Boston University prides itself on the exceptionally strong research qualifications of its field geology teaching faculty.

Dr. Declan De Paor, Field Camp Director, is Research Professor of Earth Sciences at Boston University. He specializes in structural geology, digital mapping, and geoeducation.

Declan has a 1983 Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland and has taught in several universities including Johns Hopkins and Harvard. He has a join appointment in the Core Curriculum where he teaches integrative physical and life sciences to freshmen.

Declan has extensive field experience in Europe, North America, and South America. In 2004, he and his graduate and undergraduate students became the first research group on Earth to publish a paper on the outcrop-scale structural geology of a field area on Mars!

Dr. Sarah Das specializes in Glacial Geomorphology and Global Climate Change. She got her Ph. D. from Penn State University in 2002 and is currently a research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic institute as well as a lecture with Boston University.

With extensive field experience in Greenland and Antarctica, Sarah finds Ireland a little on the warm side. Her NASA-funded research studies the effect of the Greenland ice sheet on global sea level. Sarah is uniquely qualified to help you visualize what Ireland was like during the ice age and how its landscape evolved in Holocene times. She will lead the glaciology section of the Iceland field trip.

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Dr. Martin Feely, a Senior Lecturer in Earth and Ocean Sciences at Galway University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Boston University, has a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland.

An award-winning teacher, Martin is also active in geological applications of Galway University's state-of-the-art digital mapping laboratory. He will help you create spectacular computer visualizations of your own mapping results.

Martin is an expert in the regional geology of Connemara . He can tell you all about the minerals, fossils, and structures in every outcrop of igenous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rock in the region,.... and you'll just love his accent!

Dr. Kate Moore has a 1998 Ph.D. from Bristol University. A Lecturer in Earth and Ocean Sciences at Galway University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Boston University, Kate has worked as a research scientist monitoring air quality at the Monserrat Volcano Observatory and currently lectures in environmental and igenous geology at Galway.

Kate will introduce you to the spectacular geology of Southern Iceland, including volcanoes, geisers, lava flows, ash deposits, and black-sand beaches.

Later, she will show you around the spectacular Karst topography of the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland. She has designed a set of field exercises in environmental impact analysis and hydrogeology to ensure that you get wet even when it's not raining!

Kate is always on the look-out for potential graduate students and in 2004, she offered graduate oppotunities in Galway University to two field camp undergraduates,

Dr. Sherilyn Williams-Stroud joined the teaching team this year. With a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1988, Sherilyn has published pioneering work on the deformation of gypsum and has extensive mapping and project management experience with the U.S.G.S. and the U.S. petroleum industry. She is a Senior Research Scientist with Chevron-Texaco.

Sherilyn has recently taught undergraduates at The University of Houston. She has received a "Star Award" for exceptional accomplishment from the U.S. Geological Survey and a Citation of Excellence for reviewing from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She will be active in the digital mapping program as well as classical stratigraphy and sedimentology.

As you see from the photo, Sherilyn takes a hard-headed approach to her job!

Dr. Carol Simpson is Professor of Geology and Associate Provost for Research at Boston University. A world-famous structural geologist (co-discoverer of sigma- and delta-grain systems) Carol received her Ph.D. from the E.T.H. Zurich, Switzerland in 1981. She served as Program Director for the National Science Foundation and editor of Geology while teaching at Johns Hopkins University, before moving to Boston to take over the Chair of Earth Sciences in 1995.

Carol received the GSA best-paper award for her research on shear zones in 1988. In 1999, she chaired the committee that convened the American Geophysical Union's meeting in Boston's Hynes Convention Center. She currently oversees BU's undergraduate research opportunities program and advocates tirelessly for women and minorities in science.

Carol has extensive field mapping experience ranging from the Swiss Alps to southern Africa to the SW USA, and is currently studying the tectonics of Argentina.

Carol is from northern England (she grew up near the Beatles) and you'll also love her accent.