Lauren Albert Wright

March 23, 2013; Shoshone, CA

(Marli Miller photo)

Lauren A. Wright, 94, of State College, PA, passed away Feb 6, 2013. Professor Wright received his BS and MS in Geology from the University of Southern California, and a PhD from Cal Tech in 1952. He was first employed by the California Division of Mines (now CA Geological Survey) from 1947 to 1961, then accepted the position of Chairman, Dept of Geology and Geophysics, at Penn State University; he retired from Penn State in 1985 after teaching geology for 24 years. In his lifetime, Prof Wright became an internationally-recognized expert on the geology of Death Valley, CA. He is survived by his son Anthony.

You are cordially invited to a Memorial Service for Lauren Wright on March 23, 2013, in Shoshone, CA. The Service will be preceded by a short field trip to see a few of the geologic problems Prof Wright studied during his lifetime. The field trip is scheduled from 10-2PM; the Memorial Service begins at 3PM and is followed by a reception. In addition, Cynthia Keinitz will host an informal campfire service at China Ranch from 8PM.  Please RSVP to Susan Sorrells at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (760) 852-4224 for recommendations regarding lodging.

Welcome to the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, webpage!  There are a lot of exciting things happening in our department right now that make this a great place to work, study, and conduct research.  First, we have added Environmental Science to our existing Geology and Geophysics majors.  This roughly doubles the number of undergraduates in the department.  I am looking forward to working with the students and faculty from our combined programs and want to extend an invitation to the environmental science students to help us make them feel at home in the department. 

We also have three new faculty members who will make major contributions to our research and teaching.  Dr. Lixin Jin and Dr. Lin Ma started at UTEP in January, 2011, and they bring us new expertise in a range of research topics dealing with the environment, water, and soils.  Dr. Kate Giles will start in January, 2012, and she will help us build our petroleum related research through her industry experience and research on carbonate rocks.  I think this is a great place to study geoscience and it is a great time to be part of our department.  I expect us to continue to grow and succeed well into the future.