David Hirsch

His choice of a career in geology allows David to combine a love of travel and the outdoors with a passion for solving through science the puzzles posed by the natural world. At least as important is the ability to communicate that passion through teaching and the opportunity to, in turn, learn all that his students and colleagues can teach him. David’s specialty is metamorphic rocks; he received his Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of Texas at Austin studying the rates and mechanisms of metamorphic crystallization.

During his education at Austin and UCLA, he has had the opportunity to pursue fieldwork in areas around the USA, including Catalina Island, CA, the Adirondacks of New York, North Carolina, and the Beartooth Mountains of Montana. In addition, he has traveled abroad for fieldwork in the Scottish Highlands and northern Baja California. He is currently a faculty member of the Geology Department at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington (north of Seattle). His current research areas are focused in eastern Washington State and northern New Mexico, near Taos.