UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #749
BAHR, JEAN

BAHR, Jean (1954- )
Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics
At UW: 1987-

Interviewed: 	2006	
Interviewer: 	Sandy Pfahler
Length: 	2 hours
Series: 	Women in Science and Engineering

Early education; Travel; Undergraduate education at Yale; Ground water project in Mali; Graduate education at Stanford; Hiring by UW; Tenure; Teaching; Research;  Publications; Faculty governance; Service; Department chair; Leisure.

First Interview Session (March 7, 2006): Digital File (Tapes 1-2)

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	[Begin Tape 1/Side 1] Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:29	Jean Bahr was born in New York City but spent most of her childhood in California.  Her father was an electrical engineer and took the family to Italy, England, and the Marshall Islands for his work.  Travel and experiencing other cultures were formative events in her youth.

00:02:03	She always liked studying math and science.  Her father encouraged her interest in mathematics.  Science course while in school in England.

00:03:19	In the 1960s plate tectonic theory began to supplant continental drift.  While in the Marshall Islands in 1967 she learned about plate tectonics; they were living over one of the plate tectonic “hot spots.”

00:04:47	Back in California she became involved in her high school’s ecology club.  She and others set up a recycling center.

00:07:47	She wanted to study environmental science in college and attended Yale University.  Combined Sciences program at Yale.  Yale had a traditional geology program.  Summer internships.  After graduation she worked in the field for an earthquake safety study in California.  She also worked on a project to do a ground water resources inventory in Mali.

00:12:59	She decided to pursue further study hydrogeology.

00:14:38	Experience of living in Mali.

00:19:39	JB attended Stanford University for graduate study.  She wanted to later move on to international development work.

00:22:43	Her graduate research led her to a field project at a former hazardous waste site in Canada.

00:24:02	She describes her dissertation project.

00:25:12	Her advisor at Stanford had trained many other women in hydrogeology.  She talks about women in geology at Yale.  There were very few women faculty at Stanford.  Encounters with sexism in her work at the Palo Alto firm.

00:28:11	While completing her dissertation she worked for the US Geological Survey (USGS).  

00:29:15	She looked for academic positions and met Mary Anderson from the University of Wisconsin.

00:31:29	[End side 1; begin side 2] Jean Bahr continues to discuss her recruitment to the University of Wisconsin.

00:33:33	She visited campus in 1986.  She also interviewed for a position at New Mexico Tech.  JB relates her impressions of Madison.  She had taken a hydrogeology short course at Madison during graduate school.  She ultimately accepted the position at UW and began in January 1987.

00:37:08	She describes the hiring process.  She thinks she was naive about negotiating for a start-up package.

00:39:41	Reputation of the department when she arrived.  Access to colleagues in other disciplines on campus, such as the Institute for Environmental Studies, attracted her to UW.  She also discusses the current reputation of the department.

00:43:38	JB describes her office and laboratory facilities.

00:49:12	Culture of the department.

00:51:01	She describes her tenure process.

00:55:01	She taught a course on contaminate hydrogeology.  Graduate course in hydrogeology.  Introduction of a lab component.  JB taught a summer course on field hydrogeology.  Team-teaching of introductory level courses.

01:03:06	[End tape 1; begin tape 2] Jean Bahr continues to discuss her teaching at UW-Madison.

01:03:25	Funding of research.  A study of former underground storage tank sites is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

01:05:41	The EPA and DNR also fund a project on the impact of un-sewered subdivisions on groundwater quality.

01:10:16	JB discusses her involvement in the Water and Watersheds Initiative, also funded by the EPA.

01:11:45	She lists other research funding sources.  Research on deep groundwater flow.

01:13:10	She chaired a review committee set up by the National Research Council to assess water collection to improve the ecosystem of the Everglades.

01:17:10	JB cites her students as her most important contribution to the field.

01:18:05	In 2003 she became a Distinguished Lecturer for the Geological Society of America’s Hydrogeology Division, for which she delivered sixty lectures.  Her research on local scale variability in groundwater chemistry is an important contribution.

01:20:24	Travels on her lecture tour.

01:22:39	Developments in the field of hydrogeology include recognizing the importance of microbial processes in groundwater.  She thinks future developments will occur in the connections between hydrogeology and ecosystems.

01:25:31	Publications.

01:27:46	She describes the culture of faculty governance at UW-Madison.

01:29:29	JB talks about some of her service activities on campus: the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Water Management Program, which she chaired in the 1990s; the geological engineering program; and her service as a faculty co-advisor for a residential learning community on campus.

01:34:25	[End tape 2, side 1; begin side 2] Jean Bahr describes becoming chair of the geology department.  Plans to increase the diversity of the student population by recruiting from high schools.

01:38:45	She thinks the climate for women in the department is good.

01:40:25	Attempts to balance work and private life.  Leisure pursuits: biking, camping, travel in Africa.

01:39:40	She is soon going with students to the Yucatan Peninsula.

01:52:16	JB served two terms on a board on radioactive waste management.

01:54:48	She describes her solar-powered home.

02:00:09	End of First Interview Session

End of Interview #749