Jeffrey Ryan

Professor

Dr. Jeffrey Ryan, Professor of Geology, joined the University of South Florida in 1991 and was Chair of Geology Department and the founding Director of the USF School of Geosciences. He earned a B.S. in Geology at Western Carolina University, and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at Columbia University. He is a "hard rock" geologist with a focus on subduction-related igneous and metamorphic systems, and the measurement and application of "fluid-mobile" elemental and isotopic tracers. Dr. Ryans current research is strongly marine-based: he was a Shipboard Scientist on the International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions 352, 366, and 393, studying how subduction zones start in the Pacific, and the evolution of slow-spreading ocean crust in the Atlantic. He led the development of handheld portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry as a quantitative shipboard analytical tool on these Expeditions, for the rapid analysis of recovered hard-rock core samples. Dr. Ryan is also active in the scholarship of geoscience education. He served as a Program Director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education from 2003-2005. His NSF-funded educational studies examine best practices in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), effective classroom uses of geospatial information resources and earth and planetary geo-datasets, and of digital animations/dynamic visualizations of deep-earth processes. He has led federally-funded faculty development efforts on the effective use of geo-cyberinfrastructure in college teaching, and on helping geoscience faculty seek funding to make educational improvements to their courses. He was part of the convening committees for NSF-funded efforts to transform undergraduate and graduate geoscience education nationally, and a co-author of the "Vision and Change in the Geosciences" national reports published by the American Geosciences Institute.

Earned Awards

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