Dr. Thompson Webb

Biography

Thompson Webb, III is a Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences at Brown University, where he has had a distinguished career spanning over thirty-six years. He earned his B.A. with honors in botany from Swarthmore College in 1966 and completed his PhD in atmospheric sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1971. Webb's research focuses on paleoecology and paleoclimatology, and he has collaborated extensively with initiatives such as the Cooperative Holocene Mapping Project (COHMAP) and the Testing Earth System Model Paleoenvironmental Observation (TEMPO). His recent studies involve analyzing sedimentary records of land-falling hurricanes and producing animated maps of vegetation change across North America. Throughout his career, Webb has supervised numerous graduate students and has been instrumental in advancing scientific understanding of climatic responses in the late Quaternary. In addition to his research, he actively contributed to teaching and educational development at Brown, promoting the use of technology in education. Webb’s scholarly contributions have significantly impacted the fields of geology and ecology, underlining his commitment to research and teaching excellence.

Research Interests