2008 Endowment Report - Roy Shlemon: An Energetic Tradition of Giving Back to UW |
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Roy Shlemon is an expert in his specialized field of geology. He teaches or has taught at seven California universities, as well as one in Louisiana. As a consulting Quaternary geologist for 30 years, he helped site large industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants, large dams, and high- and low-level radioactive waste facilities. He is on professional advisory boards and provides expert witness testimony. And his abilities have been recognized by his peers at the National Science Foundation and other professional and academic organizations, as well as the UW College of A&S as an Outstanding Alum.
Roy continues this energetic tradition of excellence by contributing $50,000, which is subject to state-matching funds, for the Roy J. Shlemon Endowment for Quaternary Studies within the Department of Geology and Geophysics. The endowment sets up the Roy Shlemon Quaternary Sciences Center, which will eventually be a major research facility, not just for Wyoming but for the Rocky Mountain region.
Why Quaternary geology? “Because during the Quaternary, approximately the past 1.8 million years, humans have evolved, and multiple epochs of world-wide climatic change have given rise to glacial advances and retreats across continents. And it’s also inherently interdisciplinary,” Roy continues. Research into the Quaternary involves UW’s geologists, geophysicists, geographers, glaciologists, hydrologists, paleoclimatologists, paleontologists, botanists, ecologists, and archaeologists, many of whom have never worked together before.
“Wyoming is a good state for Quaternary studies,” says Art Snoke, Head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics and Interim Director of the Quaternary Sciences Center. “There are lots of Quaternary problems within the state, and a lot of students want to get involved in research that has a societal impact.”
Practical applications include the study of earth surface processes (such as erosion, sedimentation, thermal hot spots, volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides) and how they affect small and large areas over varying periods of time—for example, the effect of global climate change on ice dynamics and the impact of regional human activities on riverine habitats.
“Quaternary studies are being rediscovered, especially through climatic change,” Roy says. “A basic geological tenet is that present geological processes operated at the same rate and intensity during the recent past. But there are certainly many uncertainties in this idea; and hence understanding the past (Quaternary) is really a predictor of the future.”He continues, “Some say that the present is the key to the past, but really the past is a predictor of the present.”
Photo:
Roy Shlemon
Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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