Professor Charles "Carlos" Plummer grew up in the shadows of volcanoes in Mexico City. There, he developed a love for mountains and mountaineering that eventually led him into geology. He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer. He resumed his geological education at the University of Washington where he received his M.S. and PhD degrees. His geologic work has been in mountainous and polar regions, notably Antarctica (where a glacier is named in his honor). He taught at Olympic Community College in Washington before joining the faculty at California State University, Sacramento. At CSUS, he teaches introductory geology courses as well as optical mineralogy, metamorphic petrology, and field courses.