Gabriel O'Donnell '26

BS Geosciences
Minor in Geospatial Science

Where are you originally from?

A small hamlet in upstate NY near Binghamton called Apalachin. I always joke that it has more cows than people.

On Stony Brook:
I was looking originally for value physics schools and Stony Brook jumped out for those options.

Physics was the only class that challenged me in high school, but after arriving and being isolated in the large lectures and discouraged from some of the more theoretical math I looked for something more hands-on. I took an environmental science class and loved the application of science taught in that class and I began to talk with some of the program advisors for the natural sciences. It took one meeting with Dr. Lars Ehm to choose geology, the atmosphere was so welcoming and the topic was fascinating and broad. I never looked back!

On his major:

The geospatial minor actually came first as I love mapping and do a lot of artistic cartography in my free time. I chose geology because it is the history and future of everything on the planet. It's beautiful in so many ways, from the smallest mineral to the largest tectonic plate.

Favorite class: 

I have really loved all of my senior research courses. The ability to independently pursue problems with the support and encouragement of faculty have informed my future.

Interests and accomplishments:

I'm interested in basin analysis, stratigraphy, sedimentology, geochronology, and all of the interdisciplinary oddities in the remote surface of the earth. I have done research on the formation of Long Island using luminescence dating for two and a half years in Dr. Marine Frouin's Luminescence Dating Research Laboratory, and I am preparing my thesis for publication on new dates for Long Island! 

I also was sponsored to do a geology field camp at the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, truly one of the most life changing adventures I've ever done. Finally, I founded the Stony Brook Geology Club, a labor of love for the community in the geosciences, with our first off campus trip this semester – it feels I've really made something which will last.

Plans for post-graduation:

I will be studying at Syracuse University to pursue a PhD in Geology with research on Paleolimnology (the study of past lake evolution) and Basin Analysis (studying where eroded sediment goes and how that changes over time).

Advice for future Seawolves? 

Always try to find a community to support and celebrate you, for that community you will grow from so much more than pushing through something surrounded by people you are ambivalent towards.

Favorite SBU memory:

It didn't occur at SBU but it was on my field camp abroad. It was after a long day in the field in the remote shrublands of Kenya, the sun had long gone down but the heat stuck like honey to your skin. The students had gathered on a roof with our TA to lay back and watch the stars. It was beautiful, like an oil painting of a glowing sea. And all we did was just chat underneath that perfect sky for hours, till our backs ached from the concrete.