Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Department News Archive

  • In Memoriam

     

     

    It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Prof. Hans Olaf Pfannkuch. 

     

    From the Star Tribune, composed by his loving family.

    On November 19th, 5 days short of his 88th birthday, our amazing father passed away before he could host another celebration. Birthdays weren't about him, but an excuse to be with friends and family and to share his love of good food and good conversation while always making sure wine glasses were never empty. Born in Berlin in 1932, he grew up in a place and time that clearly shaped his world-view, a deep understanding of what matters in life and what it means to be a good and decent human. He loved life - the arts, humor, science, deep and creative thinking and travel but above all, connecting with people. Had he not walked into the Sorbonne office to collect his scholarship fund while earning his doctorate, he would never have met Georgette, who married him despite his difficult last name. With two young kids in tow and one on the way, they sailed to the US in 1965. As a professor at the U of M for 42 years, he was a distinguished expert in his field of hydrogeology and respected worldwide. He was one of those rare mentors who taught kindness and generosity in equal parts to intellectual pursuits, a legacy that cascades forward as those students in turn teach and lead others by example. Survived by his daughters Karin (Steve) Vanzyl, Barbara (Dan Brown) Pfannkuch & son Johannes (JoBeth) Pfannkuch; grandchildren Isabelle, Josephine, Ingrid and Max, his sister in Germany, Karin "Littla" (Gunter) Nölker and special friend, Beate Cochclovius. A celebration honoring this special man is destined for this summer. We promise to make sure your glass stays full. In lieu of flowers, donate to the Hans-Olaf Pfannkuch Scholarship fund which allows hydrogeology students to continue studies at the hydrogeology field camp at mgwa.org/mgwa-foundation

    (Award Name: Pfannkuch/Alexander Hydrogeology Field Camp Fund)

    List of H-O Pfannkuch graduate students.pdf

     

  • The University will be closed on Thursday, July 4th and will reopen on Friday, July 5th. Thank you.

  • Please join us for A.O. Nier Lecture by Dr. Kenneth Farley, California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Science, on Explorations on Mars: Curiosity, Mars 2020, and Mars Sample Return, on Thursday, May 2nd at 4 p.m. in Tate Hall room B50.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Steve Loheide, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, on Groundwater Mediation of Ecohydrologic Processes in Agriculturally-dominated Ecosystems, on Thursday, April 25th at 4 p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Vadim Levin, Rutgers University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, on Recently Formed Mantle Upwelling Beneath New England: How Vadim got his plume back, on Thursday, April 11th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Jonathan Bloch, University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, on Implications of immigrant arrival times during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum for mammal habitat specificity, on Thursday, April 11th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for a special seminar by Dr. Jerome Neufeld, University of Cambridge, on Under the geological rug: the fluid dynamics of geological carbon storage, on Thursday, April 4th at 12p.m. in Tate Hall room 401-20.

    -And-

    Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Jane Willenbring, University of California-San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, on Not Feeling the Buzz: Tectonics - Not Climate - Limits Heights of Mountains, on Thursday, April 4th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Laura Lautz, Syracuse University, on Salinity and methane in groundwater in the Marcellus Shale region, on Thursday, March 14th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Roger Fu, Harvard University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, on Exploring planet formation and the early Earth using a new generation of paleomagnetic tools, on Thursday, March 7th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Alvaro Fernandez Bremer, ETH Zurich,  Department of Earth Sciences, on Paleoclimate reconstructions across three prominent Phanerozoic hyperthermals, on Thursday, February 28th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Xingchen (Tony) Wang, Califorina Institute of Technology, Simons Foundation, on Coral as a new archive of the marine N cycle: From the ice age to the Anthropocene, on Monday, February 18th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room 101.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Ann Dunlea, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, on Rethinking the role of the seafloor in ocean chemistry and long-term climate, on Thursday, February 14th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Xinyuan Zheng, University of Wisconsin, Department of Geoscience, on Deciphering “redox anomalies” of past oceans using isotopes, on Thursday, February 7th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Scott Wing, Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland and Adjunct Curator, University of Michigan on Biotic and climatic response to carbon release at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, on Thursday, January 31st at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Clara Chan, University of Delaware, Department of Geological Sciences on The tiniest architects on Earth: How microbes make minerals, on Thursday, January 24th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Jake Bailey, Department of Earth Science, University of Minnesota on Possible symbioses with the world's largest bacteria, on Thursday, December 6th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Larisa DeSantis, Vanderbilt University, Earth and Environmental Sciences on Causes and consequences of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, on Thursday, November 29th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • There will be no Department Seminar on Thursday, Nov. 22nd as the University will be closed for the Holiday. The university will also be closed on Friday, Nov. 23rd. Thank you.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Dan Jones, University of Minnesota, Department of Earth Sciences & BioTechnology Institute on Geomicrobiology of sulfidic mine waste from Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, on Thursday, November 8th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

  • Please join us for our department seminar by Dr. Jörg Hermann, University of Bern, Institute of Geological Sciences on Cooking the subduction soup: Nature and composition of subduction zone fluids, on Thursday, November 8th at 4p.m. in Tate Hall room B20.

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