Brian Bodenbender has been teaching geology and environmental science at Hope College since 1996 and is a member of the Campus Sustainability Committee. He engages students in research in both geology and environmental science.

Along with his on-campus classes, he teaches geology, biology and sustainability courses on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Although he enjoys taking students into bat-, snake- and spider-infested caves, helping them avoid deadly plants and vertebrates, introducing them to anoxic slime, decaying compost and smoldering landfills, and exposing them to bites, stings and punctures from insects, plants, marine invertebrates and unreasonably sharp rocks, the highlight of teaching in the Bahamas is leading students to visit the Three Beautiful Places.

Areas of expertise

布莱恩是一名古生物学家，对化石和地球历史一直很感兴趣。他在化石方面的工作主要集中在从棘皮动物骨骼中晶体的方向可以得到的进化信息上，尽管他也误入了恐龙古生物学和化石三维建模的领域。随着他教授更多的环境科学，他对可持续发展产生了兴趣，这是由于他认识到，即使是最成功的物种也可能发生灭绝。

His geology research focuses on photographic methods, such as gigapixel photography and photogrammetry to study landscape changes in Lake Michigan dunes. His environmental research includes examining the effectiveness of biochar as a soil amendment and documenting the prevalence of microplastics in Lake Michigan beach sands.

Education

• Ph.D., geological sciences, University of Michigan, 1994
• M.S., geological sciences, University of Michigan, 1990
• B.A., geology, The College of Wooster, 1987

Honors, grants and awards

Brian has had research funding from the National Science Foundation and was selected as a participant in the first NSF Ideas Lab. He is currently supported by grants from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium and the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

Selected publications

Book chapters

• “The role of extratropical cyclones in shaping dunes along southern and southeastern Lake Michigan,” inCoastline and Dune Evolution along the Great Lakes, Geological Society of America Special Paper, 2014
• “Dune complexes along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan: Geomorphic history and contemporary processes,” inInsights into the Michigan Basin: Salt Deposits, Impact Structure, Youngest Basin Bedrock, Glacial Geomorphology, Dune Complexes, and Coastal Bluff Stability, Geological Society of America Field Guide 31, 2013

Articles

• “The origin of dark sand in eolian deposits along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan,”The Journal of Geology, 2011
• “Multidisciplinary field investigations: using shared logistics to increase research productivity,”CUR Quarterly, 2004
• “A reconnaissance of skeletal crystallography in rhombiferans, diploporans, and paracrinoids,”Journal of Paleontology, 2004
• “Blastoid stratocladistics – reply to Sumrall and Brochu,”Journal of Paleontology, 2003
• “Facing the About: Why Disciplines are Essential to the Liberal Arts,”LiberalArtsOnline, 2003
• “Stratocladistic analysis of blastoid phylogeny,”Journal of Paleontology, 2001
• “Skeletal crystallography and crinoid calyx architecture,”Journal of Paleontology, 2000
• “The Environmental Science Minor: a disciplinary approach to interdisciplinary studies with a grounding in undergraduate research,”Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 2000
• “Echinoderm skeletal crystallography and paleobiological applications,”Paleontological Society Papers, 1997
• “Patterns of crystallographic axis orientation in blastoid skeletal elements,”Journal of Paleontology, 1996

View all of Brian Bodenbender’s published work atDigital Commons.

Outside the college

Brian enjoys being a dad, camping with his family and traveling to remote mountain streams to pan for insignificant amounts of gold and significant amounts of scenery and solitude. He likes listening to eclectic music weighted toward obscure folk artists, but has never understood jazz and can frankly do just fine without it. His favorite authors include Will Cuppy, John McPhee, J.R.R. Tolkien, Walt Kelly and Patrick O'Brian. Against his better judgement, his reading tastes repeatedly return to first-person war narratives.