Faculty
Kim Blisniuk
Associate Professor / Undergraduate Advisor
Prof. Kim Blisniuk applies field investigations, high resolution digital topography
data and various Quaternary geochronologic techniques to study how earth’s surface
evolves during Quaternary timescales from earthquakes and changes in climate.
Phone: (408) 924-5045
Office: DH 222
Office Hours: By appointment via Zoom or Google Chat
E-mail: kimberly.blisniuk@sjsu.edu
For Undergraduate advising use:
E-mail: undergradadvisor-geology@sjsu.edu
Nate BogieAssistant Professor
Nate is our resident subsurface hydrologist, his lab studies movement of water, nutrients,
and contaminants through aquifers, plants, and soil. He also teaches hydrogeology,
sustainability, and low temperature geochemistry.
Phone: (408) 924-5038 Office: DH 307B
Office Hours: By appointment
E-mail: nathaniel.bogie@sjsu.edu
Manny Gabet
Professor / Graduate Advisor
I am a geomorphologist with a wide range of interests. My students and I study topics
such as the causes of rockfall, the effects of dam removal on river systems, mercury
contamination, glacial erosion, and the geologic evolution of the Sierra Nevada.
Phone: (408) 924-5035
Office: DH 223
Office Hours: By appointment
E-mail: manny.gabet@sjsu.edu
Betsy Madden
Assistant Professor
Dr. Madden studies structural geology, rock mechanics and earthquakes using field
geology and computational modeling. Many of her projects are methods-based, providing
new, creative ways to use modern computational techniques to determine the physical
processes and subsurface conditions controlling failure ranging from small fractures
to megathrust earthquakes.
Phone: (408) 924-4076
Office: DH 314
Email: elizabeth.madden@sjsu.edu
Ellen Metzger
Professor / BAESI Director
I am a metamorphic petrologist and science educator with a wide variety of interests.
My current research focuses on high-grade metamorphism in the Adirondack Mountains
of New York, Miocene volcanics in the Central California Coast Ranges that formed
in a subduction-transform transitional setting, and education for sustainability.
Phone: (408) 924-5048
Office: DH 319
Office Hours: By Appointment
E-mail: ellen.metzger@sjsu.edu
Carlie Pietsch
Associate Professor
I am a deep-time marine biologist (paleontologist) working with an active group of
undergraduate and graduate students to study ancient mass extinction and extreme climate
events using marine fossils (snails, plankton, sea urchins, etc.), the surrounding
sediments, and chemical signals preserved in fossilized shell.
Phone: (408) 924-5279
Office: DH 201
Office Hours: By appointment
E-mail: carlie.pietsch@sjsu.edu
Ryan Portner
Associate Professor
I am a volcanologist that uses sedimentology/stratigraphy, igneous petrology, geochemistry,
geochronology and field mapping to study oceanic crust formation, submarine eruption
dynamics and volcaniclastic transport/deposition processes on the seafloor. To do
this my research team and I integrate field studies of modern and ancient deposits
exposed on the seafloor and on land with laboratory based analytical approaches.
Phone: (408) 924-5009
Office: DH 202
Office Hours: By appointment via Zoom or Google Chat
E-mail: ryan.portner@sjsu.edu
Don Reed
Professor
Professor Reed is currently in the Faculty Early Retirement Program and teaches oceanography
online in the fall semester each year.
Phone: (408) 924-5036
Office: DH 305
Office Hours: By appointment
E-mail: donald.reed@sjsu.edu
Siri Veland
Assistant Professor
Dr. Veland's expertise
Dr. Veland's expertise is in the area of global environmental change and how natural
hazards and disaster risk impact and are perceived by communities who are particularly
vulnerable to environmental change. She combines science with social science and policy
in her research and served in her first year as the faculty-in-residence of the campus
Sustainability Program.
Phone: (408) 924-4076
Office: DH 315B
Email: siri.veland@sjsu.edu
Website:
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