2018 Show Speaker Bios
Steven Chamberlain is a specialist in the minerals of New York State. In the twelve years since he retired from a 35-year career as a professor of neuroscience, he has concentrated on mineralogical research, co-authoring three books on New York State minerals, and preparing and donating his collection of NYS minerals to the New York State Museum. He has already donated more than 21,000 NYS specimens to the museum and has many more to go, but he is now certain the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. He is also the Scientific Editor of The Hosta Journal for the American Hosta Society. He has registered more than 75 new cultivars from the breeding program in his garden and continues to strive to find new unusual garden-worthy hostas for gardeners.
Woody Thompson grew up in New Hampshire, just 14 miles from the Palermo Mine, and majored in geology at Dartmouth College. He earned his Master’s degree from the University of Vermont and Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Woody worked in Connecticut for the U.S. Geological Survey, in Antarctica for the NSF, and for the Maine Geological Survey from 1975 until his so-called “retirement” in 2014. He belongs to professional societies in the U.S. and Canada and publishes extensively on the glacial geology of Maine and the White Mountains. He is presently doing field mapping in New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Geological Survey. Woody has been an enthusiastic mineral collector and historian since childhood. He specializes in minerals from New England, the U.K., and eastern Canada. He chaired the Maine Mineral Symposium for many years and now serves as a Consulting Editor for Rocks & Minerals magazine. Woody has authored several articles for Rocks & Minerals and the U.K. Journal of Mines and Minerals, as well as three editions of the book Collector’s Guide to Maine Mineral Localities.
Steven Chamberlain is a specialist in the minerals of New York State. In the twelve years since he retired from a 35-year career as a professor of neuroscience, he has concentrated on mineralogical research, co-authoring three books on New York State minerals, and preparing and donating his collection of NYS minerals to the New York State Museum. He has already donated more than 21,000 NYS specimens to the museum and has many more to go, but he is now certain the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. He is also the Scientific Editor of The Hosta Journal for the American Hosta Society. He has registered more than 75 new cultivars from the breeding program in his garden and continues to strive to find new unusual garden-worthy hostas for gardeners.
Woody Thompson grew up in New Hampshire, just 14 miles from the Palermo Mine, and majored in geology at Dartmouth College. He earned his Master’s degree from the University of Vermont and Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Woody worked in Connecticut for the U.S. Geological Survey, in Antarctica for the NSF, and for the Maine Geological Survey from 1975 until his so-called “retirement” in 2014. He belongs to professional societies in the U.S. and Canada and publishes extensively on the glacial geology of Maine and the White Mountains. He is presently doing field mapping in New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Geological Survey. Woody has been an enthusiastic mineral collector and historian since childhood. He specializes in minerals from New England, the U.K., and eastern Canada. He chaired the Maine Mineral Symposium for many years and now serves as a Consulting Editor for Rocks & Minerals magazine. Woody has authored several articles for Rocks & Minerals and the U.K. Journal of Mines and Minerals, as well as three editions of the book Collector’s Guide to Maine Mineral Localities.