Dr. Holly Peterson

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Sustainability & Environmental Studies

Contact Information

Margaret A. Cargill Natural Sciences and Health Building, 425
CPO 2191
Office Phone: 859-985-3893
Email: petersonh@berea.edu

Spring 2022

Office Hours

Mon: 2:40 p.m. – 4:40 p.m.
Virtual
Wed: 9 a.m – 10 a.m.
Virtual
Thur: 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Virtual

Office hours may switch to in-person meetings in my office if and when the current Covid wave subsides. Please feel free to email me to request an outdoor in-person meeting.

Holly Peterson

Class Schedule

  • CHM 131 A (Mon/Wed/Fri: 10:40 am – 11:50 am) (Wed: 2:40 pm – 5:30 pm)
  • CHM 371  (Thur: 8:00 am – 11:50 am)
  • SENS 100  (Mon/Wed/Fri: 1:20 pm – 2:30 pm)

Degrees

  • B.S. – Geology (Honors), Minor in Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, May 2002. Honors thesis: Fault-scaling relationships in Newark Basin Mudstones
  • Ph.D., The University of British Columbia (UBC). Vancouver, BC Ph.D. – Aqueous geochemistry and hydrogeology, April 2014. Doctoral dissertation: Hydrology, evaporation, and geochemistry of neutral and acid rock drainage in highly heterogeneous mine waste rock at the Antamina Mine, Peru.

Biography

Holly Peterson studied Structural Geology as an undergraduate at Rutgers University, and spent a few years working in Geotechnical Engineering after graduation. In her mid-twenties she spent several months traveling the world, landing in Valencia, Spain, where she taught English for two years. During her travels, Holly realized that her great passion meets the world’s great need in the realm of water, so she attended graduate school for Aqueous Geochemistry and Hydrogeology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her doctoral research was on water quality and flow in waste rock at a large copper-zinc-molybdenum mine in the Ancash region of the Peruvian Andes. After graduate school, Peterson taught Geology and Environmental Studies for several years at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC before joining the Chemistry department at Berea.

Dr. Peterson’s current research focuses on aqueous geochemistry in mining, industrial, and municipal waste environments. She still collaborates with colleagues at the University of British Columbia on waste rock research and also studies the effects of coal ash on aquatic ecosystems. She also loves interdisciplinary teaching, and especially team-teaching with artists, humanists, and social scientists. Some of her scholarly work focuses on pedagogy, including place-based, student-driven education, and on interdisciplinary pedagogy regarding social and environmental justice.

Prior Work Experience

  • Associate Professor of Geology & Environmental Studies, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, August 2014 –Present (Assistant Professor 2014 – May 2020)
  • Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Middlebury College School of the Environment in Middlebury, VT and in Yunnan Province, China
    Summers of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
  • Co-chair, Department of Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC. August 2015 – present.
  • Hydrogeochemistry consultant, LaBella Associates, Greensboro, NC. May 2020 – July 2020
  • Hydrogeochemistry consultant, BGC Engineering, Vancouver, BC. June 2014 – August 2014
  • Geotechnical Engineer/Geologist, Carlin-Simpson and Associates. Sayreville, NJ. May 2001- December 2003, Summers 2004 & 2005, Fall 2006
  • Substitute Teacher, Lawrence Township Public Schools, Lawrenceville, NJ. September 2006-May 2007
  • Teacher, English as a Foreign Language, Centro de Estudios Norteamericano. Valencia, Spain June 2004 – June 2006
  • Ceramist and Instructor, Avatar Pottery. Bound Brook, NJ. February 2001 – May 2002

