Annual Potter Lecture
The annual Potter Lecture is an opportunity for our students to meet and engage established scientists and to have discussions about their research, career paths, graduate school, and career opportunities beyond the limestone walls. We are grateful to all the alumni and friends of the Earth Sciences department who continue to support the Potter Lectureship Endowment.
| Date | Speaker | Affiliation | Title |
| 2024 | Scott St. George | Head of Weather and Climate Research, WTW Research Network | Cassandra on Contract: Why the Global Risk Industry is Hiring Climate Scientists Like Never Before |
| 2023 | Kristina Keating | Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Earth Science: Why it's Important and What we can Do" |
| 2022 | Kevin Padian | Department of Integrative Biology & Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkley | Evolution, Education, and "intelligent Design": A View from the Dover Trial |
| 2021 | Dorothy Merritts | Department of Earth and Environment, Franklin and Marshall College | When natural isn't what we thought but matters to dam removal and stream restoration in Pennsylvania |
| 2020 | Yarrow Axford | Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University | Arctic Meltdown? A Polar Geologist's Long Term Perspective on Climate Change |
| 2019 | William Fitzhugh | National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution | Exploring Circumpolar Culture Connections: 40,000 Years from Yamal to Greenland |
| 2018 | Steven Holbrook | Virginia Tech | What's under Old Faithful? New geophysical images of Yellowstone |
| 2017 | Ted Daeschler | Academy of Natural Sciences | To the ends of the Earth: Fossil Discoveries from the Age of Fishes in Pennsylvania and Beyond |
| 2016 | Lonnie Thompson | Ohio State University | Global Climate: The Evidence, People and Our Options |
| 2015 | Susan Brantley | Penn State University | Fracking: The Pennsylvania Experience |
| 2014 | Rudy Slingerland | Penn State University | Black Diamond, Black Gold, and Black Shale: Pennsylvania's Geological Heritage |
| 2013 | David Bottjer | University of Southern California | A Climate Carol: A Ghost Story of Greenhouse Mass Extinctions |
| 2012 | Frank Pazzaglia | Lehigh University | The Fall Zone, Steep Rivers, and Erosion: How Appalachian Geomorphology has Shaped our Nation |
| 2011 | Katherine Huntington | University of Washington | Signals in Sand: Detrital Mineral Thermochronology and the Evolution of Orogenic Landscapes |
| 2010 | John Eichelberger | Volcano Hazard Program; USGS | Volcanoes as Geysers |
| 2009 | Mark Brandon | Yale University | The Rise and Ruin of Mountains around the Mediterranean over the last 35 Million Years |
| 2008 | Jeremy Jackson | University of California | Biodiversity and Extinction in the Brave New Ocean |
| 2007 | Rob Thieler | Woods Hole, MA | Changing Climate, Changing Coasts: Where we've been and where we may be headed |
| 2006 | Bruce Marsh | Johns Hopkins University | In the Boiler Room of Volcanoes: A View from Antarctica |
| 2005 | Richard Alley | Penn State University | Global Warming and Abrupt Climate Change: How to Make Money by Cleaning up after Ourselves |