Robert Walter is a geologist, geochemist and geochronologist. He has conducted geological explorations and field research in East Africa (calibration of human origins, rift basin analyses, Plio-Pleistocene climate change, and volcanology), North America (Quaternary geology, surface water and groundwater interactions and environmental geology), around the Pacific Rim (neotectonics), and around the world (groundwater exploration). In 2011, he and Dorothy Merritts received the Kirk Bryan Award for Outstanding Research in Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology from the Geological Society of America for their 2008 paper in Science, "Natural Streams and the Legacy of Water Powered Mills." Currently (2006-present), he is a Professor of Geosciences at Franklin and Marshall College (F&M), where his primary research interests are bedrock fracture analyses, groundwater exploration, water quality analyses, soil-sediment-bedrock-water interactions, and human disturbances of earth surface processes.

He directs the Big Spring Run Restoration Experiment, has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications, and has co-written and co-directed five short documentary films on human evolution. In 2021, along with colleagues Dorothy Merritts and Patrick Fleming, he co-founded the Chesapeake Watershed Initiative at F&M with a three-year $1.25 million award from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. 

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Dorothy Merritts (B.Sc. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, M.Sc. Stanford University, Ph.D. University of Arizona) is a geologist with expertise in streams, rivers, and other landforms, and on the impact of geologic processes, climate change, and human activities on the form and history of Earth's surface.  Her primary research in the eastern United States is in the Appalachian mid-Atlantic region, where she is investigating the role of human activities in transforming the upland woodlands and valley bottom wetland meadows of Eastern North America to a predominantly agricultural and mixed-industrial/urban landscape since European settlement. Associated with this work is developing new methods of wetland, floodplain, and stream restoration that rely upon geomorphic investigation. She also is using lidar to map the geomorphic evidence for continuous permafrost from the last glacial maximum throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland.  In 2004-2005 she was the Flora Stone Mather Visiting Distinguished Professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  In 2011-2012 she was the Cox Visiting Professor at Stanford University. She is the author of an introductory textbook in environmental geology, numerous scientific papers and edited book chapters, and contributing author to several National Research Council reports. In 2022, she was inducted to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

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Patrick Fleming is an agricultural and environmental economist with research focused on clean water, agricultural sustainability, and the evaluation of public policy to achieve improved water quality goals. His published work includes integrated models of environmental policy, human behavior, and subsequent water quality effects. Dr. Fleming teaches courses on environmental and natural resource economics, ecological economics, statistics, and public policy in relation to sustainability, poverty and human capability.

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Chris Williams has spent most of his academic career researching wetlands, both modern and ancient. As a member of CWI he is interested in better understanding how restoration practices influences carbon cycling and carbon accumulation in floodplains and wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Chris is particularly interested in developing a better understanding of how wetland plant community composition and wetland hydrology influence microbial activity, carbon accumulation, and organic matter decomposition rates in high organic-matter soils. Chris has experience conducting research on the link between vegetation type, drought, carbon cycling, and trace gas (CO2 and CH4) production in Holocene peatlands and modern wetland soils. His other research has focused on the paleoecology and ecosystem characteristics (e.g., biomass and productivity) of ancient wetlands. His work on the paleoecology of pre-Quaternary wetlands is mainly focused on understanding the link between wetland carbon accumulation and climate through geologic time. 

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Jake Lamb '24.5 is a Postbaccalaureate Environmental Economics Research Associate and Geospatial Analyst with the Chesapeake Watershed Initiative at Franklin & Marshall College. Under the tutelage of Patrick M. Fleming, PhD, Jake is investigating the cost effectiveness of legacy sediment restoration for the mitigation of key pollutants in the Chesapeake Watershed, in comparison with other best management practices commonly utilized in the watershed. His other ongoing research projects include economic valuation of the carbon sequestration benefits of legacy sediment restoration projects utilizing the social cost of carbon, and the accounting of other co-benefits associated with legacy sediment restoration. Jake is a part 107 certified commercial drone pilot for the research group, utilizing the group’s DJI drone fleet to collect RGB and thermal restoration progress photography/videography and create digital elevation models (DEMs) of restoration sites. Jake also conducts various other field & communications activities for the CWI as they arise, including periodic grant writing. In his free time, Jake likes to sing, write, and produce music. 

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Biogeochemistry & Stream Restoration - Joe Galella '11 has spent the majority of his academic career studying stream pollution and restoration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He has used radiometric dating to determine the rate of sediment accumulation behind colonial milldams, studied the biogeochemistry of urban streams undergoing salt pollution, and quantified what soil health metrics are most critical for monitoring post-restoration floodplain health. His main area of ongoing research is determining how varied stream restoration techniques behave differently post-restoration. He will be using a space for time substitution to develop a dataset on legacy sediment removal restorations and compare it against his previous work on restorations using predominantly natural channel design and floodplain reconnection principles. Soil and water samples at a number of sites will be analyzed for physical, chemical and biological health metrics. 

Joe is excited to be teaching ENE 275 Stream-Wetland Ecosystem Restoration this fall and hopes to share his knowledge with many ENE and Biology students in the coming months.

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Shuyu Chang (B.Sc., China Agricultural University; M.S.E., Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., Penn State University) is a computational hydrologist who develops and applies modeling approaches to better simulate and understand water quality from local to regional and continental scales. As part of the CWI, she uses thermal and hydrological signatures to investigate the responses of stream systems to floodplain–wetland valley bottom restoration in the Chesapeake Bay. Shuyu is also an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, beginning in 2026 Fall.

Shuyu will teach a course in the Earth & Environment department this spring, with title and topic TBD.

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Adam Benfield is a paleoecologist and Quaternary geoscientist who specializes in wetland and montane environments. His PhD research at Penn State centered on understanding how the end of Ice Ages during the Quaternary Period shaped the development of modern ecosystems in California and Indonesia. He uses a variety of analytical methods including microfossils and stable isotope geochemistry as well as ecological modeling to understand how ecosystems respond to environmental change. With the CWI, Adam works to understand the ecology and biogeochemical cycling of both ancient and restored wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay region. In addition, he is interested in the “thawing and greening” of the Piedmont and Appalachian Mountains during the end of the last Ice Age as an analogue for modern permafrost thawing and boreal forest expansion. 

Adam recently began a tenure-track professorship position at Appalachian State University. The CWI is excited to see how Adam continues to develop his research in North Carolina! 

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Hannah Connuck joined the CWI as one of the Outreach and Communication Coordinators this fall after her graduation in May with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Spanish. In the past few years, she has carried out independent projects that reflect her academic interests in tropical montane and maritime forest community ecohydrology, earning her several institutional grants at her alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College, a coveted press release during the AGU Fall Meeting 2021, and a co-author position on an upcoming publication. Hannah has always had a passion for plant science and is pursuing a career in science communication to expand the reach of exciting research and programming to the public. This fall, Hannah will be attending University of Edinburgh to pursue a masters in science communication. The CWI wishes her all the best!

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