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2011
Meetings
November
Speakers: Arthur E. Bogan
Topic:
"Freshwater
Mussels: mother nature’s filtering system"
Freshwater Mussels: mother
nature’s filtering system:
Freshwater
mussels of north America are one of the most endangered groups of
animals in the world.
Dr. Bogan's talk will cover his fieldwork in Thailand, Vietnam, China,
and work in museums in about 10 countries of western Europe, Egypt and
the US.
Dr.
Arthur E. Bogan is with the North Carolina State Museum of Natural
Sciences in Raleigh, NC. His current research is in exploring the
phylogenetic relationships, evolution and zoogeography of the six
modern families of unionoid freshwater mussels of the world using a
variety of data sets. His work goes toward
developing a better understanding of the distribution and evolution of
all bivalves living in freshwater.
Dr. Bogan has numerous publications including “Freshwater mussels of
Alabama and the Mobile Basin in Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee”
which includes 900+ pages and 766 maps, photographs, line drawings and
lithographs.
Dr.
Bogan has held the following Adjunct and Research positions:
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology University of
Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. 1999, and 2008.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, NC. March 1, 1999 to present.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Population Health and
Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, NC. 2001 to present.
Professor Invité (Invited Professor) Laboratorie de Biologie des
Invertébrés Marins et Malacologie, Muséum National d'Histoire
Naturelle, Paris, France. September, 2001. [Curation of the Asian
freshwater bivalves (Unionoidea)].
Adjunct Professor, Department of Geology and Geological Engineering,
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 1 January 1, 2009 to
December 31, 2011.
Research Associate, Invertebrate Section, Carnegie Museum of Natural
History, Pittsburgh, PA. July 1992 to present.
Research Associate, Mollusk Section, American Museum of Natural
History, New York, NY. 1999 to June 30, 2009.
October
Speakers: Jan Ciegler and Phil Harpootlian
Topic:
"Saving the Church Forests of Ethiopia"
Janet
C. Ciegler received a B.S. and an M.S. in
microbiology. Born in New York City, she has lived in Wisconsin,
Illinois, Germany, Louisiana, and other states before
coming to South Carolina in 1985, and has done extensive foreign
travel. She has worked at various jobs, including bioassay for
antibiotics, gas chromatography for hydrocarbons, computer programming,
and raising four children. Recently, she expanded her lifelong hobby of
beetle-collecting into writing manuals for the identification of South
Carolina beetles.
Phil
Harpootlian is the
Regional Director at the South Carolina Association of Naturalists. He
received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Born in Kalamazoo, MI, he
has lived in Washington, Arizona and Virginia before coming to South
Carolina in 1985. He has done some foreign travel, mostly in Central
and South America. Married with one son. Has written a manual for the
identification of South Carolina Scarab beetles, another is in prep.
September
Speaker: Dave Barbeau
Topic:
"Modern Scientific Exploration In and Around Antarctica: the Debated
History and Causes of Antarctic Glaciation"
Antarctica has been
located at the geographic South Pole since approximately 100 million
years ago. However, conventional scientific wisdom suggests it was not
significantly glaciated until 35 million years ago. Drawing upon five
seasons of fieldwork on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the southernmost
Andes,University of South Carolina geology professor Dave Barbeau will
discuss the 'deep time' history of Antarctic glaciation(s) and the
likely controls on the Antarctic cryosphere.
Dave Barbeau,
and his students, study the sedimentary record, which we use to better
understand the evolution of tectonic plates, mountain belts, ocean
circulation, climate and biogeography. They use sediment provenance,
magnetostratigraphy, basin analysis, geochronology &
thermochronology to meet these challenges.
Dave is Graduate Director with the Department of Earth & Ocean
Sciences at the University of South Carolina. He received a B.A. from
Carleton College in 1997, a M.S. from the University of Arizona in
2000, and a PH.D. from the University of Arizona in 2003. You can learn
more about Dave and his work at: http://www.geol.sc.edu/barbeau/dlb/bio.html
July
Speaker: Tyler Kartzinel
Topic: "From
Volcanoes to Rain Forest Canopies: Challenges in Rare
Orchid Conservation"
Tyler's talk focused on how
deforestation changes both the distribution of rare orchid populations
from two species native to Costa Rica (which scientists can see) as
well as the distribution of symbiotic species that these orchid
populations depend on for survival (which scientists often cannot see).
Inconsistencies between the influence of deforestation on what we can
see and what we cannot see may create challenges for conservationists
that are as exciting as they are daunting to address.
Tyler Kartzinel
has a B.A. from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and is
currently a PhD candidate and Presidential Fellow in the Odum School of
Ecology at the University of Georgia. The main focus of Tyler's current
work is in Costa Rica where he has been involved with conservation,
research, and teaching activities since 2005. For his PhD research he
is using a combination of population genetics, molecular barcodes, and
field experiments to understand how deforestation influences the
distribution of rare orchids and, perhaps most critically, the
distribution of the symbiotic species upon which many rare orchids
rely. His work occurs in diverse tropical landscapes that include the
cloud forest canopy, dry grasslands, pastures or coffee plantations,
and active volcanoes. He is extremely passionate about exploring new
ways that technical and laboratory based research can be used to
enhance public appreciation of tropical biodiversity and ultimately to
advance conservation efforts.
