Colby College
Department of Geology
Faculty and Staff

Academic Year 2008-2009



Dr. Robert A. Gastaldo, Chair
Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology
Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, Carbondale


Dr. Gastaldo joined the Colby faculty as the inaugural Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology and Department Chair in 1999. Dr. Gastaldo came to Colby with an international reputation in paleobotany, sedimentology and taphonomy, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

In the fall semester, he will be offering The Record of Life on Earth (GE251). In the spring, he will be teaching Deciphering Earth History (GE142) and Past Terrestrial Ecosyytems (GE342).



Dr. Robert E. Nelson
Professor of Geology
Ph.D., University of Washington (Seattle)

Dr. Nelson will be teaching The Earth and Environment (GE141) and Quaternary Paleoecology (372) in the fall term, Introduction to Volcanoes and Volcanology (GE151j) in JanPlan, and Principles of Geomorphology (GE254) in the spring. He joined the Colby faculty in 1982.





Dr. Valerie Reynolds

Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Geology
Ph.D., University of Tennessee

Dr. Reynolds will be teaching The Earth and Environment (GE141) and Igneous Petrology (GE397) in the fall semester, and Mineralogy (GE225) in the spring term. The newest member of the Geology faculty, Dr. Reynolds comes to us from the University of the South, in Tennessee, following a research appointment at the Smithsonian Institution.




Dr. Bruce F. Rueger
Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology
Ph.D., University of Colorado

Dr. Rueger will be teaching the laboratories for Earth and the Environment (GE141) in the fall term, as well as the labs for Earth and the Environment and for Deciphering Earth History (GE142) in the spring term. This year, he'll be offering a special JanPlan on Geology of Bermuda. He also has taught Earth and the Environment in the spring, and has supervised selected student research projects. He has been with the Department since 1984, and has been Visiting Assistant Professor since 2003, prior to which he was Senior Teaching Associate.






Dr. Walter A. ("Bill") Sullivan
Assistant Professor of Geology
Ph.D. , University of Wyoming

Dr. Sullivan will be teaching Structural Geology in the fall term, and Earth and the Environment and Mountain Belts (GE398) in the spring. A visiting member of our faculty in 2007-2008, he is now on a full-time appointment as a regular member of the Colby faculty.





Ms. Alice M. Ridky
Administrative Secretary Extraordinaire

Alice Ridky keeps the Department of Geology (as well as the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Program in Science, Technology and Society) on a steady keel, maintaining and ordering supplies and equipment, coordinating student workers, typing exams and specialized documents, keeping track of Departmental budgets and records, answering student questions, guarding the Departmental supply of M&Ms, and handling unexpected emergencies with aplomb and expertise. She joined the Department in 1983.



Dr. Donald B. Allen
Professor of Geology, Emeritus
Ph. D., University of Illinois


Dr. Allen will formally retire at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year in August, having joined the Colby faculty in the fall of 1967. An economic geologist, mineralogist and petrologist, he has been the principle architect in the Department of analytical links with the Department of Chemistry.








Dr. Donaldson Koons
Dana Professor of Geology, Emeritus
Ph.D., Columbia University
Honorary doctorates: D.Sc. 1974, D.H.E. 1977

Dr. Koons was Department Chair of Geology from 1947 until his retirement in 1982, with a tour of duty as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation from 1973-75. A Fellow of the Geological Society of America, he remains active in the geological community and lives in Sidney, Maine. (Photo taken at the spring, 2003, meeting of the Geological Society of Maine, at the University of Maine, Orono.)


Dr. Harold R. Pestana
Professor of Geology, Emeritus
Ph.D., University of Iowa

Dr. Pestana joined the Colby faculty in 1959 and retired in 1996, establishing the Bermuda program which is continued by Bruce Rueger - the first foreign-study program in the sciences at Colby. He remains active in his retirement, and lives in Waterville. (Photo taken on one of the first Bermuda programs.)




You are visitor number to this page since 6 May, 1996.

[ Last modified 5 December, 2008. ]