University of
Rochester
One Hundred
Fifty-Seventh
Commencement
May 2007
Undergraduate Teaching
The students who sign up for John Tarduno’s
Field Geology course in the spring find that “digging deep”
has a dual meaning. High in the Arctic, these young scientists apply
the principles of rock and mineral identification to hands-on
work—and test their endurance camping in one of Earth’s
most remote and harsh locations.
Allison Sail ’08, a geology major, took a trip with her classmates to California’s Death Valley last year as part of another course Tarduno teaches titled Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Mountain Ranges. The students made the cross-country trek to observe active geological processes, such as those taking place along the San Andreas Fault. Sail says it gave her a whole new perspective on the science of geology.
“Professor Tarduno had us up and out every day, at the crack of dawn, so eager to bring us to new and interesting places where he could share with us some of his knowledge. To see how proactive and energized he was out in the field made us crave more and more facts and details. When I returned home, I found myself viewing my major in a completely different light. Professor Tarduno exposed me to the world of geology, outside the classroom.”
A 2006 Guggenheim fellow for his work revealing how the Earth’s magnetic field functions and has changed over time, Tarduno joined the Rochester faculty in 1993 and in the same year established the Paleomagnetic Laboratory at the University, where his team has developed techniques for extracting information from crystals that contain nanometer-sized magnetic particles.
Most recently Tarduno led a study published in the April issue of the journal Nature detailing surprising results that indicate the Earth’s magnetic field was nearly as strong 3.2 billion years ago as it is today. Tarduno is now pushing back in time to 3.5 billion-year-old rocks to further investigate when the Earth’s inner core first formed, giving new insights into early processes that also may have had an effect on the atmosphere and the development of life on the planet.
John Tarduno, the chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has distinguished himself as an outstanding teacher. His dedication to the success of Rochester students was recognized in 2001 when he received a Goergen Award for Contributions to Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. Highly respected among his colleagues on campus and around the country, he is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
John Tarduno is well known among undergraduates for his six-week summer expeditions to the Arctic tundra. Under Professor Tarduno’s guidance, these undergraduates learn mapping techniques, collect vertebrate fossils, and begin to discover themselves as scholars and scientists. Students have called these trips “the highlight” of their academic careers and “one of the most innovative and unique experiences available at the University.”
While
these trips
are extraordinary, students receive the same high level of attention
from Professor Tarduno in his classes and labs every day. Former
students have called his classes “infectious” and
cited his
passion for sharing his expertise, saying that he “serves as
a
source of inspiration, knowledge, guidance and perpetual
support.”
For his dedication as a teacher, his
innovative
contributions to geophysics, and for his devotion to the University,
we are proud to recognize John Tarduno. We present to him the Edward
Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.