Exceeding her own expectations: Geology major Lyndsie Vickers

Vickers presented as part of a group project on water filtration systems, a key element of farming in her state. A judge later asked what she wanted to do for a career.

“I pointed to our filtration system and said that I wished I could do ‘that’ for a job,” Vickers responded. “But I figured I’d become a science teacher — the only job I knew about for science lovers like I was.”

The judge explained to Vickers about the various careers in hydrogeology — the study of the distribution, movement and quality of water beneath the earth’s surface. She learned the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was one of seven universities in the U.S. to offer an undergraduate degree in hydrogeology. She applied to all seven.

“I was offered a Blugold Fellowship, giving me the chance to begin collaborative research with faculty in my first year, so it was an easy decision to enroll at UWEC,” says Vickers, now a junior in the geology department. “I made the right choice.”

Discovering an academic focus through research

Beginning her studies in the geology department was eye-opening in many ways. Vickers says she was advised to explore the list of student research projects, shadow students for a few days and find a project that she would be interested in joining.

“I came in as a hydrogeology major, but through shadowing a senior who was working on a bunch of projects, I discovered hard rock geology, another field I knew nothing about,” Vickers says. “I loved it and ended up taking over one of his projects when he graduated.”

Dr. Robert Lodge, associate professor of geology and environmental science and the faculty mentor for the project Vickers took over in 2023, was immediately impressed with Vickers’ curiosity, work ethic and swiftly advancing knowledge.

“This project is mapping the Precambrian bedrock exposed in the remote parts of the Eau Claire River and revising the geologic history of the Lake Superior region,” Lodge says. “It required her to do mapping, geochronology and geochemistry, all concepts from classes she hadn’t yet taken.”

“She handled it all better than any of my senior students ever had, and she later won an award for presenting that research at the 2024 Institute of Lake Superior Geology Annual Meeting in Houghton, Minnesota.”

Vickers’ current 2025 research project is what Lodge classifies as “heavy concepts, much more akin to graduate-level research.”

The work, he says, is essentially “rewriting the geologic history of Wisconsin” and discovering some of the oldest rocks ever documented in this part of the state. The project will be presented at the 2025 Society for Geology Applied Mineral Deposits Biennial Meeting in Golden, Colorado, and at the 2025 Institute of Lake Superior Geology Meeting in Mountain Iron, Minnesota.

“I foresee Lyndsie making major contributions to the field and building an outstanding publication record by the time she graduates,” Lodge says.

Career goals in economic geology

Vickers says that through the research projects in hard rock geology, she has become very interested in economic geology and plans to pursue a master’s degree in that field.

“I want to work in the field of metallic mining,” she says. “The things we use in our daily lives often contain metals, metals that must come from somewhere. As an economic geologist, I would find and map the deposits of these metals.”

Vickers worked last summer as an intern for a Minnesota mining company called Talon Metals, a nickel-copper-cobalt exploration and development project. With an invitation to return as an intern for summer 2025, Vickers feels confident in her goal of building a career in the Upper Midwest.

Companies like Talon Metals that provide meaningful internship opportunities are essential to career preparation of geology students at UWEC, and the benefits are clearly mutual, according to Vickers’ internship supervisor, Eric Swanson.

“Talon's summer internships illustrate the importance of building strong bonds between industry and academia,” Swanson says. “The mining profession as a whole benefits from these types of relationships as they are a practical pathway for knowledge and skill transfers between the students like Lyndsie and more seasoned industry professionals.”

Vickers says she’s grateful for the chance to return to a second summer job in this resource-rich area, diving yet deeper into the field she plans to pursue after graduation.

“This is a beautiful part of the country, and there are many great economic geology projects happening in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan,” Vickers says. “It’s a real boom going on here with respect to natural resources, along with a strong focus on environmentally conscious practices. That’s important to me.”

“I come from a place where young girls are not generally expected or encouraged to go far in fields like science,” Vickers says. “I’m so lucky to have chosen this place where I’ve met nothing but support, high expectations and encouragement at every turn — it’s been amazing.”