Darrel Schmitz Professor of Geology Department Head Office: Hilbun Hall Room 109 Phone: (662) 325-3915 Fax: (662) 325-9423 schmitz @ ra.msstate.edu

Darrel W. Schmitz is active in state, regional and national organizations including the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, where he has served as Geology and Geography Division Chairman; and the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG), where he has held several Mississippi Section offices, including President, and Delegate to the national AIPG convention. He is also a member of the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG), where he is a national Past-President and where he has received five Presidential Awards; the Geological Society of America (GSA) for which he serves on several committees and was Co-Chair of the 1996 Southeastern Section Meeting; and the National Ground Water Association's (NGWA) Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers for whom he judged and presented the NGWA's awards at the Forty-Fourth and Forty-Fifth International Science and Engineering Fairs.  As a member of the Mississippi Geological Society Dr. Schmitz served as an editor for Volume Forty-two of the Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies.  He was appointed to the Mississippi Board of Registered Professional Geologists where he serves as Board Vice-President and is a Board Past-President.  He has served as Chair on several committees and is a national Past-President of the National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG).

Recent Research Projects

Feasibility Study for Potential Multi-Use/Multi-Purpose Impoundments in 1) Choctaw County & 2) Smith County, MS

Functional Assessment of Moist-Soil Habitat Management Impact on Wetland Impoundments Created as Part of an Agricultural Lands Reclamation Plan

Tombigbee National Forest Stream and Spring Baseline Monitoring

Surface Water and Ground Water Monitoring at the Red Hills Mine, Choctaw County, Mississippi

Water Resources Data Collection for the Kemper County, Mississippi Lignite Project.

Education

Ph.D. (Geology), Texas A&M University, 1991
M.S. (Engineering Science-Geology), University of Mississippi, 1985
B.S. (Geology), Mississippi State University, 1980

Experience

Professor of Geology, Mississippi State University, 2000-Present.
Associate Professor of Geology, Mississippi State University, 1995-2000.
Assistant Professor of Geology, Mississippi State University, 1990-1995.
Teaching Assistant and Assistant Lecturer, Texas A&M University, 1988-1990.
Hydrogeologist and Project Manager, BCM Converse, Inc., Jackson, MS, 1986-1988.

Geologist, State of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 1982-1986: Office of Pollution Control Groundwater Planning Section Coordinator, Office of Geology Groundwater Geology Section, and R & D Center Mineral Resources Research Institute.

Geologist, Exploration Services Inc., Tyler, TX, 1982.

Geologist, North American Exploration, Inc., Kaysville, UT, 1980-1982.

Selected Publications

Schmitz, D.W., and May, J.H., 1994, A Predictive Model to Optimize the Collection of Data Needed to Characterize Fluvial Sand Bodies:  Technical Report GL-94-10, U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS 121p plus Appendicies.

May, J.H. and Schmitz, D.W., 1996, Development of a Predictive Model for Defining Subsurface Sand Bodies, Engineering Geology, Vol.42, pp. 175-186.

Schmitz, D.W. and May, J.H., 1996, Test Applications of a Predictive Model for Delineation of Fluvial Sand Bodies Using Geologically Based Calculations, Engineering Geology, Vol. 42. pp. 187-203.

Schmitz, D.W. and Russell, E.E., 1998, An Earthquake and Environmental Assessment of Faulting in the Demopolis Chalk in Lowndes County Mississippi, Mississippi Geological Society Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 8 pp. 5-7.

Charlton, J.E. and Schmitz, D.W., 1999, Shallow Groundwater Resources of the Proposed Red Hills Facility and Mine Area, Proceedings of the twenty-ninth Mississippi Water Resources Conference, pp. 130-138.

Crowe, C.R. and Schmitz, D.W., 2001, A Systematic Approach to Determine the Existence or Non-Existence of Atrazine and its Major Degradation Products in Mississippi Groundwater, Proceedings of the thirty-first Mississippi Water Resources Conference, pp. 17-33.               

Schmitz, D.W. and Wax, C.L., 2002, A Contrast in Water resource Development and Settlement Patterns: Black Prairie and North Central Hills Regions of Mississippi, Proceedings of the thirty-second Mississippi Water Resources Conference, pp. 176-187. 

Schmitz, D.W., Wax, C.L., and Peacock, E.., 2003,  Water-resource Controls on Human Habitation in the Black Prairie of North-Central Mississippi, in Blackland Prairies of the Gulf Coastal Plain: Nature, Culture, and Sustainability, Peacock, E. and Schauwecker, T., Ed., The University of Alabama Press.

Green, B.H., and Schmitz, D.W., 2004, Technical Note:  Soil-Based Controlled Low-Strength Materials, Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, Vol. X, No. 2, pp. 169-174.

Beasley, R.W., Hamil, B., May, J., and Schmitz, D., 2007, An Experimental Exercise Used to Determine if Mississippi’s Science Framework is Adequately Preparing High School Graduates to Make Informed Decisions about Groundwater, Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, v. 52, No. 3, pp. 172-177.

Rogers, J.D., Boutwell, G.P., Schmitz, D.W., Karadeniz, D., Watkins, C.M., Athanasopuolos-Zekkos, A.G., and Cobos-Roa, D. 2008, Geologic Conditions Underlying the 2005 17^th Street Canal Levee Failure in New Orleans. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 134: 583-601.