June
Speaker: Dr. Robin (Buz) Kloot
Topic: "From Amazzi to Amazi"
From Amazzi
to Amazi and how it relates to Buz's work on safe water
and sanitation on the Buvuma islands of Lake Victoria, part of Uganda.
Buz
started his professional life as a Chemical engineer; he spent 12
(1985-1996)
at Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia, and worked in a number of
operational and
technical support jobs in that time.
Buz
left Namibia in 1996 to do an MBA at the Moore School of business and
joined
Metago Environmental Engineers, which was headquartered in Johannesburg
South
Africa. In 1999,
Buz joined the Earth
Sciences and Resources Institute (ESRI-SC) and in 2001 as the principal
investigator of a large a project that was sponsored by the Natural
Resources
Conservation Service. In
his work at
ESRI-USC, Buz has been involved in various projects that included the
development of nutrient and grazing management software, GIS, water
quality
investigations on Lake Wateree, the Bush River and Toms Creek. Since 2005, Buz has become
more involved with
projects that involve outreach related to natural resources (soil,
water air,
plants and animals), these projects included a series of Rapid
Watershed
Assessments in South Carolina and a book called Summary of Natural
Resources in
South Carolina. More
recently, Buz has
turned his interest to making videos about natural resources. He has produced three
series on grazing,
cropland and wildlife management and is in the process of producing a
series
called “Soil Stories”.
Buz’s
heart lies in Africa and he has spent each summer since 2006 in Uganda
working
on water and sanitation issues for the very poorest.
Buz holds a degree in Chemical Engineering
from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, an MBA from the
University of
South Carolina and a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from USC’s
Normal
J. Arnold School of Public Health.
May
Speaker: Dr. Virginia Shervette
Topic: "Anthropogenic Impacts on Fishes
of western Ecuador: A Biodiversity Approach."
Dr. Virginia Shervette
is currently a professor in the Department of
Environmental Health Sciences at USC and much of her research has
focused on the connection between conservation biology and
environmental health. Currently she has several projects
investigating
the impacts of habitat loss, modification, and contamination on the
biodiversity of fish and invertebrate communities. In western
Ecuador,
in collaboration with Ecuadorian scientists, Virginia is documenting
biodiversity patterns in poorly surveyed areas under severe
anthropogenic threat. As a doctoral student at Texas
A&M
University, Virginia received an Explorers Fund award for research in
Ecuador investigating the impacts of shrimp aquaculture and habitat
destruction in mangrove wetlands on fish communities.
April
Speaker: Tom Falvey
Topic: "South Carolina State Museum’s
world class telescope collection"
Tom
Falvey is
the Director of Education at the South Carolina State Museum.
In
addition to his work with the education department, Tom heads the
Collections staff, and is responsible for partnerships and programming
for the museum’s 23.5 million dollar expansion project. He
has
been involved in museum work since 1996, when he got his first real job
at Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington, NC. In addition to his
work in
science education, Tom loves working in his rain garden, playing
trumpet occasionally with his band and spending time with his wife and
two children.
Presentation:
Tom
Falvey, Director of Education at the South Carolina State Museum gave
a presentation of the museum’s world class telescope
collection.
The instruments, which will be a featured exhibit of the museum’s 23.5
million dollar expansion, date to 1730. Topics included
famous American makers, amazing one-of-a-kind pieces and South Carolina
college and university observatories.
March
Speaker: Russell Fielding, Ph.D., MN ’10
Topic: "Whaling in St. Vincent and the
Faroe Islands"
Russell
Fielding was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1977. His love for the
sea began at an early age and grew into an academic and ecological
interest. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science
from the University of Florida in 2000. After three years of working
and traveling, he began studying geography at the postgraduate level at
the University of Montana, where he earned a Master of Arts degree.
Following a one year Fulbright fellowship at the University of Prince
Edward Island in Canada, he enrolled in the doctoral program in
geography at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, he
became a
student member of the Explorers Club. He has recently
completed the
Ph.D. and will apply for regular membership in the Explorers Club this
year. He is now working as an adjunct professor of geography
at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will be married to
Diane Cooper in May, 2011.
Presentation:
Whalers
from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Faroe Islands in the
North Atlantic use traditional methods to hunt pilot whales and a
variety of other small cetaceans for food. Whaling is both culturally
and practically significant in both locations, providing not only a
connection to history and sense of cultural identity, but a source of
everyday food as well. However, each society has had to negotiate both
changing environmental conditions and the efforts of environmental
organizations, who seek an end to whaling activities. While the
majority of whaling operations throughout the world have ceased
completely, owing to a severe decline in cetacean populations, the
Vincentians and the Faroese have in place certain traditional
conservation strategies to avoid over-exploitation of the local
cetacean populations. This talk will present an overview of
whaling activities observed first-hand in St. Vincent and the Faroe
Islands and will discuss the environmental and cultural implications of
these activities.
