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Earth Science Faculty


  • Department Chair

  • Peter B. Sak
    Associate Professor of Earth Sciences (2004).
    Kaufman Building Room 138
    sakp@dickinson.edu
    (717) 245-1423

  • Department Faculty

  • Jeffrey W. Niemitz

    Jeffrey W. Niemitz
    Professor of Earth Sciences (1977).
    Kaufman Building Room 142
    (717) 245-1285 | niemitz@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Williams College, 1972; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1977.
    Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 2006-07

    His specialties are low-temperature geochemistry, hydrogeology, and paleoclimatology. His current research involves quality and quantity of groundwater resources on carbonate islands in the Bahamas, the effect of release of sediment and their included pollutants from 18th and 19th century mill dams in PA, and geochemical indicators of paleoclimate in ancient lake sediments in the eastern United States.

  • Marcus M. Key, Jr.

    Marcus M. Key, Jr.
    Joseph Priestley Professor of Natural Philosophy (1989).
    Kaufman Building Room 143
    (717) 245-1448 | key@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.S., University of Texas at Austin, 1983; M.Phil., Yale University, 1986; Ph.D., 1988.
    Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 2004-2005.

    His teaching interests are sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology, evolution, extinction, energy resources, and sustainability. His research interests involve inferring evolutionary and sedimentary patterns and processes using fossil and living bryozoans. His current research involves evolution of biomineralization, marine biofouling, functional morphology of bryozoans, and geoarcheology.

  • Benjamin R. Edwards

    Benjamin R. Edwards
    Associate Professor of Earth Sciences (2002).
    Kaufman Building Room 139
    (717) 254-8934 | edwardsb@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., Carleton College, 1989; M.S., University of Wyoming, 1993; Ph.D., University of British Columbia, 1997.

    His research foci are glaciovolcanism (interactions between volcanoes and ice, including the formation of pillow lava and cooling joints), petrological imaging of lithospheric stratigraphy (using xenoliths from Neogene to Recent volcanoes in the North American Cordillera), and applications of theoretical models for understanding the transport and crystallization of silicate melts. His other interests include mineralogy, environmental hazards, the history of science, and the influence of plate tectonics on almost everything. His current research involves taking students to places like Monterrat (West Indies) to study xenoliths and volcanic stratigraphy, Iceland to study volcano-ice interactions, and northern British Columbia to map and collect samples of volcanic deposits, especially from volcanoes that erupted beneath or against ice.

  • Peter B. Sak

    Peter B. Sak
    Associate Professor of Earth Sciences (2004).
    Kaufman Building Room 138
    (717) 245-1423 | sakp@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Whitman College, 1995; M.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 1999; Ph.D., 2002.

    He specializes in describing and quantifying temporal and spatial variations in near surface deformation and landscape evolution. To document variability in regional scale deformation he integrates structural, geomorphic, and petrographic data sets. His current research projects involve field work along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, in central Colorado, and Valley and Ridge of central PA.

  • Academic Administrative Staff

  • Robert Dean

    Robert Dean
    Department Technician
    Kaufman Building Room 147
    (717) 245-1109 | deanr@dickinson.edu