Research & Creative Interests
Since “retiring” in 2016 I have relocated to the old sample prep lab on the first floor. This area now serves as my office, lab, and home to my extensive volcanic and ore deposit research collections. Organizing and archiving my Toba, Central American, and North American sample suites will keep me busy for quite some time….not to mention scanning my extensive Kodachrome slide collection! My main research focus continues to be the Toba Caldera in Sumatra, Indonesia. I returned to the field at Toba in September 2018 before and after an international meeting on calderas in which I delivered the Toba overview plenary talk. A few months later I was invited to present a geological overview talk at a workshop about Lake Toba sponsored by the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and jumped at the chance to go back, give a talk, and conduct more field work! My overall research goal at Toba now is to understand its dynamic geologic history since the cataclysmic 74 ka eruption. That is bound to keep me busy even longer than cataloging my sample suites and slides.