming influence. Every morning, we’d check in with each other. We’d run together. We’d talk about everything under the sun.�

As a researcher, Creasy’s work added to the knowledge of the geologic history of the White Mountains. As a doctoral student at Harvard under the legendary Marland Billings, he studied ancient volcano craters, known as calderas, within the White Mountains. Through field mapping and laboratory analyses, he identified two major periods of volcanic activity 100 to 200 million years ago, associated with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.

In 2014, Johnson delivered the traditional retirement tribute at the final faculty meeting of the year. In it, she praised Creasy for “promoting experiential learning and inquiry-based approaches to teaching way before it became popular. His de-emphasis of traditional lectures and emphasis on field-based, hands-on data collection, coupled with subsequent laboratory analysis and interpretation of the data, has influenced the way all of us teach in geology.�

In practice, Retelle recalls how Creasy “gently� taught him how to teach in the field, especially during Short Term. He recalls Creasy marching his group of Short Term students to the rim of a canyon, giving them a brief overview of the wide-open space before sending them down to map the features.

“We sat on the rim watching them move around,� Retelle recalls. “Even from a mile away, by how they moved around you could see the light bulbs go on when they figured something out.�

A walrus skull wearing a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ski team hat sits on a table in the Carnegie Science Hall office of Professor of Geology Mike Retelle.

“The walrus is a really strange story,� he says.

Retelle and a student found the walrus skull, along with two bowhead whale skulls, while gathering data in 1993 to reconstruct the historical sea levels of beaches on Cornwallis Island, located in the High Arctic of Canada.

The remains were geologically useful because Retelle and his student were doing a lot of radiocarbon dating, which requires “any available organic material,� he says, “and that includes shells and driftwood — and in this case, bones.�

Professor of Geology Mike Retelle found the walrus skull while doing research in the Canadian High Arctic in 1993. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Because they couldn’t bring a whole whale skull home to Maine (it was as big as a kitchen table), they took its inner-ear bones, which are made out of ivory, a compound particularly valuable for carbon dating, explains Retelle.

Back in Maine, they did the dating. “Sure enough, we had a progressive, really nice story of how sea level changed in response to how the land rose up as the heavy glaciers retreated,� Retelle says. “Kind of a cool story.�

But the walrus skull told a different story.

Mike Retelle’s 1993 photograph of the walrus skull as he first saw it in the Canadian Arctic.

Retelle and his student found that skull, including its tusks, on a spot of ancient shoreline about three miles inland from the existing coast and 20 meters above sea level. “We thought the skull would help us date the shoreline, but its radiocarbon age was really different from what the elevation would suggest. It was a strange relationship,� he says.

Turns out, the walrus had walked inland about three miles from shore and died. As old walruses die, they sometimes “get a little bit crazy and go on walkabout. They’ll go somewhere other than the shoreline to die,� Retelle says. So, “his age represented by radiocarbon had nothing to do with the ancient shoreline he was on.�

Retelle recalls how he cut the tusks into slices for carbon dating. He took an old table saw onto the Historic Quad, running an extension cord back into Carnegie Science.

That day, a young biologist was interviewing for a faculty position at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. “He was another Arctic guy, and I’m out there with dirty clothes cutting walrus bones, which made a hell of a smell. But he said, ‘That’s cool,’ and we hit it off.â€�

That was Will Ambrose, and he’s been Retelle’s colleague and collaborator for more than two decades. “We’ve worked together on a lot of projects in the Arctic.�

The walrus is now a useful teaching tool that Retelle uses in his climatology class to demonstrate radiocarbon dating in climate reconstruction. And he uses it to explain the superiority of pure ivory over porous mammal bones for carbon dating (the latter collects more modern carbon from lichens and mosses).

Retelle, a hat wearer, has placed many a cap on the walrus. The ski team one is the latest. “It just looks good,� he concludes.

As geology students did faculty-guided fieldwork in and around the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€“Morse Mountain Conservation Area on Aug. 13, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ photographer Josh Kuckens followed along.

And after a long day looking down at sand, marsh, and water, the young researchers, whose work will inform and guide their senior theses, got a chance to look in a different direction — like up, into the night sky.

9:52 a.m. — Measuring up

At Popham Beach State Park, Nicole Cueli ’16 of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sets up an a transit, or autolevel, a device used by scientists, builders, and surveyors to measure distances and elevation changes. In the distance at right is Ian Hillenbrand ’17 of Terrace Park, Ohio.

