Chesapeake Energy donates trucks to Idaho State University geosciences department

The Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the United States, has donated two Chevy pickup trucks to Idaho State University’s geosciences department to be used for field teaching and research.

ISU personnel are excited about the donation, especially because the trucks are relatively new. The trucks are 2011 and 2012 models and Jeff Behrend, ISU Transportation Department shop foreman, says that they are “the newest in the ISU fleet.”

Leif Tapanila, ISU geosciences chair, said he is excited about the donation because what distinguishes his department from other geology departments is how much value they place in field work, field teaching and field research.

Next week one of those vehicles will take students to visit the mining regions of Nevada. Tapanila says, “These trucks will allow us to continue our commitment to bringing students where geology lives, and often we need to drive off-road to get there!”

The trucks will be used for both undergraduate and graduate field trips as well as graduate student and faculty research. “It’s a great donation and it’s vital to sustaining our field work here at ISU’s Geosciences department,” said Christopher Tennant, a geosciences doctoral student.

“Having some first-class vehicles is a huge thing for the department,” said Paul Link, ISU geosciences professor, “It’s great. We really appreciate when alumni can do things like this and we hope that more alumni can be in the position to help out.”

In this case, the alumnus who helped out was Brad Thompson. Thompson is a former ISU master’s student who studied with Link and now works for Chesapeake Energy as rockies exploration manager. He arranged for the company to donate the trucks to ISU.