Getting to know Doug Clark

Title: associate professor of geology

What do you love most about your department? The comaradery and collegiality of the faculty, students, and staff. It’s a rare and special experience to have some of your best friends as professional colleagues in your department.

Years at Western: 15!

Originally from: Palo Alto, Calif.

Hobbies: Soccer, backcountry skiing, trail running, backpacking and climbing, surfing (a bit), mountain biking, and of course, geology!

Quote you live by: From a friend of my father’s, who quit a high-paying job at an engineering firm in order to start his own winery: “Life isn’t a dress-rehearsal, folks! You get one shot at this; don’t waste it.”

Favorite restaurant: In town - Pepper Sisters. In the county - North Fork Beer and Pizza Shrine.

Favorite Bellingham location: western bluff at Clark’s Point, at sunset.

Most memorable vacation: My honeymoon last summer: a road trip through the west with my beautiful bride, including camping, backpacking, trail running, rock climbing, mountain biking, stand-up paddleboarding and even some surfing! It was truly the epitome of an incredible outdoor road adventure.

Favorite WWU memory: This has to be joining our favorite students during their graduation. It provides solid recognition of the goal they have achieved, and of the role we as faculty have played in helping them reach that goal.

Favorite movie: For fun - “Princess Bride.” For a more serious topic - “Touching the Void.”

Currently reading/watching: Birthing books!

Projects currently working on: an ice coring project near Mt. Waddington in B.C., Pleistocene climate change in the Great Dividing Range of Australia and chasing the last retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet through Whatcom County.

Awards/recognitions: nominated for the second vice-chair of the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division of the Geological Society of America; elected “Best Dad Ever” by my two daughters.

Using steam, Doug Clark drills on Mount Baker's Easton Glacier on a recent Saturday to install ablation stakes to track glacier mass-balance on the mountain. Photo courtesy of Doug Clark
Doug Clark skies on Mt. Waddington, in the B.C. Coast Ranges, during some down time on a recent National Science Foundation-sponsored ice-core paleoclimate project. Photo courtesy of Doug Clark