9:53 a.m. — Staff support

Hillenbrand ’17 holds a stadia rod, which is used in tandem with an autolevel to measure the elevation change between two points on the beach.

Geology majors Cueli and Hillenbrand have joined ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ geologist Mike Retelle’s long-term work to monitor and evaluate how the area’s sandy beach systems respond to changes brought about by storms, seasonal wave climate, and rising sea level.

9:54 a.m. — Level best at Popham

Cueli uses the autolevel. In her left hand is the geologist’s trusty companion, a yellow field notebook.

10:20 a.m. — Sooner or ladder

As Dana Cohen-Kaplan ’16, of Newton Mass., steadies the ladder, Retelle downloads weather data and time-lapse images from a unit mounted on the west bath house at Popham Beach.

11:28 a.m. — Break time

Back at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Coastal Center at Shortridge, adjacent to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Morse Mountain and Popham Beach State Park, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ researchers break for lunch.

Here, Cueli jokes with Retelle, who is reviewing time-lapse images from the beach, and with  Laura Sewall, who is director of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge.

1:24 p.m. — You can get there from here, but it’ll take awhile

Geology majors Cailene Gunn ’16 (left) of Granby, Conn., and Dana Cohen-Kaplan ’16 of Newton, Mass., secure benches to the top of Gunn’s car before heading out to do fieldwork at Long Marsh in Harpswell.

The distance from Shortridge to Long Marsh is just 10 miles as the crow flies, but it’s 30 miles (and a 45-minute drive) on roads that follow Maine’s infamously zig-zaggy shoreline.

2:22 p.m. — Waist deep in big muddy

Gunn suddenly finds herself waist deep in Long Marsh. “It happens, but it’s not usually this bad,” she says.

Gunn and Cohen-Kaplan have been working with geology professor Bev Johnson to measure the carbon budget of Maine’s salt marshes.

Specifically, they are measuring the amount of methane released by two different salt marshes, the Sprague River Marsh, part of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Morse Mountain, and Long Marsh, in Harpswell.

Long Marsh, occupying a long, narrow glacially carved valley at sea level, has experienced restricted tidal flow for decades. As a result, its health has suffered.

3:21 p.m. — Gassing up

In early 2014 a new and wider culvert was installed beneath a road that crosses the marsh.  The wider culvert allows sea water to flood the marsh regularly.

The tactic is working, says Gunn, seen here taking a gas sample from the marsh. “We can actually see the ecosystem beginning to restore itself.�

Taking gas samples is necessary to measure the amount of methane being released from the marsh. Among other things, better tidal flow throughout Long Marsh should help the marsh retain more methane.

While carbon dioxide is the more prevalent greenhouse gas, methane is much more potent as a heat-trapping gas.

3:37 p.m. — Wetlands at work

Tidal marshes are paramount to the overall health of coastal ecosystems. They provide nursery habitat for important fisheries, protect against storm surges, filter out pollutants, and serve as carbon sinks.

Unfortunately, most of Maine’s salt marshes have been anthropogenically altered in some way, and many are in need of restoration to function properly.

7:25 p.m. — Setting the scene

Gunn and Cohen-Kaplan join Adam Auerbach ’16 of Silver Spring, Md., and Nathan Stephansky ’17 of Whitman, Mass., on Hermit Island., about three miles from Shortridge, where they watch the sunset from a spot called the Bath Tub.

The four students, each of whom did fieldwork or related coastal work over the summer, used Shortridge as their home base.

7:43 p.m. — Getting rooted on the rocks

Gunn does some sunset-inspired yoga.

9:16 p.m. — Back to Shortridge

Cohen-Kaplan and Cueli finish off their late supper at Shortridge.

Shortridge was donated to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the mid-1990s by John and Linda Shortridge, who had built a retirement home on the land. It has facilities for field research while also supporting other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ activities. Each year, some 25 student groups, representing up to 400 students, use the center.

The center sits on 79 acres of woodlands, wetlands, granite escarpments, and a glacially-scoured pond.

10:03 p.m. — Starry starry night

At night, “the Rock,” an outcropping behind Shortridge that looks out over Meetinghouse Pond, is a dark and spectacular place — a perfect spot to watch the night sky.

The next time defensive back Luke Combs ’15 takes to Garcelon Field, he’ll see a lot more than 100 yards of FieldTurf in front of him.

