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Nick BaderVisiting Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Geology Whitman College Walla Walla, WA 99362 email: baderne@whitman.edu |
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Nick BaderVisiting Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Geology Whitman College Walla Walla, WA 99362 email: baderne@whitman.edu |
Official description: The physical and biological events during the geologic past. Special consideration given to plate tectonics and fossils in the lectures, and to fossils and geologic maps in the laboratories. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week; required and optional field trips. Prerequisite: Geology 110, 120, or 210 or consent of instructor.
Official description: Soils provide nutrients, water and support for growing plants; host an amazing variety of organisms, and even influence global climate. This course will examine aspects of soil ecology relevant to environmental studies, especially focusing on soils as functional components of agricultural ecosystems and on the role of soils in the global biogeochemical cycling of organic carbon. We will combine lectures, discussions, field trips, and readings from the primary literature.
Official description: Physical geology including Earth materials, the processes responsible for uplift and erosion, landforms, plate tectonics, and the Earth's interior. The laboratory will emphasize mineral and rock identification and the study of topographic and geologic maps. Three lectures and one three-hour laboratory per week; field trips. Open only to first-year students and sophomores; others by consent. Students who have received credit for Geology 120 or 210 may not receive credit for Geology 110.
Official description: Concepts and methods of the geographic information systems (GIS) approach to managing and analyzing spatial information. GIS has become the primary way in which spatial information is managed and analyzed in a wide range of fields including the physical sciences, social sciences, business, and government. Lectures, readings, and hands-on exercises explore different approaches used and the wide array of applications of GIS. Guest speakers will discuss professional experiences with GIS. The final third of the course is dedicated to individual projects. One lecture and one three-hour lab meeting per week. Prerequisites: Geology 220 or consent of instructor.
Nick Bader's research interests include Quaternary and modern ecology, the global carbon cycle, soil biogeochemistry, and Quaternary climate change. Nick's interest in geology and paleontology was sparked as a child after seeing the remains of prehistoric creatures at the Museum of Natural History in New York. After high school, Nick went on to study geology at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. During college, a summer job excavating an archeological site along the Ohio River got Nick interested in palynology and plant macrofossils. Nick pursued this interest for his Master's research at the University of Arizona at Tucson, where he used fossil pollen from Death Valley's Badwater Basin to reconstruct Quaternary climate changes. After graduating from the University of Arizona, Nick extended his study of ecology and climate change to modern ecological settings. At the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nick earned his PhD for his work on the influence of plants and soil microbes on the global carbon cycle, and on global climate.