Prof. Rebecca (Becky) Lange will talk with Helen Foster, our 2018 Distinguished Alumna, about Helen’s remarkable geological career and life. Helen Foster obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1946. She developed her passion for mapping unknown geological terrains as a graduate student in Wyoming, and thoroughly enjoyed her time at Camp Davis the geological field station where the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences teaches a wide variety of field courses. After she received her Ph.D., she leapt at the opportunity to work for the U.S. Geological Survey in Japan, during the U.S. military occupation immediately following the Second World War. She spent nearly a decade working with and befriending several Japanese geologists while compiling geological maps of Japan and the Kurile Islands. On her return to the United States, she continued her work with the U.S. Geological Survey, and became deeply involved with creating the first geological maps of Alaska. She was a pioneer in so many ways, as an intrepid young woman in Japan, and then as one among the first geologists to map the Alaskan wilderness, which was without roads and so field work involved being dropped off by a float airplane on a lake and spending weeks mapping and camping before being picked up again or re-supplied. Helen loved it! Throughout her lengthy career she has supported the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences - as an inspiration to our faculty and students, as a member of the Department’s Alumni Advisory Board, and as a generous donor. We will present an interview with Helen Foster recorded earlier this year.