Phone: 828-227-3915
Email: btanner@wcu.edu
Dr. Benjamin R. Tanner is an Associate Professor of Geology at Western Carolina University and is also a Research Fellow in the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines. He is a native of Florida, USA and received a BS degree in Anthropology from Florida State University in 1999, an MS degree in Quaternary and Climate Studies from the University of Maine in 2001, and a PhD. in Geology from the University of Tennessee in 2005. Dr. Tanner has been a member of the faculty at Western Carolina University since 2005 and has conducted fieldwork on the Maine, South Carolina, and North Carolina coasts and in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He has authored peer-reviewed publications on coastal, climate, and wetland related topics. His primary research focus is on the analysis of organic and isotope biomarkers to study environmental change using salt marsh peat and other types of wetland deposits. He also has an interest in carbon cycling, especially as it relates to carbon sequestration in coastal wetland systems.