Hi, all ! Tony has asked me to write a short biography of my career since graduation from the Geology Dept. at San Diego State COLLEGE in the early Holocene (1966). Well,...I went on to Stanford and received my PhD in geology and geophysics in 1971. My thesis advisor was Allan Cox and I studied the petrology and magnetic properties of dredged seafloor pillow basalts—in order to determine what rocks in the oceanic crust were most responsible for the linear marine magnetic anomalies. As many of you remember, these anomalies were the basis for the wild, new theories of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics! Having done most of my Ph.D. research in the magnetics lab at the USGS in Menlo Park, I continued working there on seafloor basalts and other paleomagnetic projects until 1974. In 1973 I was the igneous petrologist and physical properties expert on Leg 32 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Tired of research and work in general, I took my bike to Europe in May of 1974 and spent the next 6 months biking and training from Greece to Norway!
I returned to SDSU and began teaching and research in January, 1975; where I have been ever since. Over these almost 30 years my main courses have been structure, petroleum, and geophysics, with an occasional ‘rocks for jocks’ class . In my early years here my research was collecting paleomag cores to study crustal translations and rotations. During this time and afterwards, I had a long string of seniors working out the basement structure and faults of the area, especially under Metropolitan San Diego.
I have been fortunate enough to have had three sabbatical years. The first was spent doing paleomagnetic research and teaching a grad seminar, in French, at the University of Rennes, in western France. Then,in 1993 the Russians lured me to St. Petersburg, where I was the first professor from a non-communist country to be a faculty member at the university since the Revolution. Having to stand in the snow to buy a loaf of bread, and make my way up and down stairwells and along the dark corridors of my apartment building when the stores were out of light bulbs (that’s right, the tenants were stealing them to use in their own rooms!), and lose 30 lbs from girardia/amoebic dysentery all added to the excitement of that year! My last sabbatical was enjoyed at the University of Prague, a medieval gem in the center of Europe. .


I retired in 2001, but have continued to teach during the spring semesters. The other 7 months have been pretty much filled with fun and educational field trips, busman holidays, or simply vacations to all parts of the world. My annual talks to the San Diego Association of Geologists are no longer called “what did Monte do last summer?”!

My life during the last three years, as is typical of my age, has been filled with many strong experiences: partial retirement, both my parents passed away, I moved from La Mesa to Banker’s Hill/Hillcrest (a much more beautiful, culturally rich, and gayer area ! ). So, having experienced and survived most of the emotionally most stressful things in life, I am now poised to dive into the last third (?) of my life—and only God, if there is a god, has any idea what’s happening next.

Home | News & Events | Calendar | Banquets | Field Trips | Picnics | Honored Alumni | Photos
Alumni Registration | Department Graduates | Contacts | Links | Messages