What's New in the Department

Congratulations to Whitney M. Behr, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Austin on being awarded the 2016 Donath Medal by the Geological Society of America. The Donath medal, GSA’s Young Scientist Award is given annually to outstanding achievement in contributing to geologic knowledge through original research that marks a major advance in the earth sciences. Dr. Behr received her B.S. from the CSUN department of Geological Sciences and then went on to receive her PhD from USC.  Read more

Dr. Scott Hauswirth is a hydrogeologist specializing in groundwater contamination. After obtaining his BS from Wesleyan University, he worked for a number of years in the environmental consulting industry conducting investigations and overseeing clean-up activities at contaminated sites. He returned to academia and obtained his PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014, where he continued as a postdoctoral research associate before joining the Department in the Fall of 2016. His past research focused on developing improved methods to clean-up contaminated sites, and on improving understanding of the behavior of hydraulic fracturing fluids in the subsurface. At CSUN, he will conduct research on the flow of non-Newtonian fluids in the porous materials—relevant to a range of environmental and industrial applications—and on the use of multicomponent fluids for the oxidative destruction of organic contaminants in the subsurface.  Read more