10/14/2026
Dr. Donna Whitney, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota, will be joining us this weekend for our October Monthly Meeting! We are honored to have her speak, as she has received the Humboldt Research Award, the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award from the Department of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington, and the George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Service in the College of Science & Engineering in the past two years.
As a metamorphic geologist in the Structure, Tectonics, And Metamorphic Petrology (STAMP) research group, Dr. Donna Whitney is interested in using metamorphic rocks to reconstruct the chemical and physical processes that drove metamorphism in continental and oceanic crust and that eventually returned these rocks to the Earth’s surface. She has an ongoing collaboration with Christian Teyssier (UMN) and Patrice Rey (U Sydney) that focuses on the dynamics of partially molten crust, including the trajectory of flow (vertical, lateral), magnitude of flow, driving mechanisms, and the thermal and mechanical consequences for continental evolution. Dr. Whitney is also currently directing a large, multidisciplinary research project in Turkey (CD-CAT, Continental Dynamics-Central Anatolian Tectonics), to investigate the mantle-to-surface dynamics during the development of a tectonic escape system. She has long been interested in metamorphic textures; for example, microstructures in garnet and the interaction of deformation and metamorphism in different tectonic settings, from the scale of mineral grains to mountain belts. Major field sites are in the North American Cordillera, Turkey, France, and Norway.
We can't wait to learn about everything the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota professors and students are all about!