He’ll also see 4.6 billion years of geologic history.

Combs was among a couple dozen students in Geology 103, “Earth Surface Environments and Environmental Change,” who tromped over to Garcelon Field on Monday to get their minds blown, geology-wise.

They executed a simple but effective time-space drill, using the length of Garcelon Field to illustrate the span of Earth’s history.

Each student standing on Garcelon Field shows an event in Earth’s history. The depth of geologic history is evident: a few students at the beginning of Earth’s history (far left), then a long time before the emergence of life, indicated by students at far right. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Their professor, Mike Retelle, explained the project by saying that people have a short attention span, in more ways than one.

“People tend to think in terms of a single year or maybe a decade. At best, they think in terms of generations,” he said. “It’s hard to put events in Earth’s history into geological context. It’s hard to comprehend billions of years.”

If the Earth’s been around for 4.6 billion years, simple math says that each yard of a 100-yard football field equals 46 million years.

On Monday, Retelle’s students placed themselves at various yard lines. Each group held a poster noting a key event and how many years ago it happened.

The first group stood near one end zone with a sign noting that the Earth’s crust was formed just after the planet’s formation. A few yards later, at about the 15-yard line, was a poster stating that the oldest rocks were formed 3.93 billion years ago.

Students create posters showing events in geologic history, using a Google Earth photograph of Garcelon Field for reference. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

After that, it was yards and yards of nothing. Like a runner scampering free down the sideline, the planet Earth was all alone for another 70 yards, or 3.3 billion years.

In football, inside the 20-yard line is called the red zone, where scoring action is expected. You could say that there’s a planetary red zone, too.

“Everything happens inside the 15-yard line,” explains Combs, an economics major and Asian studies. “There’s a huge gap from when the Earth was formed to when animals start to appear,” about 600 million years ago.

“It’s crazy to see,” he said, reviewing the snow-dusted field, dotted with students. “You have a few students on one end of the field, a huge distance, then everyone crowded inside the 15.”

When Earth events are plotted on Garcelon Field, most of the action (including crucial events like the first bobcat) takes place near the goal line.

True that. At the 10-yard line, a student held a poster announcing the arrival of fish, 460 million years ago. At about the 5-yard line (248 million years ago), the dinosaurs arrived, followed by mammals, 200 million years ago. Our ancestors, the first primates, showed up just outside the 1-yard line, or 55 million years ago.

The first bobcat, 2.5 million years ago, was noted on one poster, though it was hard for that student to stand the required 2 inches from the goal line without getting pushed into the future, err, the end zone.

Another tight fit was the student hoisting a poster noting the rise of the Roman Empire some 2,000 years ago: That needed to be a thousandth of an inch from the goal line.

The final student held a poster noting the founding of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1855.

From my calculations, that moment, 159 years ago, needed to be spotted one ten-thousandth of an inch from the goal line. Or should we ask the refs for a measurement?

Name: Molly Newton ’11
Major: Geology and Environmental Studies
Hometown: Easthampton, Mass.
Summer activity: Researching beach erosion at Popham Beach with geologist Mike Retelle

Molly Newton ’11, cradling lengths of rebar, gazed around Popham Beach, uncertain where to plant the steel.

Seeking guidance for the crucial first step of her research project, she looked to her two professors. “And they looked at me and asked where we were going to start,” Newton recalls. “They weren’t kidding.”

One professor was ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ geologist Mike Retelle. The other was her own father, a geology professor at Smith College and a good friend of Retelle’s. And as for lengths of rebar, they were GPS survey markers for an ongoing ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ project to measure and other beaches near the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€“Morse Mountain Conservation Area.

“My ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ education has blasted apart the limitations I placed on myself.”

Newton calls geology “the family trade,” yet she arrived at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ determined to avoid the field. “To anyone who would listen, I proclaimed that I was in no way smart enough for science, let alone intellectually capable of executing a study of my own design.”

But then she took a geology course her sophomore year, then another. And on that summer 2010 morning at Popham Beach, when Newton made her own decisions about her project, she felt that she had emerged as a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student scholar.

“That Mike and my father did not dispute my choices gave me the confidence to jump into a full summer of research feet first, and not be afraid to make my own decisions.”

Now, as a senior, she’s diving into her geology thesis. The capstone project will use data accumulated from her ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-funded summer work that, in turn, builds on Retelle’s research with prior students.

“My ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ education has blasted apart the limitations I placed on myself,” she says.