HAROLD V. THURMAN retired in May 1994, after 24 years of teaching in the Earth Sciences Department of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. Interest in geology led to a B.S. degree from Oklahoma A&M University, followed by seven years working as a petroleum geologist, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico. Here his interest in oceans developed, and he earned an M.A. degree from California State University at Los Angeles, then joined the Earth Sciences faculty at Mt. San Antonio College. Hal Thurman has also co-authored a marine biology textbook, written articles on the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans for the 1994 edition of World Book Encyclopedia, and served as a consultant on the National Geographic publication, Realms of the Sea. He still enjoys going to sea on vacations with his wife Iantha.
ELIZABETH A. BURTON received a bachelor's degree in Geology from Bryn Mawr College, a master's in Marine Geology from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis. Growing up in California, she developed an early affinity for the oceans, but her interest in scientific study of the oceans did not take root until a college field trip to study the reefs and associated marine environments of the Bahamas and Florida Keys. She pursued research in this area for both her graduate degrees and since 1988, while serving as a professor of Geology at Northern Illinois University.
Research and a quest for fun have taken her on diving trips throughout the Caribbean but have also made her eyewitness to the devastation that anthropogenic changes in ocean chemistry, including sewage outfall, soil runoff, and perhaps the rise in atmospheric CO2, have caused to shallow marine environments Dr. Burton's teaching and research evolved away from an emphasis on natural geologic phenomena toward integration and understanding of these anthropogenic changes. She and her students have since investigated a diversity of environmental issues, including landfill gas emissions, fertilizer runoff, and the integrity of radioactive waste disposal sites. Bringing these real-world applications into the classroom has made teaching science both more fun and more relevant.
In a quest to bridge the gap further, Dr. Burton took a hiatus from teaching in 1998 in order to pursue environmental and geochemical research at Chevron. She has published over 30 scientific papers, serves as an Associate Editor for the Geological Society of America Bulletin, is a licensed professional geologist, and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the American Chemical Society.