Loren Setlow, Class of 1970
Where has your degree taken you?
I earned by B.S. in Geology at Tulane in 1970, then received my M.S. in Geology at Florida State in 1972.
In my professional career of over 50-years I worked for state and federal government agencies as well as the U. S. Congress, plus the non-profit National Research Council, and also did part-time consulting after retiring. While I began my career as an oceanographer, I spent most of it as a geologist. Much of my experience was in environmental protection related to mining and petroleum extraction, polar science (particularly in Alaska), and also radiation protection from naturally occurring radioactive materials. I conducted fieldwork and project coordination efforts in nearly all of the United States, as well as traveled frequently internationally. During my career, I worked in Boston, New York City, Reston, Virginia, and Washington DC.
My most special achievements I think were:
The only staff geologist for Congress’ investigative agency, now named the U.S. General Accountability Office, for a 10-year period where I conducted site visits, prepared reports, briefed Congressional staff, and prepared testimony on a wide variety of team projects requested by Congress. The subjects were as varied, for example, as petroleum resources/operations in Alaska and California, impact of dam operations on river-bank erosion in North Dakota, and geologic siting adequacy of a proposed low-level radioactive waste repository in Nebraska.
Director of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council where I served as the U.S. liaison to international science committees for both Arctic and Antarctic research. I also provided supervision of committee reports such as on the ecology of the Bering Sea, implementation of the Environmental Protocol to the international Antarctic Treaty, and regional Arctic research on global change.
Working as a geologist at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where I served as the program lead on uranium mining and processing, as well as occurrence/regulation of naturally occurring radioactive materials. While employed by EPA, I represented the agency regularly as an Expert Consultant at meetings of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency over a 14-year period. I also provided assistance to the Navajo Nation assessing impacts of abandoned uranium mines on ground and drinking water.
After retiring in 2011, I gave an invited presentation on uranium mining and the environment at a United Nations Conference, New York City, on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
What was your favorite class that you took at Tulane?
A difficult question, but it would be only fair to say that the Petroleum Geology course, taught at the time by Dr. Raymond Steinhoff, was my favorite class in the Department. This was primarily because it helped enable me to better conceptualize the applications of sedimentology, mineralogy, stratigraphy, paleontology, structural geology and geochemistry I had learned in earlier courses to regional and site-specific geology.
Outside of the Department, the “History of Jazz” class in the Music Department gave me a richer appreciation of New Orleans music, and the cultural resource collections of the University.
What is your favorite memory, in or out of the classroom, during your time at Tulane?
With an avocation of playing jazz, as well as being a member and officer of the Tulane Band, attending the very first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970 and seeing/hearing some of the greatest musicians of all time in person was an amazing experience.
What advice would you give to current students in our department?
Learn everything you can about how to conduct scientific and engineering literature research, and use all the wonderful library resources available to you at Tulane and the Department. Also, approach every problem from as many theoretical directions as possible to derive a solution, there may not be a simple answer. Lastly, take as many varied Departmental courses as you possibly can, the knowledge you obtain will always be useful at some time in your career!
Job and leadership opportunities became available to me because I was open-minded about the possibilities of doing something new for different employers, and was not averse to building new skill sets in other areas of geology. I found it very rewarding to be flexible in job choices, taking opportunities when they became available rather than staying in a single field of study. As a new graduate, I never would have predicted my career path.
