Brandon Brayfield, a senior at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is intrigued by the formative processes essential to the study of geology. He started his studies at UMD with a broad interest in science, but in a sophomore year class he decided to pursue geology.

     Throughout his education he has under gone a transformation of his own. Mentally and physically geology has left its mark on Brayfield.

      “Students get it pounded into their heads – the horror stories about how hard math is,” he recalls. “Many people say their least favorite course was algebra. There are a lot less rules form the start with the arts, which is attractive to young folks.”

     Despite his artistic inclinations, Brayfield continued to study science. Not knowing where it might lead, he understood that he would need scientific knowledge in the future. It was only later that he began to understand how the basics he learned in high school would change him.

     “Science, like anything,” Brayfield realized, “is an experience-based discipline.  It is a cumulative process of building on the things you know so you can understand new things. It is a gradual process, something that is still developing in me.” 

     Even when he started his studies at UMD his understanding of science and his future career were not clear. As a sophomore he took a class that looked at several different fields of scientific study. One class session presented the variety of different scientific careers. His professor described the geologists he knew as anti-social people who enjoyed working in isolated places. Geologists were scientists who didn’t want to be stuck in a lab and would instead spend at least fifty percent of their time outdoors.

     “That description struck a cord in me,” Brayfield said. There was a sense of introspection that he admired.

     Brayfield became more interested in geology. He had a new sense of inspiration and the work began to make sense to him.

     “The great part of studying science is when you can start to comprehend its applications,” he explained. “When it starts to click it is the best feeling, that is what college is really about.”

     While geology at its base is the study of the Earth, it is a field that can encompass a variety of careers. Mining is one of the many options, and one Brayfield is seriously considering.

      In the 1960s there was very little awareness of the ecological impacts of mining. Terrains were drastically altered by mining practices that did not consider the lasting effects. Now Brayfield says the perspective is different.
“Our job as young geologists is to mesh environmental issues with mining,” he says. “We have to find ways to be environmentally friendly and still get what we desperately need. It takes a while to see the repercussions of what we do. We need to recognize them and do what we can.”

     Options don’t stop at mining and extend even to other planets. Currently Brayfield is working on research under the guidance of Dr. Vicki Hansen at UMD that’s funded by NASA. Hansen and her students are using radar images of Venus brought back from the Magellan mission of the 1990s to produce maps of the planet’s terrain.

      During the summer of 2007 Brayfield went to field camp, the culmination of all the theory he had studied. During this trip to Utah he and fellow students took surveys to construct geological maps. The trip left an impact on more than just his brain. Halfway through the trip he decided he would get a tattoo of a geological symbol to celebrate its completion. He will continue to carry his education’s mark with him.

     Through a variety of experiences Brayfield has become a geologist who is physically connected to his work. His knowledge was not instantaneous, but the result of a gradual formation. He has come to love the order and organization of science.

     “You can’t control you own life the way you can control science,” he laughed.

     As a senior, a few months away from graduation, Brayfield says he is surprised about how far he has developed over the course of four years, both academically and personally.

     “I can’t believe how much I have changed,” he said. “College is a wonderful place to discover who are you as well as learn.” In the way Brayfield studies rocks and minerals, we can also look to him to see how a college education can be a truly a formative process.