Simon Pendleton

Simon Pendleton

Assistant Professor of Practice
Phone: (603) 535-3209
Office: Tourism, Environment & Sustainable Societies, Boyd Science Center Rm 218B, MSC 48, Plymouth, NH 03264
Pronouns: He/him/his

Education

BA, Whitman College; MS University at Buffalo; Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder

Dr. Pendleton employs field and remotely sensed data with multiple geochronologic tools and numerical modeling to investigate landscape evolution, geomorphic processes, and cryosphere-climate interactions over a range of spatial and temporal scales. Prior to joining the Environmental Science and Policy Program at PSU, Dr. Pendleton studied the timing, character, and impact of catastrophic outburst floods from glacial lakes in New York as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Dr. Pendleton grew up in New Hampshire before completing a B.A. in Environmental Geology at Whitman College followed by a M.S. in geology at the University at Buffalo reconstructing glacier histories and climate in the Brooks Range, Alaska. Simon did his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder using cosmogenic radionuclide exposure dating and numerical modeling to better understand glacier and ice cap fluctuations over the past 2.5 million years on Baffin Island in Arctic Canada. Dr. Pendleton teaches a range of earth science courses within ES&P, with a special interest in the interactions between humans and the geologic environment and climate. Beyond academia, Simon enjoys hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, and any activity exploring the great outdoors.

Recent Publications

Pendleton, S., Condron, A. & Donnelly, J. The potential of Hudson Valley glacial floods to drive abrupt climate change. Commun Earth Environ 2, 152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00228-1

Pendleton, S.L., Miller, G., Lifton, N., Young, N., 2019. Cryosphere response resolves conflicting evidence for the timing of peak Holocene warmth on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Quaternary Sci. Rev. 216, 107-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.05.015

Pendleton, S.L., Miller, G.H., Lifton, N., Lehman, S.J., Southon, J., Crump, S.E., Anderson, R.S., 2019. Rapidly receding Arctic Canada glaciers revealing landscapes continuously ice-covered for more than 40,000 years. Nature Communications 10, 445. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08307-w

Pendleton, S.L., Miller, G.H., Anderson, R.A., Crump, S.E., Zhong, Y., Jahn, A., and Geirsdóttir, A., (2017), Episodic Neoglacial expansion and rapid 20th-century retreat of a small ice cap on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, and modeled temperature change: Climate of the Past, v. 13, no. 11, p.1527.

Courses Taught

ESP 3335: Environmental Geology
ESP 4200: Natural Hazards: Science and Policy
ESP 4440: Climate Change
ESP 3200: Energy and Society
ESP 3310: Hydrology
ESDI 2500: Environmental Science