Fred Rich pointing to the K-T boundary at the Darting Minnow Creek locality, Brazos River valley, Texas, Photo courtesy Dr. Timothy Kroeger.
Fred Rich is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University. He was born in Steven's Point, Wisconsin, and was raised in Baraboo, Wisconsin. He received a B.S. in Geology from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. After attending graduate school at Southern Illinois University for one year in 1973-74, he transferred to The Pennsylvania State University, where he was accepted into the Coal Research Section of the Department of Geosciences. He received his Ph.D. in Geology, with a minor in Botany, in 1979.
Before taking his present position Rich was a coal geologist on the faculty of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for nearly ten years. He taught specialized courses in coal geology, sedimentary petrography, and palynology. At Georgia Southern he teaches Environmental Geology lectures and labs, invertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy and sedimentation, and a variety of advanced courses dealing with the geologic history of Georgia, with special emphasis on the Coastal Plain. Most recently this has included instruction in the St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program. See the website at http://cost.gasou.edu/cturtle /001welc.html
Fred Rich's research interests revolve about wetlands as biological and geological features. His interest in wetlands has been life-long, and resulted in his choosing the Okefenokee Swamp as a field area for his doctoral research. He has published in a variety of national and international journals, with most of the work relating to the geology of coal deposits (actually just ancient wetlands) and palynology, i.e., the study of fossil pollen and spores. In 1982-83 he was selected to participate in the Distinguished Lecturer program of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, with the topic of the lecture being "Modern Wetlands and Their Potential as Coal-forming Environments". His current research interests include the paleoecology of the Georgia and Florida coasts and the interrelationships among the hydrology, botany, and geomorphology of the Georgia coastal plain. The natural inter-relationships that exist among tha latter have resulted in a rather new area of inquiry - neotectonics. Recent collaboration with Dr. Jerry Bartholomew has revealed extensive fracture systems on the coastal plain. These are now part of an intense debate that centers about a proposal to deepen the harbor in Savannah, Georgia.
Rich's primary work experience has been in the academic environment;
he has taught at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
and at Georgia Southern University. Collaboration with colleagues
from government, academia and industry have resulted in a number
of publications in the geology of western coal fields. Rich is
a Registered Professional Geologist in the State of Wyoming (PG-3290).
He has been the editor of the Newsletter of the American Association
of Stratigraphic Palynologists (AASP), and was the editor of PALYNOS,
the newsletter of the International Federation of Palynological
Societies. In 2000 Rich was President of AASP, and serves as liason
between that society and the American Geological Institute and
the Geological Society of America.
In October 2004 Rich assumed the position of Regional co-PI for
the Partnership for Reform in Science and Mathematics (PRISM).
PRISM is funded through the National Science Foundation Math-Science
Partnership Program, and is administered by the Board of Regents
of the University System of Georgia. PRISM's goals include improving
math and science comprehension among Georgia's public school
teachers through professional development and cooperative learning
with university faculty. Go to http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/prism/
for further information on this program.
________, 1995, Palynological characteristics of near-shore shell-bearing Pliocene through Holocene sediments of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina: Tulane Studies in Geology and Paleontology, 28 (4), p. 97-112.
________, 1996, Biological and sedimentological dynamics of the Okefenokee Swamp: in, Palynology of Wetland Environments of the Southern U.S., fieldtrip A3, IX International Palynological Congress, Houston, Texas, p. 1- 45.
________, and Pirkle, F.L., 1998, Steinkerns as pollen traps: in, Bryant, V.M., Jr., and Wrenn, J.H.(eds.), New Developments in Palynomorph Sampling, Extraction, and Analysis, American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Contribution Series Number 33, p.87-94.
Booth, R.K., and ________, 1998, Quaternary evolution of the Georgia Coastal Plain as indicated by palynology, stratigraphy, and age of selected coastal, inland, and marine deposits: in, Rich, F.J. and Bishop, G.A., (eds.), Geology and Natural History of the Okefenokee Swamp and Trail Ridge, Southeastern Georgia-Northern Florida, Georgia Geological Society Guidebooks, 18 (1), p. 78-89.
_______, 1999, A report on the palynological characteristics of the brown coal samples from the Ennis Mine: in, Tertiary/Cretaceous Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the north central Coastal Plain of Georgia, field trip 8, Geological Society of America, Southeastern Section, Athens, GA.
Booth, R.K., and _________, 1999, Identification and paleoecological implications of a Late Pleistocene pteridophyte-dominated assemblage preserved in brown peat from St. Catherines Island, Georgia: Castanea, 64 (2), p. 120-129.
Barholomew, M.J., _________, Whitaker, A.E., Lewis, S.E., Brodie, B.M., and Hill, A.A., 2000, Neotectonic features of the Lower Coastal Plain of Georgia and South Carolina: in, Abate, C, and Maybin, B.(eds.), A Compendium of Field Trips of South Carolina Geology with Emphasis on the Charleston, South Carolina, Area,South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey, p. 19 - 30.
_________, Semratedu, A., Elzea, J., and Newsom, L., 2000,
Palynology and paleoecology of a wood-bearing clay deposit from
Deepstep, Georgia: Southeastern Geology, 39 (2), p. 71-80.
Zayac, T., ______, and Newsom, L., 2001, The paeloecology and
depositional environments of the McClelland sandpit site, Douglas,
Georgia: Southeastern Geology, 40 (4) p. 259-272.
______, Johnson, D.M. and Dirkin, T.V., 2001, Occurrence and paleoecology of Marsilea from the Eocene Wasatch Formation, Johnson County, Wyoming: PALAIOS, 16 (6) p. 608-613
_______, Pirkle, F.L., and Arenberg, E., 2002, Palynology and paleoecology of strata associated with the Ohoopee River dune field, Emanuel County, Georgia: Palynology, 26, p. 217-236.
Booth, R.K., Rich, F.J., and Jackson, S.T., 2003, Paleoecology
of Mid-Wisconsinan peat clasts from Skidaway Island, Georgia:
PALAIOS, 18, 63-68.
Davis, L.A. and Rich, F.J., 2005, An investigation of joint sets
and their relation to occurrences of rare biota at the Broxton
Rocks Preserve, Altamaha Formation (Miocene), Coffee County, Georgia:
Southeastern Geology, 44(1). p. 27-36.
|
|
|
|