ONEONTA _ Devin Castendyk, assistant professor of earth sciences at the State University College at Oneonta, has been awarded the 2009 Richard Siegfried Junior Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence.
Castendyk will deliver the 15th annual Richard Siegfried Lecture, an address titled "Mine-Full Nation: The Paradox of Sustainable Mining," in the Craven Lounge of the Morris Conference Center at 7 p.m. Thursday. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Castendyk's talk will examine how society can satisfy the demand for metals and energy while preserving water, soil and land resources. He will explore the environmental impacts of historic mining practices and the strategies used by the contemporary mining industry to remediate those impacts. The presentation will cover the coal-mining, metal-mining and natural-gas industries.
Castendyk will also address natural-gas development in New York, with a discussion of industry practices, state regulations and the monitoring of water quality.
A hydrogeologist, Castendyk teaches courses for water-resources majors at SUNY Oneonta. He holds a doctorate from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, a master's degree from the University of Utah and a bachelor's degree from Hartwick College.
Castendyk specializes in analyzing the quality of water that has seeped through pit mines into pit lakes. He is the senior editor of the recently released book, "Mine Pit Lakes: Characteristics, Predictive Modeling and Sustainability."
The Siegfried Prize, which is awarded annually, recognizes a non-tenured SUNY Oneonta faculty member for outstanding academic achievement outside the classroom.
The prize was made possible by gifts from alumni to the college and by a special gift from Alice Siegfried in memory of her husband, theater professor Richard K. Siegfried, who taught at the college from 1958 to 1995.
