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Dr. Norm King (center) at a dinosaur dig site preparing Apatosaurus remains for removal and transport. Much information about these and other organisms of the geologic past can be learned from the geology of the site, the position of the organism, and from extensive lab analysis of the fossils. (The image of the dinosaur skeleton in the title bar is courtesy of the Denver Museum's Natural History webpage). |
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BiographicalStuff
I am a native of southernCalifornia, but I've moved around. I received an undergraduate degreein geology from the University of Colorado, and Ph.D. from IndianaUniversity in 1973. I taught at the University of Tennessee atChattanooga for several years before going into the oil business in1978, working for Getty Oil Company and Ladd Petroleum Corporationduring the oil boom of the late 70's and early 80's; I was involvedin drilling wildcat oil wells, and became geological manager for thewestern United States for Ladd (a General Electric subsidiary). I waspresident of a small technical writing company for a few years, whenthe teaching opportunity at USI became available. I've been at USIsince the Fall of 1988. During that time, we have grown from twogeologists in the former Department of Physical Sciences to thecurrent five-person discipline; the Department of Geology and Physicswas formed, and the geology major was approved.
I live out in the countrynear St. Wendell, Indiana with Dr. Joanne Alexandrovich (yes, we'remarried!), who is Vanderburgh County's ozone officer and who has alsotaught some courses at USI. We've planted some grapes, and we hope todevelop skills in winemaking.
When I was a kid, I didsome work with amateur radio, and I saw that as an opportunity to getinvolved in the Evansville community. So, I got relicensed by the FCCseveral years ago, and now I serve as Emergency CommunicationsCoordinator for the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)branch of Evansville-Vanderburgh County's Emergency ManagementAgency. I work with Joanne in SKYWARN communications, a program fortrained observers to watch the sky during weather alerts, reportingsevere weather phenomena to the National Weather Service in Paducah,Kentucky from a base of operations at the EVV-Vanderburgh County EMAoffice. This is especially important work now that Evansville's NWSoffice has been closed.
Teaching
I teach courses onelementary geology, paleontology (GEOL315), and sedimentation andstratigraphy (GEOL316). My Prehistoric Life (GEOL101) course is myspecial project in the teaching area. I enjoy the challenge of makingpaleontology understandable for the average non-science student, andwrote a textbook that accompanies the course to help accomplish that.This has been one of the biggest challenges, and also among the mostrewarding, of my teaching career. I plan to keep the textbookcurrent, which will be a challenge in view of the frequentdiscoveries of spectacular new fossils; I will also try to fine-tunethe text and chapter-ending study aids to make it as "user-friendly"as possible for students.
Research
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I'm not a paleontologist,per se, but I contribute to paleontologic studies by determining theorigin of the rocks from which fossils are recovered, and determiningwhat happened to the animals from the time of their death until theybecame buried in sedimentary deposits. My current research involvesthe study of climatically-produced depositional cycles in rocks ofPennsylvanian age in the central and eastern U.S.; these are the bedsthat produce coal in this area. I have made presentations on thiswork at Geological Society of American meetings, and recentlypublished a paper with other researchers in the Journal of Geology.Among other things, we presented the hypothesis that the coal bedswere deposited as glacial "ice ages" were coming to an end, and sealevel rose due to the melting of glaciers, forming vast coal swampsalong the shorelines of ancient inland seaways. Neat, huh? I havealso consulted in the areas of paleontology and sedimentology forcoal and oil companies, and on hydrogeologic problems.