The Living Laboratory

Alums of the Lake

Over the past 30 years, student careers and subsequent careers have been shaped by Seneca.

Seneca Lake is an outdoor classroom whose lessons linger. Following are some of the former students whose Honors projects pertained to the lake. (In all, the Colleges archives hold at least 15 such projects.) Some have continued in science, and all are changed by their memories of their lake research.

With one exception, Robert J. Stupp '78 (pictured) hasn't strayed far from his Honors project in geoscience, in which he used two-dimensional seismic data to map glacial sediments deposited along the shoreline at Long Point, south of Geneva. (Specifically, he studied "alluvial fans" — deposit patterns created where inlets empty into the lake.)

The exception is technology, and what a difference it makes. Today the geophysicist — vice president of IPX (Integrated Petroleum Exploration), in Houston, Texas — bounces sound waves into the earth, records and enhances the results in three dimensions, and creates detailed volumes of the subsurface in the search for oil and gas reserves.

"Twenty years ago I used the absolute simplest tool to look beneath the ground," he says. ". . . The degree of computing power has grown by quantum leaps in the last 10 years. What major companies could only imagine, let alone afford 20 years ago, I now have on my desk."

After spending months examining the mineralogy of sediments in the lake, attempting to draw conclusions about ancient climactic fluctuations, Nancy Ciszkowski '96 is at it again, but at a different level — literally. "Now I'm looking at air samples, working on atmospheric chemistry," says the graduate student in atmospheric chemistry at the University of California, Irvine.

In her Seneca Lake studies, Ciszkowski "used chemical analysis to tell me about the history of the mud, and it's similar for air samples. Plus, it's all related to the environment." Ciszkowski travels around the world. The Buffalo, N.Y., native is off to Ireland this fall on a NASA-funded mission.

Gretchen Shultz '93, on the other hand, is still on the water. Now a teacher at Currituck County High School in Barco, N.C., the alumna introduces the next generation of scientists to oceanography and marine biology using her own watery experiences as a guide.

"Many of my students are familiar with the waters around here because their parents are crabbers," she says, "but they are still excited learning about it."

One student project, which involves analyzing area sand deposits, is reminiscent of Shultz's own college studies taking core samples to establish a timeline of how Seneca Lake was formed. The geoscience major also analyzed sea water off Cape Hatteras before turning to education.

"Both lake and ocean equipment are the same," says Shultz, "but the ocean is saltier, rougher, and there's a lot more of it."

The memory of studying the HWS lake is alive and well even among alumnae like Alice Tooker Hengst '75 who are far afield. "The process of science teaches you to think logically and to be a problem solver," she says. "That carries over into any field."

"The whole educational process is more interesting than the average job because every day is a new adventure," adds Hengst, systems coordinator for Kern County Resource Management Agency in Bakersfield, Calif., and owner of a 30-acre ranch where she raises sheep and trains border collies.

Hengst remembers the lake days vividly. "My project was to identify minerals that caused sediment to be magnetized," she says. "I used a huge magnet to draw up particles from the sediment." She used x-ray to determine that they were common magnetite.

Jennifer Brown Wallace '85 applies her interest in environmental science generally today. At William Smith, she studied fine grade carbonate in a lake marl, then did oceanographic research at Duke University, and later worked as an environmental geologist.

"But I found that as I worked, I wasn't doing geology; I was managing and getting further from fieldwork," she says. "And working in it took away the magic and the mystery."

So she got out of that career, and applies her experience in geology as a new mom who, with her husband, is building an 1,800-square-foot concrete reinforced home in Newport, Wash. It’s an esoteric connection with the topic — one that she will share with when her child is older. So in her way she retains her fascination with geology, "but now I can enjoy it again." — Barbara Forster

Portions of the series also appear in the Fall '97 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Susan Murad at murad@hws.edu.