Earth Sciences at Centralia College

Professional affiliations

• Northwest Scientific Association, President, 2009–2011, Trustee, 2006–2009

• Northwest Geological Society

• The Geological Society of America, Campus representative

• The American Geophysical Union

• The Assoc. of Environmental and Engineering Geologists

• The National Assoc. of Geoscience Teachers

• The Tree-Ring Society

Presentations and outreach

• June 3, 2010: Geology of the Nisqually River Basin: Nisqually Stream Stewards, Yelm, Washington.

• April 13, 2010: Centralia Rotary Club Presentation

• November 18, 2009: Centralia Kiwanis Club

• September 21, 2009: Geology of the White Pass area: at the White Pass Country Historical Society Museum in Packwood.

• Plenary speaker at International Conference on Natural Areas Vancouver, Washington USA Sept. 16, 2009

• August 2009, Discovery Channel interview in: Engineering volcanoes

• Field trip to investigate Mount Rainier lahar deposits for Teachers on the the Leading Edge NSF-sponsored workshop, July 30th, 2009

• July 18, 2009 National Park Interpretive Program speaker series: Paradise Lodge at Mount Rainier

• WA State Historical Society Capitol Museum Uncovering Mount Rainier’s Geologic History: The Beauty and the Hazards, July 13, 2009

• Geology of the Nisqually River watershed presentation for the Nisqually Stream Stewards, June 3, 2009

• Central Washington University Spring 2009 Geology seminar and appearance on Central Rocks TV, May 29, 2009

• June 3, 2009: Geology of the Nisqually River Basin: Nisqually Stream Stewards, Yelm, Washington.

• May 16, 2009: Guided hike Geology along the Boundary Trail at Mount St. Helens for "It's a Blast: Volcano Science in your backyard" sponsored by the Mount St. Helens Institute

• March 25, 2009: Geology of Washington Symposium presentation: Holocene buried and submerged forests of Washington and Oregon—Time capsules of geologic, environmental, and climate history Northwest Scientific Association

• March 16, 2009: Mount Rainier—The volcano that came to dinner: American Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists, Washington Chapter meeting, Tacoma, Washington.

• January 2009: Discovery Channel interview in: Volcanoes—Sci-tech

2007–2008 under construction...

• 2006 Keynote presentation “Volcanic History and Hazards of Mount Rainier” at the first Citizen Science Symposium (Lacey, WA) sponsored by the Nisqually Reach Nature Center (Oct. 21) http://www.nisquallyestuary.org/Luhr_Lore_Winter07.pdf

• 2006 Summer Lecture Series Presentation on Mount Rainier at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge (August 9)

• 2006 Presentation to the Northwest Geological Society (May 16)

• 2006 Lyceum Presentation at Centralia College (May 4)

• 2005 Invited  Presentation “An overview of its past history and impacts on volcanic hazards awareness (or, an active volcano in our backyard changed the way we think about volcanoes)” at the Geofest 2005, US Forest Service national minerals and geology workshop celebrating the 100th anniversary of the US Forest Service.

• 2005 Presentation “Mt. St. Helens--25 years later” at the Washington State Library Washington Reads lecture series.

• 2004 Presentation on the “Buried and submerged forests of Washington” at UW Burke Museum

• 2004 Presentation on the “Buried and submerged forests of Washington” to the stream stewards class sponsored by the Nisqually River Education Project

• 2003 Invited speaker for the International Forest Products Society Annual Meeting, Bellevue, WA.

• 2003 Colloquium presentation at Western Washington University

• 2003 Presentation on the “Geologic History and formation of the Nisqually River valley” to the stream stewards class sponsored by the Nisqually River Education Project

• 2003 Training presentation on “west side geology” for Washington State Parks Stewardship program

• 2002 Vancouver (BC) Paleontological Society. “Volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides—How buried and submerged trees are revealing secrets of our geologic and environmental history—a virtual field trip"

• 2002 Port Townsend Marine Science Center (a/a):

• 2002 Olympia Rotary Club a/a

• 2002 Spokane Geological Society a/a

• 1999 Univ. of Washington invited speaker: Mount Rainier Centennial Symposium

• 1999 Washington State Historical Society invited speaker: Mount Rainier Centennial Lecture Series.

