• Introduction
  • About Us
  • Our Research
    • Meeting Presentations
    • Student Theses
  • Media Gallery
    • Photos
    • Film
    • Visualizations
  • Funding

About Us

This project is a collaboration between researchers from Boston College and Franklin and Marshall College. The collaboration team includes professors, research associates, graduate and undergraduate students, who are trained in earth surface processes.
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Dr. Noah Snyder is a geomorphologist who studies the response of rivers to changes in land-use, climate and tectonics. He is an Associate Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Boston College. He received his Ph.D from MIT in 2001, and conducted postdoctoral research for the US Geological Survey in northern California. He has been wading in the streams of the northeastern U.S. since growing up on Fall Creek in Ithaca, NY.
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Dr. Dorothy Merritts is  a geologist with expertise on streams, rivers, and the impact of humans and geologic hazards on landscape evolution. Her primary research in the eastern United States is in the Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont, particularly in Pennsylvania and Maryland, where she is investigating the role of climate change and human activities in transforming the valley bottom landscapes of Eastern North America.  She is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
Dr. Robert Walter is geologist with expertise in geochemistry and geochronology. He has conducted field research in East Africa, North America, New Zealand and Asia, and is a leading expert on timescale calibrations and the geological context of human antiquity. His research interests include isotope geochronology, geochemistry, evolutionary timescales, climate change, landscape evolution, and human interactions with the environment. He is an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
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Kaitlin Johnson  is a M.S. graduate student at Boston College. She is passionate about river restoration and will be working in the New England area to better understand the extent of legacy sediment storage in valley bottoms.
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Elisabeth Ames  is a M.S. student at Boston College pursuing a degree in Geology. She is interested in fluvial geomorphology and the influence of human activity on the evolution of landscapes.
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Samantha Dow is a M. S. student in the Earth and Environmental Sciences program at Boston College. Her interests include fluvial and glacial geomorphology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and historic landscape change in New England. 
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Mason Waltner (‘16) majored in Environmental Geosciences at Boston College focusing on hydrology and geochemistry. He completed a thesis on quantifying historic sediment in the Charles River watershed in Massachusetts. 
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Evan Gross is a senior at Franklin & Marshall College, majoring in Geosciences and minoring in Applied Mathematics. During Summer 2016, he worked on the Anthropocene Streams project as well as on wetland restoration projects in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He helped survey historic sediment in former millponds along incised streams and mapped historic sediment stream terraces via GIS analyses.
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Alec Snyder-Fair is a junior at Franklin and Marshall College Majoring in Geology and Biology. He has worked with Professors Merritts and Walter on wetland restoration projects and assisted in surveying historic sediment in former millponds along incised streams in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In addition, he has had experience conducting field work looking at the relationships of flood plains and high flow events on levels of dissolved organic matter with Jenn Hoyle (Yale University).  


Past Researchers



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Erin Markey is a recent graduate of Franklin and Marshall College ('15) where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in Geoscience. She has worked with Dr. Dorothy Merritts for three summers performing research on topics ranging from periglacial landforms to wetland ecology and paleobotany.
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Samuel Feibel (’16) is a recent graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, and majored in Geoscience with a geophysics focus. He completed a senior thesis on the wetland restoration at Piney Run.    
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Dora Chi Xu graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a B.A. in Geoscience (2015). She worked as a post-baccalaureate researcher at the Earth and Environment Department in F&M. She is passionate about groundwater hydrogeology, and focused her senior thesis on wetland restoration and carbon sequestration in Big Spring Run, PA. Dora hails from Zhengzhou, China, the hometown of Kung Fu. 
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​Sophia Gigliotti graduated Franklin and Marshall College (‘15), with B.A in Geosciences and a minor in Film and Media Studies. She worked as a research associate for Dr. Dorothy Merritts. Her focus is in science outreach and communication. 
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Aaron Hoffman ('17) is at Franklin & Marshall majoring in Environmental Studies and Business. He spent the summer of 2015 applying his interest in natural resource management and sustainability as he assisted Dorothy Merritts in researching periglacial landscapes and wetland restoration.
If you have questions or would like more information about our team and our work please contact:

Noah Snyder - Noah.snyder@bc.edu
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College

Dorothy Merritts - Dorothy.Merritts@fandm.edu
Department of Earth and Environment at Franklin & Marshall College 
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  • Introduction
  • About Us
  • Our Research
    • Meeting Presentations
    • Student Theses
  • Media Gallery
    • Photos
    • Film
    • Visualizations
  • Funding