Hello from Hamilton! The last two years have been pretty busy for me and for Myongsun, who still manages the GIS lab in Persson Hall. In October we finally took the plunge and bought a house just south of town on Route 12B. It was built by the sister and brother-in-law of James Olmstead, who built the Founder's House on the corner of Preston Hill Road. Being homeowners has been a crash-course in septic systems, old wiring, and groundhogs. Luckily for us, the department is well equipped with experience in old houses.

      Until this summer I've taught a mapping project in the Canada Lake area of the Adirondacks for the Off-Campus, once each with Dave Baird, Art Goldstein, and Allen Dennis (Colgate '82). For a change of scenery this summer I taught my OC leg in Colorado's Golden Gate Canyon Park with Amy Leventer. The students mapped a plunging synform and mylonite zone in a beautiful alpine setting at 8,000 feet. Back in Hamilton I've been teaching Petrology, Megageology, and Environmental Economic Geology. In Petrology I've revived the Chief's field trip down to Dutchess County to look at the Taconic Barrovian Sequence, and in Environmental Economic Geology we go down to New Jersey to look at the Franklin-Sterling Zinc district.

      Since I've been at Colgate I've continued my research on metamorphism in the Adirondacks and Grenville Province of Quebec. In 2002 I started a new project in the New Jersey Highlands, an extension of Grenville rocks in Sussex county. A number of students have been involved in projects in New Jersey: Bret Doverspike ('03) and Adam Mansur ('05) looked at historic iron mines and Mike Meredith ('03) worked on the metamorphic history of these rocks. While looking at marbles fust to the north in Orange County Erika Rader ('07) discovered an occurrence of the blue mineral serendibite (Ca₂(Mg,Al)₆(Si,Al,B)₆O₂₀), which we think is the thirteenth locality known worldwide.

      The other exciting research-related event is the installation of a stable isotope mass spectrometer in September 2003 in Lathrop 165 (the old Sediments Lab). This instrument can measure the isotope ration of light elements like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. This summer there are four students working on this instrument on different research projects, which is hectic but fun.