Eugene Domack
Professor of Environmental Studies, (1985-2013)
Memorial minute for Eugene Domack, J. W. Johnson Family Professor in Environmental Studies Emeritus, presented by Professor Barbara Tewksbury on February 6, 2018.
Eugene Walter Domack earned his PhD. in Geology from Rice University in 1982. He arrived at Hamilton in 1985 as an assistant professor in the Geology Department after working for two years as an Exploration Geologist for Union Oil Company of California. Gene taught at Hamilton for more than 25 years and was the College’s inaugural J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Environmental Studies. Gene left Hamilton in 2013 to join the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. Gene passed away suddenly in December, 2017 at age 61 after a brief illness.
Gene was a prolific and well-known scholar whose research career was dedicated to studying the geologic record of climate change. His primary passion was the history and impact of climate change in Antarctica, and, for three decades, he returned to the waters around the continent nearly every austral summer with colleagues and students to investigate the evidence of climate change recorded in Antarctic marine sediments. Gene served as Chief Scientist or Co-Chief Scientist on 15 Antarctic research cruises. He advanced the Antarctic community’s understanding of radiocarbon dating of glacial marine sediment and developed models of modern sedimentation within glacially-carved fjords and beneath ice shelves in order to interpret geologic records of cryosphere processes. Colleagues speak of Gene as a gifted research scientist who published groundbreaking studies on Antarctic marine science that continue to be cited today.
Gene was particularly proud of launching the international Larsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica (LARISSA) program in 2007, one of the first projects funded by the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Integrated System Science program. LARISSA was created to document and understand the complex and highly interconnected geological, ecological, glaciological, oceanographic, and climatic systems involved in the collapse of the Larsen Ice Shelf system, along with the subsequent evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula region after the collapse. Gene was especially proud of LARISSA’s interdisciplinary work, international collaborative team, and the numerous and diverse opportunities that the program provided for students and early-career researchers.
Many current members of the Antarctic research community can trace their entrance into that community of scientists to Gene’s mentorship. Gene gave hundreds of students their first experiences in research, in the field, at sea, in Antarctica, in the laboratory, and at professional conferences. He left a rich legacy: many of his former students are now passing along that passion, including Ian Howat (Professor at Ohio State University), Antonio Rodriguez (Professor at University of North Carolina), Amelia Shevenell (Associate Professor at the University of South Florida), Matt Kirby (Professor at Cal State Fullerton), and Broxton Bird (Assistant Professor at IUPUI). For his sustained high-impact research and student mentoring, Gene was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2004.
Although his primary love was Antarctic research, Gene conducted paleoclimate research in many other areas of the world in sequences ranging in age from thousands of years to more than half a billion years. His field research led him all over the globe - Namibia, Australia, Greenland, Svalbard, Oneida Lake NY, and Whidbey Island WA.
Gene had a remarkable career. He leaves a powerful legacy of published research and former students dedicated to high quality research, especially in the crucially important field of paleoclimate research. In recognition of his contributions to Antarctic research Gene was elected as Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2011 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012.
[This memorial minute was assembled from tributes in obituaries by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, the University of South Florida, and the family and from contributions by colleagues and the Department].
