Cathy in Granada, Spain: I am here on sabbatical for the 2007 - 2008 academic year, but I am checking email regularly. busby@geol.ucsb.edu

I am a field geologist interested in tectonic reconstructions of dominantly volcanic and sedimentary terrains, using lab techniques such as geochronology, geochemistry, petrography, and paleomagnetics. I publish in a wide array of journal types, on a broad spectrum of topics, including subaerial to deepwater volcanology, sedimentology of active margins, economic geology, tectonophysics, structural geology, petroleum geology, geochronology and geochemistry. I put my students first on most papers, except for some of those that feature my most important ideas.

I come from a Midwestern working class family, and was the second person in my entire extended family to attend college. I was identified as clearly different when I taught myself to read at the ninth grade level by the end of first grade, but it was not until my mid-twenties that I found my way through community college to Berkeley, where I put myself through entirely on my own, with the help of scholarships, loans, work study, and a UC President’s Undergraduate Fellowship. After getting my PhD at Princeton University in 1983, I went straight to a tenure-track position at UC Santa Barbara, where I have been Full Professor for over a decade. Before I got tenure I gave birth to one daughter, and before attaining Full Professor I gave birth to twin daughters. They are featured in many of the field photos I show in conferences and classes, and I am often approached by female students who are interested in knowing how I managed to combine motherhood with an academic career.

Cathy's three daughters in Saline Valley (Death Valley National Park in the winter.)