As a high school student, Brandon Brayfield was a well-rounded student with talents in science, math and art. In addition to being one of the top math students at Cass Lake High School he was a musician who played in a number of bands. On his own time he penned creative writing.

As a senior at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Brandon has acquired a new talent and passion:  the formative processes essential to the study of Geology. When he started his studies at UMD his understanding of science and his future career were not clear.

“Science, like anything,” Brandon 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.”   In that development, he realized that he would need scientific knowledge to be competitive in the career paths of the future. 

While in his sophomore year, Brandon took a survey class of several fields of scientific study.  That’s when clarity came home for him and he realized that his passion for science and life joined together in Geology.  He was intrigued to learn that geologists spent at least fifty percent of their time outdoors in their field of work making an impact on changing the world and our understanding of our planet.  It was a description that “struck a chord” in him, as he said.

“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.”

Geology, the science of studying the earth, has an interesting array of possible career paths. Mining is one of the options, and Brandon is seriously considering it.

“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.”

The practical applications for a concentration in mining go from the depths of the planet to the heights of the stars. Currently Brandon is working on research under the guidance of Dr. Vicki Hansen at UMD, funded by NASA, using radar images of Venus brought back from the Magellan mission to produce maps of Venus’ terrain. Through these maps geologists will be able to consider Earth’s geological history in a new, and fascinating way.

Brandon has become a geologist physically and mentally connected to his work. At the conclusion of a field camp project, he rewarded himself with a tattoo of a geological symbol to celebrate the culmination of all the theory he had studied. Brandon has also 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, Brandon 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.”