• 1998 MacFarlen Lecturer, University of Kentucky

Awards and Honors

• 2010 Puget Sound Energy Faculty Award

• Phi Theta Kappa, Iota Omega Chapter 2009–2010 Faculty Scholar Award

• 2009 Natural Areas Conference Keynote speaker

• Mount Rainier roadside geology book wins Geoscience Information Society’s Best Guidebook Award for 2009

• Exceptional Faculty Award, Centralia College 2009 http://www.centralia.edu/news/faculty.html

• 2006 and 2007: I received an M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Partners in Science Grant with Jo Martens (Centralia High School, WA) Title: Use of radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology to investigate a submerged forest in Mud Bay (Eld Inlet) near Olympia, Washington. In May 2007 we presented our provisional findings including two radiocarbon ages in a poster at the Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section Meeting in Bellingham, Washington at Western Washington University. The complete poster can be found online at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/pubs/pubs_ol.htm. (Caution, this is a very large file). The abstract can be found online at http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2007CD/finalprogram/session_19950.htm . Additional findings appeared in Martens, Jo; Pringle, Partick T.; Polenz, Michael, 2008, New radiocarbon ages on possible submerged forests in Eld and Henderson Inlets near Olympia, Washington [abstract]: Northwest Scientific Association, Annual Meeting, 80th, unpaginated.

• 2005 Spring Quarter Washington Reads Award: Presented to Patrick Pringle from Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed and State Librarian Jan Walsh for authorship of Roadside geology of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and Vicinity.

• 2002 and 2003: I received an M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Partners in Science Grant with Russ Weaver (Heritage High School, Vancouver, WA). Title: Use of dendrochronology to date and better understand the Bonneville landslide, Columbia River Gorge, Washington. Russ and I presented our preliminary results at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting (2003). In 2004, Russ was awarded a $7,000 supplemental grant from the trust. I wrote a summary of our grant work that appears on p. 2 of an online article: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/pubs/dgernews/dgernews_v1no1.pdf

• Commissioner of Public Lands Award of Appreciation for contributions during the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake: I briefed Governor Gary Locke during this emergency and served at the Emergency Operations Center.

• Commissioner of Public Lands Leadership Award, 2000

• Invited Speaker, National Risk and Insurance Mgmt. Assoc., Annual Mtg. 1998, Seattle WA

• 1998 MacFarlen Lecturer, University of Kentucky, Lexington

• 1995, Keynote lecturer, Saskatchewan Geological Survey Annual Open-House, Saskatoon

• Northwest Technical Writing Association award 1993 for IC-88.

• U.S. Geological Survey Special Achievement Award for publications on the eruption and debris-flow history of Mount Hood, Oregon, 1987

• Graduate Fellowship—Department of Geologic Sciences, U.C. Santa Barbara, 1984-85

Interviews

   I have enjoyed working with the media on several specials for television, as well as for radio and video productions. Examples include Discovery Channel, TLC, KING 5 special, and Oregon Field Guide. At least one TV production (e.g. “Landslide”; Discovery Channel) is now used in classrooms across the country. I served the Washington State History Museum as technical support for the Mount Rainier Centennial Exhibit in 1999 and with a guest interview in a video on semi-permanent exhibit, “The Three Faces of Time”. I helped Pierce County produce a video on Mount Rainier volcanic processes for local television.

Here are a few links to media interviews:

http://www.geotimes.org/apr04/feature_MountRainier.html  2004 Geotimes interview

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20011124/toc.asp 2001 Science News (Sleeping Beauty)

Editing_and_Reviews

2008    Review of one chapter of "Journey back in time" educational guide for teachers.

Reviewer for BOV: Sisson, T. W.; Vallance, J. W., 2008, Frequent eruptions of Mount Rainier over the last ~2,600 years: Bulletin of Volcanology online, DOI 10.1007/s00445-008-0245-7, [24 p.].

Adjudication referee: Iverson, Richard M.; Schilling, Steven P.; Vallance, James W., 1998, Objective delineation of lahar-inundation hazard zones: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 110, no. 8, p. 972-984. [accessed Apr. 10, 2002 at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Lahars/Publications/IversonOthersGSA98/framework.html]

Reviewer: Tilling, Robert I., editor, 1989, Volcanic hazards: American Geophysical Union (International Geological Congress, 28th, 1989, Short Course in Geology, Volume I), 123 p.

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Page updated December 31, 2009