Sarah Nagorsen (MS Geology, 2011)

After earning my MS in Geology at CWU in 2011, I worked as a mine geologist for Freeport-McMoRan in Bagdad, Arizona. While there, I developed safer ways to map structures in the mine (using GPS) and created the mine's first geometallurgical forecast model.

I recently left the copper mining business (and desert solitude) to join the U.S. Geological Survey as a technical manuscript and geologic map editor in Menlo Park, California (San Francisco Bay area). As managing editor for Global Mineral Resource Assessment reports, I'm still involved in economic geology, but also work on a variety of science publications. Some of the drool-worthy publications that cross my desk include maps of the California seafloor, reports on active faulting in California, and papers on Cascade and Hawaiian volcanoes. It has been fun to combine my love for writing with my passion for geology.

Outside of work (should I call it work?) I fight bay traffic for a slice of the California coast, local Santa Cruz Mountains, and eastern Sierras (thanks to Jeff Lee, I remain obsessed with Bishop, California).

I still think of the 'Burg often...the icy Mount Stuart breeze that blows you off your bike, the Yakima River, Manastash Ridge, the hay fields, that heavy PacNW pow, and of course, the CWU geology department!