Department of Geosciences

Faculty Research

Check out some of the interesting research
being done by our faculty:

| Heinrichs | Lisichenko | Neuhauser | Phillips | Schafer | Schott | Zakrzewski | | Other University Faculty |

Heinrichs, John

Dr. John Heinrichs' research interests lie in two primary areas, remote sensing and climatology, focusing on the Arctic and the Central High Plains of the United States. Within remote sensing, most of his work involves the use of radar imagery in combination with data from infrared and visible sensors. One recently completed project, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, used data from the Canadian RADARSAT satellite to constrain a numerical ice and ocean model of Baffin Bay. An ongoing project is using ice-penetrating radar to measure the thicknesses of Alaskan glaciers. Another is evaluating the use of radar images to reveal surface and subsurface characteristics in western Kansas. A future project will use data from a new NASA microwave sensor (the AMSR) to study sea ice near Barrow, Alaska.

Dr. Heinrichs' work in climatology has attempted to determine the variability of temperature and precipitation in western Kansas over the last 100 years and to explain the variability as a function of forcing variables such as El Niño, global climate change, and changes in solar output. He is currently heading up a project funded by the National Geographic Society, called Kansas Streamshot, that collects hydrological and meteorological data taken by more than 70 Kansas K-12 classes. Dr. Heinrichs also supervises operational mapping and surveying projects. One of these, recently concluded, involved FHSU undergraduates producing 16 geologic maps of northwestern Nebraska.

Lisichenko, Richard

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Neuhauser, Kenneth

Dr. Neuhauser, Professor of Geology, and Co-Director of the Geology Field Camp program, received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and both his M.S. and PhD from the University of South Carolina (Columbia).  His research focus has been on geological mapping but he is also involved in a number of other research areas. His most recent mapping project involved the surficial geologic map of Osborne County, Kansas which is an integral part of the Kansas Geological Surveys State County Mapping Program.  Dr. Neuhauser has been involved in this State program since 1985 and has co-authored the mapping of Ellis and Ness counties. Each project involved both undergraduate and graduate students. His other mapping projects have involved mapping various structural styles in Utah, Colorado, and Kansas.  He was also involved in the State of Kansas GIS Strategic Planning process in the mid-1990s as a Docking Institute Fellow.

Other research endeavors include depositional environments projects, applied environmental and archaeological geophysics, as well as remote sensing and GIS. Many of his research projects are integrated into the courses he teaches such as applied geophysics and Geology Field Camp. As an example, he had students involved in a dinosaur dig at field camp from 2001-2004. The latter project led to the existing dinosaur dedicated in 2002 and now on display in Tomanek Hall. Similar projects include geophysical surveys over a number of cemeteries, brine spills, an historic military fort, buried gasoline tanks, toxic industrial spills, and 1930s prohibition buried still site, an old buried water well, a suspect meteor impact site, targeting old water lines on Hays Municipal Golf Course, and targeting material at a WWII B-29 crash site.

Recent research involves the depositional environment of a volcanic ash quarry in NW Ellis County, as well as using remote sensing and GIS in searching for 1880s remnants of a sunken steam-powered boat along Big Creek, and geophysical studies of a sink near Brownwell, Kansas and possibly searching for a buried pipe beneath an earthen dam near Plainville, Kansas.    Research in progress includes strain partitioning analysis regarding the rotation of the Colorado Plateau – a rather ‘stressful’ structural challenge in Utah. 

He was involved in GIS projects on the City of Hays landfill volume/life expectancy, remote sensing focusing on targeting impervious surfaces for property parcels in Hays, Kansas, as well as on sink hole subsidence surveying along Interstate 70 in Kansas.  The list of potential "research" targets grow by the year. Neuhauser's research varies in as many geological disciplines as possible as long as it remains fun, challenging, and is useful in his main "research" area - - teaching.

1993 Pilot Award Recipient

1999 President's Distinguished Scholar - “The Power of Thought”

Dr.  Kenneth R. Neuhauser, professor of geosciences, received the eleventh President’s Distinguished Scholar Award.  Neuhauser received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he holds a master of sciences in geology and a Ph. D. in geology, both from the University of South Carolina-Columbia.  He came to FHSU in 1980 from Radford University in Radford, VA.  He had directed the FHSU Field Geology Camp where students from through-out the United States work onsite using the tools and procedures of the trained geologist.  Neuhauser has also been instrumental in developing the Geographic Information System (GIS) program, having chaired the first three GIS theses.  He has been heavily involved in using GIS to map Osborne County.  His research involves integrative field studies, computer and remote-sensing mapping, applied environmental geophysics, structural kinematics, and environmental projects in Hays as well as elsewhere in Kansas, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.  He received the Pilot Award in 1993.  He was chaired the annual meeting of Kansas Academy of Sciences.  Neuhauser was born in Phillips, WI. During summers as an undergraduate, he was a forest planner and field foreman for the Wisconsin Department of Forestry as well as a soils analyst and field geologist for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.  He duties included air photography and field work.  Neuhauser has received numerous grants for research in mineral resources, structural geology, applied geophysics, surface mapping, and computer applications.

