Geology & Environmental Sciences Awards

Department majors may qualify for awards that support geoscience-related travel: J Term courses, conferences, or research; or, students and faculty collaborative research.

The "Hutch" Award

The “Hutch” Award is an alumni sponsored $1000.00 prize for academic excellence in the geosciences to be used for geoscience-related travel: J Term courses, conferences, or research.

Past Awardees

2016 – Elizabeth Klonowski ’17
2015 – Nicole Mehr ’17
2014 – Jessica Domino ’15
2013 – Keith O’Connor ’14

The award is named in honor of Dr. David “Hutch” Hutchison: Hartwick Professor Emeritus, co-founder of the Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, developer of several early off-campus education programs, and world traveler.

Students must be rising juniors or rising seniors in the Geology major with an overall GPA of 3.5 or better. Eligible students may apply twice (once as a rising junior and once as a rising senior), but may only win once.

Submit a 1-2 page long statement that: 1) indicates your interest in being considered for the award, 2) explains your study plans and how they fit with your career goals, and 3) explains how you plan to use the “Hutch” Award prize to fulfill your goals. Applications are typically submitted in the early Spring semester. Entries must be submitted electronically in PDF format.

Award winners will be selected by the GESC department faculty from eligible applicants, based primarily on academic merit (overall and major GPA, number of and performance in major & cognate courses completed), as well as quality and relevance of application statement. In the event of a tie, financial need will also be considered.

The award is presented at the Honors Convocation ceremony in early May. Therefore, the winning candidate must be present at Honors Convocation to publically receive this award.

Freedman Prize in Geological & Environmental Sciences

The Freedman Prize is a competitive award established by Drs. Allen and Judy Freedman in 2002 to recognize superior student-faculty collaborative research in applied geological, planetary and environmental sciences.

Funds support the research costs incurred by students and faculty (travel, field work, sample preparation, and analytical costs).

Freedman Prize Winning Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Projects

Winner: Gerald Meyer ’23
Project: An Investigation to Classify a Northwestern African Meteorite.
Project Advisor: Dr. Eric L. Johnson.

Winner: Tarrah Skye Smith ’21
Project: Effect of Buffer Zones on Local Creek Water Quality.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Tylisha Gourdine ’20
Project: Investigating metabolisms of microbial dark matter organisms in the crustal subsurface environment of Juan de Fuca Ridge.
Project Advisor: Dr. Stephanie Carr

Winner: Brynn Marion ’20
Project: Origins of marble corestone weathering in Northern New York.
Project Advisor: Dr. David Griffing

Winner: Maxwell Pizarro ’20
Project: Mineralogy and chemical change over a deformation gradient using a metagabbro from Dana Hill in the Adirondack Lowlands.
Advisor: Dr. Eric L. Johnson

Winner: Rebecca Nathan ’19
Project: Quantifying soil development of hemlock groves in the upper Susquehanna watershed.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Samantha Berberich ’18
Project: Granular disintegration of coarse-grained marbles in humid climates.
Project Advisor: Dr. David Griffing

Winner: Victoria Hubbard ’18
Project: Microscale alterations of feldspar across a semiarid environmental gradient.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Ian Forbes ’18 Finalist-Honorable Mention Award
Project: Determining the ratio of fungal and whole soil profile weathering rates across a climate gradient.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Kevin LeDone ’18 Finalist-Honorable Mention Award
Project: Investigating fungal aquaporins in drought conditions.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Ali Jaber ‘17 (Geology major)
Project: Analogue modeling of rock hydrofracturing.
Project Advisor: Dr. Eric Johnson

Winner: Samuel Nowak ‘17 (Geology major)
Project: Gold-mineralization in the greenstone belts of northern Minnesota.
Project Advisor: Dr. Eric Johnson

Winner: Nicole Mehr ‘17 (Geology major)
Project: The soil water chemistry of select hemlock wooly adelgid affected forests in New York.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Kyle Smart ‘17 (Geology major)
Project: Silicate mineral weathering by folic acids.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad

Winner: Skylar Kortright ‘17 (Geology major)
Project: Unusual occurrences of stromatolites in Pleistocene reefs, San Salvador Island, Bahamas.
Project Advisor: Dr. David Griffing

Winner: Jessica Domino ‘15 (Geology major)
Project: Modeling magma mixing at Andrews Point, Massachusetts.
Project Advisor: Dr. Eric Johnson

Winner: Brian Redder ’15 (Environmental Chemistry major/Geology minor)
Project: The effect of woolly adelgid-caused hemlock mortality on nitrate and phosphate mobility.
Project Advisor: Dr. Zsuzsanna Balogh-Brunstad