Georgetown is no MIT or Cal Tech, but a few gems can be found among the ranks of the University’s science professors. Among them is Timothy Beach, Associate Professor of Geography and Geoscience and Director of the Center for the Environment from 1999-2007.
Beach recently received two prestigious fellowships: the 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship Award for his work on the environmental history of the Maya lowlands, and the 2007-2008 Harvard Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship, which supports the study of art and archeology of the ancient Americas. In an e-mail interview from Alanya, Turkey, where he is currently teaching two courses on the environments of the Mediterranean, Beach wrote that his research “focuses on soils, agriculture, environmental change, and geoarchaeology,” and studying ancient cultures through the lens of geography and earth sciences.
“[His] research on the relationship between ancient Maya civilization and their environment contributes significantly to our understanding of important conservation issues,” said SFS Dean Robert L. Gallucci in a press release.
Beach’s studies have taken him from Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize to Germany, Syria, and Turkey. But while his travels have produced plenty of anecdotes, Beach values his scientific discoveries over his adventure stories.
“I was marooned once with a guide who turned out to be a convicted felon on the run from US authorities; an entire field camp burned down around me deep into the jungle; I have been ‘misplaced’ deep in the forest several times; we had to call up a Maya village to help find a lost archaeologist with a search party deep into the night,” he wrote.
“But the most memorable experiences have been times when the evidence fell into place dramatically and showed beyond reasonable doubts which hypotheses were the most likely.”
Beach, who has a “hot” rating on RateMyProfessors.com, gets positive feedback from students as well as from fellowship committees.
“He was very animated and very passionate about the material,” Amanda McCafferty (SFS ’10) said. McCafferty took Beach’s fall-term proseminar Nature, Science, and World Affairs.
Another one of Beach’s proseminar students, Julia Kosygina (SFS ’10), said that though the class wasn’t her first choice, it grew on her. She praised Beach for his ability to “combine international affairs with the world of science.” Both students recalled the canoe trip Beach brought them on to test the pH levels of water in the D.C. area, giving them a taste of his own experiences.
Beach has been at the forefront of pushing for more courses in environmental science. He said that when he started teaching here in 1993, the University lagged behind other top-tier institutions in terms of its environmental science options. Georgetown now offers 14 environmental science courses, although there is no specific major in environmental studies.
“I reasoned that I should offer courses in each of the cornerstone subjects: atmosphere, water, geoscience, and natural resources management,” he wrote.
“My goal with these was to fill some of the large curricular gaps at an otherwise excellent institution, by offering many of the courses for the first time ever at Georgetown (although they are part of the standard curriculum at most great schools).”
Although Beach is pleased with the current wave of environmentalism, he mentioned that momentary excitement will not be enough to keep the planet in good shape for millennia to come.
“When I first came to Georgetown, I had a student who wanted to pursue environmental science but said his parents feared that it was a flash in the pan issue,” he wrote.
“We have to figure out how to motivate humanity to take the insidious changes seriously … the most important thing is sound science, but the soundest of science is raising flags of concern that we cannot ignore.”
