Jane Willenbring is an Associate Professor in the Geosciences Research Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. She joined Scripps in summer of 2016. Jane is the Director of the Scripps Cosmogenic Isotope Laboratory (SCI-Lab).
Jane is a geologist who solves problems related to the Earth surface. Her research is primarily done to understand the evolution of the Earth’s surface – especially how landscapes are affected by tectonics, climate change, and life. She and her research group use geochemical techniques, high-resolution topographic data, field observations, and, when possible, couple these data to landscape evolution numerical models and ice sheet models. The geochemical tools she uses and develops often include cosmogenic nuclide systems, which provide powerful, novel methods to constrain rates of erosion and mineral weathering. Jane has also started to organize citizen science campaigns and apply basic science principles to problems of human health with an ultimate broader impact goal of cleaning up urban areas and environments impacted by agriculture.
She received her B.Sc. with honors from the North Dakota State University, a Master's degree from Boston University and her Ph.D. in Earth sciences from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. She was a Synthesis Postdoctoral Fellow through the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics at the famous Saint Anthony Falls Lab at the University of Minnesota, and an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow and then subsequently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Helmholz GFZ Potsdam, Germany. Jane was previously a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.