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Geography professor Donald Sullivan researches human influence on the environment and geologically recent climate change, conducting the majority of his research in the Rocky Mountains and parts of western Turkey.  

At DU he teaches courses on global environmental change and has been a professor for the Honors program since 2007.

On Jan. 12, Sullivan was able to share an experience he had while working on his doctoral thesis at the ancient city of Sardis in modern-day Turkey in his speech “Serendipity, Creativity and Science” at the annual Honors banquet.

Sullivan had been collecting and examining sediment cores from the area in an effort to reconstruct the climate and environment of the site.  While studying the cores, Sullivan made a shocking discovery.

The sediment cores contained ash from a volcanic eruption that had occurred on the island of Santorini, Greece at around 1630 B.C.E.  

Sullivan had made a major finding with regards to the ancient Minoan people of Santorini and its neighboring island, Crete.  

His discovery refuted the research of many scientists done before him.

Before Sullivan’s findings, the common belief was that the eruption at Santorini was the cause of the decline of Minoan civilization.  

Many scientists thought that the island of Crete received the majority of the ash from the eruption, causing the destruction of the Minoan infrastructure.  

However, Sullivan’s discovery revealed that Crete received little ash and that the eruption probably wasn’t the reason for the fall of Minoan civilization.

Sullivan told this story to emphasize that many discoveries made in science were simply stumbled upon while searching for other answers.

“The history of science also includes ‘eureka moments’,” said Sullivan.

He argued that science is also a creative endeavor; scientists must put observations into a larger, more applicable context.  

While in Turkey, he had to utilize creative processes in order to problem-solve and determine where the ash sediment in the cores had originated.

Sullivan’s story reflected the significance of the “eureka moment” with regards to enlightenment, change and innovation.  

As he told the students, “many scientists have made discoveries of things they were not in quest of.”