RESEARCH IN ANY FORM IS DEFINED BY THAT DISCIPLINE IS A TOOL THAT SHOULD BE A PART OF EVERY TEACHIG PROCESS, ESPICIAL IN THE SCIENCES One of the key elements in my accepting a teaching position at Fort Hays State University was the opportunity to teach Geology field Camp.  This course is a capstone course for the professional bachelor of sciences degree in geology.  Emphasis is on field projects during the intensive five-week session which focuses on all the undergraduate core geology courses.  As this course has evolved over past nineteen years, I have incorporated new technology involving local, state, and federal agency-related projects into the traditional requirement for the camp.  For example, students in the 1999 Field Cap conducted a magnetometer survey over Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Monument in Utah.  This project involved the United States Geological Survey (Flagstaff, AZ) and park officials.  The purpose was to obtain data to support one of two theories, salt diapirism or meteor impact, for the Dome.  In another project, at Dinosaur National Monument, students integrated remote sensing imaging using Landsat data to enhance their surface air photo mapping.

Several other very interesting research and teaching projects have this course.  Students will be involved in a dinosaur excavation project at Field Camp over the next five years.  I hope that the culmination of it will produce a dinosaur display in Tomanek Hall (where the Department of Geosciences is housed) - a “testimonial” excavated by, prepared by, and constructed by FHSU students.  A second research goal stemming from camp may be a new, high-tech method for targeting dinosaur remains.  I am investigating the use of spectral signatures of surface-collected conglomerate beds within the dinosaur-producing Jurassic Morrison Formation and integrating that data with AVIRIS (Airborne Visual Infrared Imaging System) images from aircraft. 
In conclusion, there are many ways to involve students in sciences.  I have included students in my research in geophysical investigations looking for buried toxic waste at archeological sites such as Historic Fort Hays as well as in purely geologic mapping projects in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas.  No matter what the project, the students who participate excel.  In that I feel complete as a teacher and a researcher. 

Phillips, Paul

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Schafer, Tom

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Schott, Ron

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Zakrzewski, Richard

Dr. Richard Zakrzewski's primary research interests are the biostratigraphy of late Cenozoic terrestrial deposits in the western U.S. and the systematic relationships of fossil rodents with living relatives in North America.

He is studying the fossil woodrats from a number of Pliocene/Pleistocene sites in Meade Co., Kansas. This is part of a project that includes other scientists. They are trying to determine the development of rodent communities through time as well as rodent evolution.

Dr. Zakrzewshi and one of his students are studying the fossils from a Pleistocene site in Smith Co., Kansas. They are trying to determine the kinds of animals that lived at the site and what they can tell us about the ecology, climate, and age. They also want to know how this site is related to other Pleistocene sites in North America.

2006 President's Distinguished Scholar

Dr. Richard Zakrzewski, Professor of Geosciences & Chief Curator of Sternberg Museum, received his Master of Science degrees in Geology from the University of Michigan; and a Bachelor of Science degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich. Dr. Z (as his students fondly call him) joined the faculty here at FHSU in 1969. He was promoted to associate professor in 1974 and professor in 1978.
Rick has made substantial contributions in all areas. From 1967 to 2006, he has published more than 65 peer-reviewed papers and articles in the field of vertebrate paleontology. He has 42 years of experience in museum work and currently serves in the capacity as Chief curator and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum. He has directed 30 MA theses and served on an additional 76 theses committees which probably is a record for a FHSU faculty member! In addition, he has served as interim department chair on several occasions, and has participated in numerous committees at the department, college and university levels. Notably, he has served on both college and university tenure committees. Rick is also an accomplished teacher. he's taught 19 different courses over the years both core and graduate level in Geosciences. He not only is a teacher but an advisor as well. His current and past students continually attest to the guidance and assistance provided by Rick. A great number of his graduate students have become very successful and renowned researchers in their own right. You can imagine the number of students he has touched with his expertise and knowledge by being a mentor and a teacher. It is clear to me that Rick has demonstrated meritorious scholarship in his discipline, and has enriched the university community with his teaching and service. - President Hammond, 2006