Dr. David Lopez

Dr. Marie Morisawa

Dr. Marie Morisawa, a Japanese-American, is a professor of geology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. How she got to that position is as interesting as what she does as a geologist.

Dr. Morisawa started as a math major with a chemistry minor, graduating with honors from Hunter College. She discovered geology when a friend twisted her arm to take an introductory geology course. Although she liked the course and took several more courses after graduation, she entered Union Theological Seminary. After earning an MA. degree, she taught two years in Hawaii before accepting a job as the director for geology laboratory work and equipment at Hunter College. This experience led her to pursue graduate studies in geology at the University of Wyoming and Columbia University.

At the time she received her Ph.D., women were not so well accepted in geology as they are today. She encountered a number of interesting experiences as her career developed, such as waiting aboveground while her male students went underground at a mine because women were not allowed to go into mines. She summarizes her experiences by saying, "I discovered that those who like you and respect you as a person are more numerous and more important than those who do not. It is one's inner self that determines success or failure, whether one is a man or woman."

Dr. Morisawa is currently pioneering a new field of aesthetics and environmental geology.

- Where Dr.Marie Morisawa work?

- What did she major at the college?

- What kind of diploma did she get from Hunter College?

- What made her take an introductory geology course?

- Where did she earn an M.A. degree?

- Did she start working at the geology laboratory just after getting her M.A. degree?

- What did she do at the University of Wyoming?

- What was the general attitude to women in geology at that time?

- What kind of experiences did she encounter when working at mines?

- How did she summarize her experiences?

- What, to her, determines success or failure?

- What is she doing now?

Dr. David Lopez

Dr. David Lopez, a field geologist, was born in El Rito, New Mexico, in 1949. While he was still a small child his family moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. He grew up loving the outdoors and has enjoyed fishing and hunting all of his life. His mother says he was a great rock collector as a child.

He started his career in geology when a college advisor suggested that he change from a forestry major to a geology major. He did very well in his studies in the new area. However, a summer job in the field really convinced him that work in geology was to be his future. Dr. Lopez was an outstanding student and received a number of scholarships during his college years. He completed his Ph.D. in 1981 at the Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado.

Dr. Lopez's work experience includes several years as a field geologist doing research for the United States Geological Survey in Idaho and Montana. This work was primarily a mapping study that included an appraisal of the mineral and petroleum potential in this area. Currently he is working for Montana Power Company, Billings, Montana, exploring for petroleum in south-west Montana, Idaho, and northern Utah.

His love of field geology is based on a desire to know how things fit together. He enjoys figuring out the three-dimensional relationships between and within rock formations. He says that he has to develop a model of how things fit together before he feels right.

- Was Dr. David Lopez born in the USA?

- When did his family move to Colorado?

- What did he enjoy doing as a child?

- What made him major in geology?

- When was he convinced that work in geology was to be his future?

- How well did he study?

- What scientific degree did he get?

- What is his work experience?

- What kind of work did he do?

- Where is he currently working?

- What is he exploring?

- What is his love of field geology based on?