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Peter Nielsen

Professor Emeritus
Putnam Science Center 255 • M/S 2001
603-358-2553

Dr. Peter Nielsen is a professor of Geology. He received his PhD in Mineralogy and Metamorphic Petrology from University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

While earning his Ph.D he studied Mineralogy and Metamorphic Petrology of the Arseno Lake District in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Nielsen holds a Masters' Degree from Binghamton University in New York where he studied Metamorphic Isograds in the Northwest Adirondack Lowlands, and a B.A. in Geology from Harpur College.

His areas of specialization include Mineralogy, Metamorphic Petrology, Structural Geology and Plate Tectonics Origin and co-evolution of the earth and its biosphere.

Nielsen is a member of the Geological Society of America, Mineralogical Society of America, National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Keene Mineral Club and Brattleboro Mineral Society. He is the former Faculty Chair of the Integrative Studies Program at Keene State College.

Before joining the faculty at Keene State he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside (Kenosha, WI); a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton; and, a visiting Scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada (Ottawa, Ontario).

He is the recipient of the Izaak Walton Killam Pre-doctoral Scholarship and was a National Science and Engineering Research Council Pre-doctoral fellow.

His professional accomplishments include extensive publications and presentations (see list below). His csurrent research is looking at mineral reactions at STP involving the Sterling Hill, NJ Ore Zone and Metallogenesis and structural evolution of the Franklin Mining District, NJ.

Teaching and doing geology are his passions. Nielsen believes that the best student learning occurs when the students are fully immersed in their subject – for geology, "it’s outdoors in our real laboratory," he says.

Nielsen especially enjoys working with introductory level students – helping to open their eyes to the inter-relationships between the earth systems and human existence. He says it's especially rewarding to meet students sometime after their graduation and be told that a geology course changed the way they see their world. He equally enjoys mentoring students in upper-level major courses and seeing their success as they graduate and go on to graduate school, careers in a wide array of geology related areas or K-12 teaching.

Presentations:

Rancourt, A.M., Mallon, A. & Nielsen, P.A., 2010, The Challenges and Successes of One College’s Journey into the Great Unknown, AAC&U- General Education & Assessment Program, p.18

Nielsen, P.A., 2008, Designing Effective Science Experiences: Examples of upper Level Courses for Non-science Majors AAC&U Engaging Science, Advancing Learning: General Education, Majors, at the New Global Century, Program, p. 9

Nielsen, P.A., Rancourt, A.M. & Treadwell, MD., 2008, Designing Effective Science Experiences: The Importance of Faculty Development in Designing Effective Science Experiences for Non-science Majors, AAC&U Engaging Science, Advancing Learning: General Education, Majors, and the New Global Century, Program, p. 22

Nielsen, Peter A., Leger, Carol A., Welsford, Ian G. and Whittemore, Susan L., 1998, An Integrated Laboratory and Field Experience for Non-science Majors: 500 Million Years of Earth History at Turners Falls, Massachusetts, Poster Presentation, PKAL Workshop What Works: Alternatives to Lecture-Based Learning in Math and Science, Wheaton College, 4 June, 1998

Drobat, P. A. and Nielsen, P. A., 1995, Structural Controls on Fluorite Mineralization at the Wise Mine, Westmoreland, New Hampshire, GSA Abstracts , 27 #1, p. 41

Howe, S.S., Arehart, G.B., Nielsen, P.A., and Perkowski, R., 1995, Rift-Related Fluorite-Quartz-Barite-Base-Metal Deposits in Southwestern New Hampshire, GSA Abstracts, 27 #1, p 55

Nielsen, P. A., 1991 Fluorite, goethite and sulfide mineralization associated with Triassic rifting, Southwestern New Hampshire, Green Mountain Geologist. 17 #4 p. 9.

Published work:

Dutch, S. I. and Nielsen, P. A., 1991 The Archean Wyoming Province and its relations with adjacent Proterozoic Provinces in the Early Proterozoic Trans-Hudson Oregon: Lithotectonic Correlations and Evolution (eds. J. F. Lewry and M.R. Stauffer) Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 37, pp. 287-300

Nielsen, P. A., 1986, Metamorphism of the Arseno Lake Area, NWT, Canada: An Abukuma Faces Series of Aphebian Age, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 23, pp. 446-469.

Langenberg, C.W., and Nielsen, P. A., 1982. Polyphase metamorphism in the Canadian Shield of Northeastern Alberta, Alberta Research Council Bulletin, 42, 80 pages.

Nielsen, P. A., Langenberg, C.W., Baadsgaard, H. B. and Godfrey, J.D., 1981. Precambrian metamorphic conditions and crustal evolution, Northeastern Alberta, Canada; Precambrian Research, 16, pp. 171- 193.

Nielsen, P. A., 1978. Metamorphism of the Arseno Lake area, Northwest Territories; in Metamorphism of the Canadian Shield, Geol. Surv. Can. Paper 78-19, pp. 115-122

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