Chunzeng Wang

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences

Office: Room 306, South Hall

Phone: (207)768-9412

University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI)

181 Main Street

Presque Isle, ME 04769

I came to Maine from New York City where I lived for nearly nine years, in July 2005. I am originally from mainland China. I grew up in a small village in central China where there are no hills and rivers. I decided to become a geologist after graduating from high school simply because I wanted to see hills and rivers and the world beyond my hometown. My dream easily became true and I did become a geologist, a field geologist. I then have seen many hills and rivers and my feet have stepped on lands of many parts of China including some very remote areas such as Chinese Gobi deserts, Tian Shan Mountains, western Inner Mongolia, etc., and many states of this lovely country. I have been driving around and looking for rocks right after I came to Aroostook County. I got excited to see large farms of potato, wheat, etc. in this part of Maine; my hometown is also landscaped with huge fields of wheat, corn, and other crops.

I am a field geologist and a teacher. I have been involved in geologic learning, teaching, and research for over twenty seven years. I earned my B.A. from Guilin College of Geology (1984) and M.S. from China University of Geosciences (1989) in Geology, and M.Phi. and Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate Center (2001) in Earth and Environmental Sciences. Being a field geologist, I love going to the field and spending time doing geologic mapping and research. Be honest, most of geology I have learned is from the field. My field area in recent years is in central- and central-eastern Maine through which there is a huge fault called Norumbega Fault System. I also have my research projects in China and collaborate with my Chinese colleagues. My research covers several areas and mines in China such as Tibet and Jinshan gold deposit in the last three years. I am also interested in using GIS (geographic information system) technology in my geologic mapping and research, and in mapping environmental hazards and municipal infrastructures. With full support from the University, we started UMPI's GIS Program from scratch from the spring of 2006. Now I teach a two-semester GIS sequence course, GIS I in the spring and GIS II in the fall. I work with local municipalities to build geodatabases for their departments. Most of my students are involved in the projects either as part of their course work or as paid interns.

Learn more about me (my CV)