NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY - FARGO, N D


DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES
NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY

ALUMNI NEWS: 2002 - 2003



Michele Gutenkunst (2002) is pursuing graduate studies with the Basin Analysis Group at Purdue University. Part of her research has taken her to Alaska! Currently she is researching the Oligocene and Miocene age basin deposits in the Grapevine and Funeral Mountains of California and Nevada. In 2005 she presented with coauthors at the GSA Annual meeting: "Basin Analysis of Oligocene and Lower Miocene Strata in the Grapevine and Funeral Mountains, California-Nevada."


Kim (McGlynn) Jacobs (2002) earned a M.S. in Geology from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in Quaternary research. She writes that she, Cody, and their son Eric are living in Mandan, ND, and also that Cody is employed by BP in Prudhoe Bay.


Julia Karst-Gray (2002) has been teaching middle school science at the Buffalo Lake Hector High School, Minnesota since 2003. She writes that her earth science class was excited to see pictures on the NDSU Geosciences Fargo Flood web site of the 2006 Red River flood as it was happening! Julia and Jim's daughter, Olivia, was born in 2005. You can contact Julia at jgray@blh.k12.mn.us.

Rhonda Lyn Olson (2002) has started graduate studies at University of North Dakota Department of Geology and Geological Engineering.


Carson Rittel (2002) earned a MS from New Mexico Tech Earth and Environmental Sciences Department in 2005. For his thesis project area, outside Palmdale, CA along the Mojave segment of the San Andreas Fault, he constructed a soil chronosequence of the fan/terrace deposits in the Littlerock Creek area. After graduating, he briefly worked as a Senior Staff Geologist with Leighton and Associates in Rancho Cucamonga, on drilling projects for geotechnical investigations. He also carried out bedrock and landslide mapping for large rough grading projects in southern California.
Carson is now Senior Staff Geologist for William Lettis & Associates in their southern California Valencia, CA (www.lettis.com). The company works with seismic and geologic hazards, and Carson is working on a phase II fault rupture hazard study on the campus of Cal State Northridge. In the future, he may be involved with field work for new nuclear power plant contracts in the southeast US.
Carson, who lives at 25308 Via Ramon, Valencia, CA 91355, email: rittel@nmt.edu, phone 505-270-5505, promises to "send in the stereotypical hero pic when I have time."
Work: William Lettis and Associates, 28470 Avenue Stanford, Suite 120, Valencia, CA 91355. tel. 661-219-7103, email: rittel@lettis.com; www.lettis.com


K.C. Vorthmann (2002) pursued graduate studies at New Mexico Tech Earth and Environmental Sciences Department.


Douglas A. Kolb Jr. (2003) worked as an Associate Field Analyst at NAVTEQ in Fargo, N.D. and Salt Lake City, Utah. In Fall, 2007, he started a M.S. program in Geology at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale.

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