Dean Collected Rocks As A Kid. Today He Is Studying Them.
Dean Wink is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Whitewater
Dean Wink studied Geography with Geology concentration at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater.
I first spoke with Dean when he was a Sophomore at Whitewater getting his toes wet in research.
Since then, his research experience has grown and he has found his own research to pursue in the form of analyzing volcanic rocks from Iceland.
Here is an edited version of our conversation about his research journey.
Q: Dean, tell us how you got into UG Research.
Dean: I like telling the story to people, because I think it really helps incoming freshmen realize how UG Research doesn’t have to be scary.
I came in as a freshman not knowing anything about what I wanted to do. I just picked Chemistry as my major because I liked it in high school.
And then I was taking a tour around campus before classes started, like a little initiation type deal with my mom.
My professor Juk, who I do all my research with now, was at a table for her research group.
She's like, “Oh, come over here. Come over here”, like, ushering us over to talk to her.
And we started talking. She was like, “Oh, you should come check out my lab. Here's some information.”
So classes start and I go to check out the lab. One thing leads to another, and here I am, three, four years later, still in the lab, still doing that same kind of stuff, awesome.
After that first kind of meeting, it just kind of kept snowballing further and further, yeah, to the point where I was like, Well, this is what I'm doing now!
Q: So tell us what about Research captivated you or captured you. What was so interesting about it?
Dean: Yeah, I think just for geology, specifically, just how physical and how much there is to explore with it, right?
I was always kind of fascinated, you know, collecting little rocks as a kid, but I think this is what gave me the chance to, like fully dive deep and better understand rocks, as well as with the research.
It wasn't just ‘come into class, hear your assignments, listen to this lecture, go home, rinse, repeat.’
It's very hands on. We're physically doing the experiments. We're making inferences on what we see, what's happening.
So it's so different than what I was used to back in high school that it really just kind of sucked in my attention. I was like, I want to spend all my time on this. This is so interesting, you know, so on and so forth.
Q: So tell us a little bit about the rocks research. How did it evolve?
Dean: My first couple of years is really just kind of continuing what was going on before me. You know, the students in the lab, they had a project going on where they were trying to simulate how landslides occurred and what effects they occur under.
So it was a lot of like playing in a big sandbox and modeling stress failure and doing that kind of stuff. And I enjoyed it, but I was kind of, I wasn't super passionate about it. It wasn't a drive for me. It always felt like somebody else's project.
Then it was my junior year, yep, my junior year, we got this new kind of GPS tracking measuring device. You can record slopes really easily with lasers. And so I kind of made my own project off of that kind of, um, mapping out how slopes form, where their weakest areas are. And that was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed that, but it still felt like it wasn't really my own. It was kind of just an offshoot of somebody else's.
And so all of last spring into right now, I've developed my own research project, which is looking at Icelandic basalt that we've collected from traveling back and forth and seeing the changes, specifically chemical changes in the basalt that occur when they're exposed to hydrothermal vents.
So gas is coming out of these vents on the lava field, and as the rocks get closer and closer to the vents, they start becoming yellow, orange, red, just super discolored, and a lot of the minerals start to disappear in those rocks.
So what I'm looking at is what changes are happening on a chemical level and on a mineral level to those rocks that are being affected by the vents. I'm planning on turning that project into my undergraduate thesis in the Spring.
Q: Is there a specific problem or question that you are working on?
Dean: So a lot of the volcano research right now that's being done specifically in the Iceland area, is looking at, how do you predict eruptions, right?
How do you forecast them to better warn people, or it's on the other side, as in, what happens millions and 1000s of years after the volcano erupts?
No one is really looking at the immediate after effects of the eruption. That's kind of a little niche I've fallen into.
Some of my samples came out of the ground back in February of 2024 so I'm looking at
The immediate after effects of what's going on with these eruptions, and
What is happening to the environment in the immediate area.
Q: Wow!
So, what kind of impact is Research making - on you as a student and to your education in general?
Dean: I really can't imagine my life right now without this undergraduate research.
You know, I started so soon, and I've been going at it for so long.
I've traveled all across the United States to go to conferences, to present my research.
I've gotten the opportunity to travel and live in Iceland for the summer to keep working and studying my research.
I've talked to professors all over, it's opened grad school doors for me, internships like it's really a phenomenal opportunity just to do do more with your college time.
Employers want more maybe more hands on problem solving abilities and less about a class you took in college.
They care about what you did outside of that and how that will impact you in the future.
I just think it's been phenomenal for me as a person to be in this environment where I'm constantly being forced to ask questions and question what I'm doing, and there's not always one correct answer, and sometimes you make a mistake.
Sometimes you find the data and you have to go back and question everything you've been doing.
But I think that having that experience is so important compared to not having that experience.
Q: Now, what kind of skills have you developed doing research?
Dean: For me in my discipline, specifically, it's a lot of lab techniques. So I know how to use a lot of these technical machines.
I know how to how kind of lab processes go with note taking and how to record your data.
If we're looking at field experience, I've been in the field several times. I know how to conduct myself in the field, how to work with other people, and none of these are things I would have gotten if I just went to class, did my homework and came home, right?
These are all things I've had to actively work and do outside to figure this out. So for employers in my field, I'm looking at more of the same, studying volcanoes, doing geochemistry.
They look at all the stuff, the knowledge that I already know how to run these machines. I already know how they work, what I need to do. So to them, that makes me look a lot more appealing than someone who doesn't have those skills, because they don't have to train me in that I'm already good to go!
And so I'm just incredibly thankful. It was a highlight of my four years.
On with the Podcast
On our Podcast, Dean shares his undergraduate college journey at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, Getting started with Research, Volcanic Rock Research, Summer Internships, Minoring in Music, Performing at Carnegie Hall, and Advice for High Schoolers.
Listen to the Podcast with Dean Wink, U of Wisconsin Whitewater. (39-Minute Listen).
If you like this article, please click the “heart” icon at the top of the article. To share your thoughts, click the button below to comment.
Thanks.
Finally, Thanks to all my Podcast guests who have been generous with their time and counsel on my Podcast.
Have a great week!
Venkat