I came to UT via high school, undergraduate and graduate training in England, and initial employment at West Virginia University as an assistant and then associate professor of structural geology. High school is where I discovered that he did not want to be a physicist, but instead wanted to study the Earth. Geology impressed because of the direct connection between classroom and fieldwork. Undergrad at the University of Bristol in England was where I became immersed in geology, developed a love for fieldwork and learned that some things do not come easy. Graduate work with Paul Hancock at the University of Bristol provided me with the chance to learn from a very capable professional mentor, to refine field skills, to start to rub shoulders with other structural geologists, and to watch a scientific journal, The Journal of Structural Geology, start. West Virginia University immersed me in learning how to teach, learning to supervise graduate students, learning to define useful research problems, learning to write effective scientific publications, and learning to obtain external research funding. West Virginia University was a fun place because of its small town setting, several engaging colleagues and the opportunity to pursue new research opportunities.
The University of Tennessee offered me the opportunity to have Bob Hatcher as a colleague and to learn much about the southern Appalachians. UT is where me has had the opportunity to work with great students and it is a point of pride that every one of these graduate students has research that is published in respected geological journals. Much of my work is still rooted in investigating the deformation of sedimentary rocks in the Appalachian foreland, and debunking the myth that the "Appalachians are done"! I have also returned to my roots with a renewed interest in fracture characterization that my Ph.D. advisor, Paul Hancock, would appreciate. In terms of teaching, I teach at all levels: introductory geology, structural geology for undergraduate majors, and graduate courses a diversity of topics, commonly with a faculty colleague, so as to create a diversity of opinion and perspective.
William M. Dunne
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
1412 Circle Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996-1410
Phone: (865) 974-4161
Email: wdunne@utk.edu