Communications and Outreach Specialist
UW-Madison Division of Extension | Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey
Hometown: Northern Illinois
Mel Reusche (Roo-SHAY) is the communications and outreach specialist for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, part of the Natural Resource Institute of the UW-Madison Division of Extension. Her goal is to share the latest research on the geology of Wisconsin, and provide this context to all people in Wisconsin. For her PhD research, she studies past climate change using stalactites and stalagmites in caves, and her past research has focused on arctic glacial geology. This work with past climate helps to better understand how Earth’s climate changes. She has also worked extensively with the UW Geology Museum to share and delight in Earth’s natural geologic wonders. She earned her degrees at UW-Madison, and has lived in Wisconsin on and off for more than a decade. She loves being outdoors all year, and is also busy raising 3 little geologists at home with her geologist husband!
Learn more about Mel’s experience and educational values on her professional website: www.melreusche.com. Learn more about the Survey at www.wgnhs.wisc.edu!
Talks:
Echoes of the past: caves and climate in Wisconsin
How Wisconsin caves form, and what they can tell us about Wisconsin’s climate through time.
Deep time: how to see the world like a geologist
Humans struggle to imagine the depths of time and the timing of geologic events that shaped our planet. Learn what the geologic time scale is, how it is created, and how we fit into it.