Dr. John Werner, Earth Sciences Professor

Biography

Dr. John Werner grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As an undergraduate at Caltech, he worked as a summer research fellow in the planetary atmospheres group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he wrote and edited software to model absorption of solar radiation in the Uranian atmosphere.

In graduate school at UIUC, Werner's geological specialization was invertebrate paleontology, culminating in a dissertation that applied morphometrics (mathematical description of form) to the evolutionary history of the bay scallop lineage. While at UIUC, he received the highest award for undergraduate teaching granted by the University. He also served as an assistant technical editor for the Journal of Paleontology and as a curator in the UI Museum of Natural History. At the museum, his work included organizing the museum's vast collection of mollusks and excavating dinosaur remains from the Hell Creek Formation in the South Dakota badlands.

Dr. Werner has taught at Seminole State since 2003, in courses ranging from physical and historical geology to paleontology and oceanography. He has originated three courses: GLY 1030 (Geology and the Environment), GLY 1101 (Fossils and the History of Life), and GLY 2100C (Historical Geology with Laboratory). He has presented original research at national and international conferences as well as less formal educational talks for the Central Florida community.