Assistant Professor of Geology Antun Husinec enjoys St. Lawrence because of the collaborative opportunities its students and faculty have.  “The students are able to enjoy hands-on experiences and interact directly with the faculty,” he says.  “For our geology classes, we go on numerous field trips, both in the country and abroad. These field trips are a fundamental component of our courses, and I enjoy the fact that I can see what my students have learned and how they apply knowledge in the field, and help them think critically about what they are learning.”

Husinec received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. What appealed to him about becoming a professor was his desire to continue immersing himself in research while teaching, a passion he discovered as a Fulbright Fellow at Virginia Tech. He says his favorite courses are an upper-level seminar in Carbonate Sedimentology and a broad introductory course in Oceanography.

One of his favorite things about St. Lawrence is the chance to collaborate with his students on research, and facilitate independent research projects. His students also present at both regional and national meetings; last year, Rafferty Sweeney ’09 of Longmont, CO, received the Outstanding Student Research award for his presentation at the Geology Society of America meeting in Houston.

Husinec’s research, in which he involves his students, is on “the use of the sedimentary record and fossils, coupled with the integration of stratigraphic analysis, computer modeling and isotopic approaches, to track the evolution of climates and oceans.” This summer he is taking two students to Croatia on a research grant from the National Science Foundation and two to North Dakota on another grant from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund.