Stockli Named New Department Chair

November 12, 2020

Professor Daniel Stockli has been selected as the new chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at the Jackson School of Geosciences. He will begin the position Jan. 16, 2021.

Stockli, who holds the Chevron Centennial Professorship in Geology, will replace Charles Kerans, who has held the position since 2016 and is now at the close of his four-year term. Stockli said that he is looking forward to advancing research and education at the Jackson School while working to build a more diverse and inclusive geosciences community.

“Without any doubt, being selected as the next DGS chair is a tremendous honor, and I am very excited to work with Dean Mora and the other unit leaders, faculty and students for the next four years,” said Stockli. “While we are facing a global pandemic, overdue societal and cultural changes, and a plethora of global and environmental challenges, these also present us with tremendous opportunities for DGS and JSG to lead and to spearhead change. These are opportunities that we need to embrace as the No. 1 geology program.”

Stockli joined the Jackson School in 2011 as a professor. Since then, he has built a thriving thermochronology and geochronology laboratory that investigates the thermal and temporal aspects of tectonic, petrologic, stratigraphic and geomorphologic processes. He is a mentor to researchers at all levels of their educational careers, with a research team that spans from undergraduate students to postdoctoral researchers. From 2012 to 2018, he also served as the chair of the school’s Solid Earth & Tectonic Processes research theme.

In addition, Stockli is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a recipient of the Jackson School’s Outstanding Researcher Award.

“Danny will be an ambitious and visionary leader, with energy to inspire cooperation and drive innovation to improve the quality of education of our students,” said Dean Claudia Mora. “He is dedicated to a department that is collegial, transparent, diverse and inclusive, and eager to support the creation of a department that is far greater than the sum of its parts.”