Hello, my name is Whitney, but many of my friends and colleagues refer to me as dirtguy. In the above picture, you can see me engaging in one of my favorite activities. After finishing graduate school, I realized that this activity can be a profession, that of teaching and conducting research in surficial geology. If you have never been here before, Brockport is a quaint village situated along the historic Erie Canal in western New York. The field of surficial geology is quite broad.
Surficial geologists work on the processes and evolution of landscapes.
Landscape processes directly impact people since we all live somewhere on planet Earth . Analysis of landscape processes and evolution requires an understanding of all subdisciplines in geology, and many aspects of allied sciences. My approach to surficial geology is through geologic mapping of landforms, surficial sediments, and soils. Mapping of the Earth's surface is one of the most basic exercises in geology. I apply the results of surficial geologic mapping to a variety of basic and applied research questions.