Brian Bird

Lecturer - Glacial Geology
Email: bbird@skidmore.edu
Phone: (518) 580-5190 

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. hydrogeology, Western Michigan University, ABD
• M.S. 2004, geology, Western Michigan University
• B.S. 1995, geology, State University of New York College at Cortland

COURSES TAUGHT AT SKIDMORE

• GE 101 Earth Systems Science (summer)
• GE 251 Glacial Geology
• GE 251 Structural Geology

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Currently I am in the final writing stage of my Ph.D. at Western Michigan University. For my dissertation I have focused on glacial geology and am investigating the deformation of glacial sediments in Southwest Michigan as a way to describe glacial ice movement and landscape development.

WHY SHOULD THE GENERAL PUBLIC BE INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU DO?

For those living in the northern portion of the country, glaciers have had a direct impact on their environment. An estimated 80+ million people in the United States live in an area that has been impacted by glaciers. Glaciers have created aquifers and lakes that supply drinking water as well as deposited sediment used for roads, concrete, and other building materials, not to mention some of the richest farmland soil in the world. Lastly, the study of glaciers, past and present, will help assess past climatic patterns and may help shed light on what is to come.

WHY DOES IT INTEREST YOU?

I have never outgrown my childhood fascination with rocks and dirt. Studying glacial geology has taken me from the top of the Columbia Ice Field in the Canadian Rockies to the bottom of gravel pits in Michigan, drilling for sediment cores. I enjoy the fact that glacial geology has connections with many other disciplines such as climatology, ecology, sedimentology, hydrology/hydrogeology, agronomy, and physics.