Department News

At the 2026 Appalachian Society of American Foresters (APSAF) meeting, five Sewanee undergraduates won the Quiz Bowl and will bring home the trophy after a 10-year absence from the halls of Snowden. In the long honored Sewanee tradition of fielding a small team with a mighty heart and superior intellect, the Sewanee Forestry team beat much larger teams of undergraduate and graduate students from UT and UK. Photo: Hadlee Hale, Max Grumbles, Everett Ackley, Parker Roth, Annie Murphy

Our Intro Forestry class toured Thompson Appalachian Hardwoods for a firsthand look at the modern hardwood sawmilling process. Students followed logs from the yard through sawing, drying, and grading, learning how technology, efficiency, and sustainable forest management connect. The visit offered a clear link between classroom concepts and real-world industry practice.

Peri Fedderman (C'28), Caroline Goodsell (C'27), Sorrel Kuppinger (C'28), Adam Watson (C'26), Stella Wilkins (C'28), and Bob Failing (Millsaps) spent three weeks immersed in the landscapes and geology of California in Dr. Max Dahlquist's GEOL 323: Geology of the Western United States. Students dug into desert soils, ascended glacially-scoured alpine valleys, and found fault(s) everywhere. Join the next iteration Summer 2027!

Eighteen EES students presented their research at the 2023 Scholarship Sewanee on topics as varied as subalpine forest mortality in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, thin section analysis of the Mississippian Pennington Formation, phase transitions in magnesium and iron hydrous sulfates at extreme pressures and temperatures, a multi-temporal landslide inventory for Wetar Island, and how regenerative practices affect soil carbon sequestration on small farms on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau.

Charlotte Ganter (C'25), Brian Gulick (C'24), and Máté Garai (C'24), travelled with their research advisor Dr. Thompson to the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory for five days of intensive research using the infrared and Raman spectroscopy facilities at this world class facility.

Brian Gulick (C'24) and Máté Garai (C'25) travelled to Chicago to present their geology research at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting that draws more than 25,000 scientists from over 100 countries! Also in attendance to present their work were Dr. Max Dahlquist and Dr. Lily Thompson (not shown).

Christian Shushok (C'24) and Audrey Burch (C'24) presented new results on  the physical and chemical properties of two planetary minerals, epsomite and melanterite, at elevated pressures and extreme temperatures at GSA Connects. These findings tied together work conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Lily Thompson, as well as spectroscopy measurements conducted during field trips to the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. 

Thompson has a conceptual challenge:  how to explain conditions in her field site, 1,600 kilometers (around 1,000 miles) under the surface of the Earth. For reference, the deepest hole human beings have ever dug is just over two kilometers deep, so Professor Thompson is characterizing processes 800 times deeper. There, in the Earth’s mantle, the weight of all the kilometers of rock above creates intense pressure. Use this link to read the complete, unabridged article about the planetary science and condensed matter physics being studied in the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems.