BLaST Celebrates Scientist of the Month for June

David Harvey, a second-year BLaST Scholar, is from Knappa, Oregon. Harvey has an associate degree in science  from Peninsula College and will graduate from University of Alaska Fairbanks this summer with a B.S. in geoscience with a geophysics concentration. He was accepted to the M.S. graduate program in geology at UAF and will start in fall 2021. Harvey’s honors include being named the 2020-2021 Outstanding Student in geoscience and he received the University of Alaska’s 2021 Brina Kessel Medal for Excellence in Science for his demonstrated commitment to scientific research. He is also a proud gay, first-generation, and non-traditional student.

Harvey’s research training includes two years as a field research intern with the Coastal Watershed Institute (CWI) in Port Angeles, Washington. He assisted Anne Shaffer, Ph.D., with long-term monitoring projects on the ecological and environmental impacts of the Elwha River dam removal project. Along with other interns, Harvey co-presented CWI’s results through a poster at the 2018 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference and co-authored two technical reports. At UAF, Harvey worked with Jessica Larsen, Ph.D., of the Geophysical Institute and Alaska Volcano Observatory. Their project assessed human respiratory health hazards from volcanic ash impacting the village of Nelson Lagoon, Alaska following the March 2016 Pavlof Volcano eruption. Harvey presented his results at the 2020 NIH DPC Virtual Research Symposium.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Harvey also worked as a field assistant for Regine Hock, Ph.D., and Eric Petersen, Ph.D., of the UAF Geophysical Institute Glaciers Group last summer, investigating the distribution and formation of ice cliffs on the Kennicott Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Since then, Harvey has been working with Chris Maio, Ph.D., Nancy Bigelow, Ph.D., and graduate student Lindsey Smith in UAF’s Arctic Coastal Geoscience Lab. He utilized radiocarbon dating methods to constrain the ages of several volcanic ash layers in sediment cores taken from a dry lakebed at Pasagshak Point, Kodiak Island, Alaska. Several of the ash layers define transitions in depositional environments recorded in the cores and further work may help to describe how late-Holocene volcanism in Alaska has impacted Kodiak Island. 

Mentoring has played a vital role in Harvey’s success in research and academia. His many advisors and mentors include Peninsula College faculty AnneShaffer, Ph.D., Jeffrey Zirul, Randy Anderson, and Barbara Blackie. At UAF, his mentors include Larsen, Maio, Elisabeth Nadin, Ph.D., Sean Regan, Ph.D., and  Ken Severin, Ph.D. Harvey also expresses his gratitude for the UAF Student Support Services TRiO program for their continuous support and by offering a week-long field expedition in Denali National Park that led Harvey to UAF. Larsen will be his advisor for his graduate studies. Finally, he thanks BLaST RAMP Emily Sousa as valuable support to Harvey’s studies and research. 

Harvey has been able to offer peer mentoring several ways. In Spring 2021, Harvey worked as a teaching assistant in the Geosciences department. He provided instructional support in laboratory techniques, and guest lectured for GEOS F101 - The Dynamic Earth, and GEOS F428/628 - Elementary Scanning Electron Microscopy. Harvey is passionate about accessibility in science communication and scientific teaching. In the future, he plans to teach at the community college level where he feels he can make a meaningful impact by supporting the next generation of scientists from less traditional backgrounds.