February
Speaker:
Jennifer
Pournelle, Ph.D., FN ’10
Topic: "Antiquities of Iraq"
Dr. J.R.
(Jennifer) Pournelle is an archaeologist and
anthropologist best known for reconstructing landscapes surrounding
ancient cities. A Research Fellow at the University of South Carolina's
School of The Environment, and past Mesopotamian Fellow of the American
School of Oriental Research, her work in Turkey, Iraq, and the Caucasus
has been featured in The New York Times and on The Discovery Channel.
In a former life, she received numerous decorations for service as a
United States Army intelligence officer and arms control negotiator. As
a civilian, she has directed reconstruction work in Iraq.
Pournelle
is the 2010 recipient of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Book
Prize, for Excavations, A City Cycle, Poems 1989 - 2004, to be released
by the University of South Carolina Press in April, 2011.
Topic: High Risk: Deltaic Resilience and the Genesis of Mesopotamian
Cities (Iraq).
Following a quarter-century hiatus in foreign archaeological field
research in Iraq, in September, 2010 Pournelle lead a multi-university
team that conducted a reconnaissance of the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial
lowlands, in order to open investigation of the contribution of wetland
resources to the emergence, growth, and reproduction of cities in the
earliest, longest-lived urban heartland in the world. During that trip,
they visited nearly twenty field locations in southern Iraq, and
secured permission to open a collaborative, three-year geo-archaeology
effort with faculty from the Universities of Baghdad (Geology), Basrah
(Geology and Marine Sciences), and the Iraq State Board of Antiquities
and Heritage. Most significant was discovery of 4,000+ hectares of
densely-packed building foundations, fields, and canals previously
submerged beneath Lake Hammar. In form, scope, scale, and state of
preservation, this archaeological landscape is unique in the world.
.
January
Speaker: David
Brinkman
Topic: "Crossing The Broad:
The Search for a Confederate Bridge"
In
November of 2004, while clearing land on a newly purchased lot on the
Broad River, David Brinkman discovered what appeared to be an old
bridge abutment. An investigation by a local newspaper reporter brought
the State Archaeologist (and now Greater Piedmont's incoming Chair) Dr.
Jon Leader to the scene. Dr. Leader agreed that the structure was an
old bridge abutment but much research would be needed to determine its
age. Brinkman (not yet an Explorer Club member) took on the challenge.
Over the next few years, the long forgotten Broad River crossings
(and its ferry and bridge owners) would come back to life.
Some
evidence seemed to suggest that Brinkman's abutment was the lost
remains of the Confederate bridge which was destroyed to stop General
Sherman and Union Army in 1865. Other evidence contradicted this
theory. In 2007, a stunning long lost 1870 survey was found. This,
along with Brinkman's research, seemed to solve the mystery but it was
still lacking scientific proof. Brinkman, who had now become a member
of the Explorers Club (partly because of this research), contacted the
producers of PBS' History Detectives. The case was proven by the
combined efforts of Dr. Leader, Brinkman, and local history
experts. Thirty hours of PBS film footage from the Columbia area was
condensed down to 16 minutes. The resulting show was selected as the
final segment of History Detectives 2009 season finale. It can be
viewed at the PBS video site: Civil
War Bridge .
Brinkman's
Explorer Club presentation will cover the many details that,
because of time constraints, could not be included in the PBS show.
David
is from Myrtle Beach where he was one of the original Myrtle
Beach
bums being born in the first year of Myrtle Beach's first hospital. He
has, however, spent most of his life in the Columbia area
where he
received an A.S. in Electronic Engineering Technology from Midlands
Technical College, and a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
from the University of South Carolina. David has worked 25
years
for NCR, AT&T, Intel, and Kontron Corporations as a
Manufacturing automation Engineer, System Simulation software
developer, and an Operating Systems Software Engineer. David's history
projects started as the historian for his father's WWII reunion group
and then moved into the local history of Columbia, SC. It now spans the
entire State. His current history projects include:
"Sherman
meets Wheeler at the Broad River": This project applies the
newly
found locations of the Confederate Bridge and Sherman's pontoon
crossing with current elevation maps to create a computer simulation of
the crossing site. Populated with the 1865 scene drawn by Civil War
photographer William Waud from the west side (Union Army side) of the
river, the simulation is being used to produce an
image of
the drama that unfolded on the opposite side of the river as the
Confederates launched a dangerous operation to stop Sherman.
"Broad
Crossings": An effort to locate and photograph
hundreds of
old S.C. river crossing sites from De Soto's 1540 crossings to
the late 19th century ferries and covered bridges.
"Old
and New Dimensions: Civil War Charleston": A book that includes
hundreds of old and new Stereoscopic/3D Civil War related pictures of
Charleston.
"Virtual History TourGuide Phone
App": A software project which uses the GPS function of modern Android
phones to turn your phone into a talking and multimedia tour guide. The
first app will cover all the historic sites along Columbia's Greenway
(Riverwalk). You do the walking...it does the talking.
Columbia Star Newspaper article about this
meeting
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