Awards and Affiliations

  • Guilford College Natural Sciences Research Grant: Effects of Coal Ash in the Cape Fear River Basin. $8,000, April 2016.
  • Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum – Graduate Student Award $1,333. January 2011.
  • Teck Resources Ltd. – Walter J. Kuit Scholarship $40,000. June 2010.
  • UBC – Thomas and Marguerite MacKay Memorial Scholarship $6,125. March 2010.
  • UBC – Annual International Tuition Awards and Ph.D. Tuition Waivers, 2009-2014
  • UBC – University Graduate Fellowship $16,000. September 2008.
  • UBC – Graduate Entrance Scholarship $3,350. September 2007.
  • UBC – International Partial Tuition Scholarship $3,260/year. 2007-2009.
  • Rutgers College honors, Rutgers University, May 2002.
  • Departmental Honors in Geology, Rutgers University, May 2002.
  • Dean’s List, Rutgers University, 1999- 2001.
  • Bigel Fellowship, Rutgers Anthropology Department $2,000. Fall 2000.Activities and Volunteer Work
  • Guilford College Women’s Softball Mentor. Greensboro, NC. 2015-present.
  • Fat Tire Society Member and Trail Volunteer. 2015 – present.
  • Triathlete, Olympic and sprint distance races in USA and Canada. 2006 – present.
  • UCI Mountain Biking Race Volunteer. Snowshoe, WV. September 2019
  • Volunteer ceramics teacher, Creating with Clay. Brattleboro, VT. 2012 – 2014.
  • Member, Student and Young Professionals group of the Canadian Water Resources Association,Vancouver Branch. 2009-2012.
  • Volunteer Coordinator, Executive team, UBC Pottery Club. 2010-2011.
  • Transportation volunteer, Olympic Winter Games. Vancouver, BC. February 2010.
  • Member, Earth and Ocean Sciences (EOS) Graduate Council. 2007-2009.
  • Representative, UBC Graduate Student Society. 2007-2009.
  • Member, Sustainable Lawrence – Community environmental group. 2006-2009.
  • Volunteer teacher, Canosian College and Secondary School. Dili, East Timor. December 2004-January 2005.
  • Support volunteer, New Jersey State Special Olympics. Vernon Valley, NJ. Winter 2003.
  • Trenton Area Soup Kitchen volunteer. Trenton, NJ. 1994-2003.
  • After-school tutor and mentor for lower-income elementary school children. New Brunswick, NJ. 2001-2002.
  • Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic. Princeton, NJ. 2001-2002.
  • Captain, University of Colorado novice crew team. 1998-1999.
  • Captain, Lawrence High School Varsity Softball. 1997-1998.

Papers and Publications

  • Giddings, L.A., Chlipala, G., Driscoll, H., Bhave, K., Kunstman, K., Green, S., Morillo, K., Peterson, H. and Maienschein-Cline, M., 2020. Seasonal Ely Copper Mine Superfund Site Shotgun Metagenomic and Metatranscriptomic Data Analysis. Data in Brief, p.106282.
  • Giddings, L.A., Chlipala, G., Kunstman, K., Green, S., Morillo, K., Bhave, K., Peterson, H., Driscoll, H. and Maienschein-Cline, M., 2020. Characterization of an acid rock drainage microbiome and transcriptome at the Ely Copper Mine Superfund site. PLoS One, 15(8),
    p. e0237599.
  • Vriens, B., Peterson, H., Laurenzi, L., Smith, L., Aranda, C., Mayer, K.U. and Beckie, R.D. 2019. Long-term monitoring of waste-rock weathering at the Antamina mine, Peru. Chemosphere, 215, pp.858-869.
  • Soiles, T., Mucyo, S., Nshimiyimana, F., Peterson, H. 2018. Preliminary inorganic surface water quality analysis of the Gatunga stream near an unlined landfill in Gatunga, Kigali Province, Rwanda. Annual Meeting of the SE Section of the Geological Society of America, Knoxville, TN, March 2018.
  • Miles, T., Peterson, H., Stracey, C., Donati, G., and Williams, C. 2017. Water and sediment quality assessment of a potentially impaired North Carolina stream. In Proceedings from the 66th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America Southeast Regional Section. Richmond, VA, March 29-31, 2017.
  • Kuharsky, J., Ikenberry, C., Peterson, H., Williams, C., Donati, G., and Stracey, C. 2107. Bioaccumulation of various elements in aquatic and terrestrial macroinvertebrates near an active North Carolina coal-ash pond.. In Proceedings from the 66th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America Southeast Regional Section. Richmond, VA, March 29-31, 2017.
  • Witt, J., Peterson, H., and Trombulak, S. C. 2016. Case Study:“Understanding Place” at the Middlebury School of the Environment. Journal of Sustainability Education, 11.
  • Peterson, H., Witt, J., and Trombulak, S. 2016. Teaching about place: Interdisciplinary perspectives across geographical scales. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Environmental Studies & Science. Washington, D.C.
  • Peterson, H., Stracey, C., Mucyo, S., and Craven, K. 2016. Social and environmental justice in education: Bridging local and global scales. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Environmental Studies & Science. Washington, D.C.
  • Peterson, H., Mayer, U., and Beckie, R. 2015. The effects of preferential and matrix flow and water residence time on seasonal fluctuations in waste rock effluent water quality. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, 2015. Santiago de Chile, Chile.
  • Peterson, H. 2014. Unsaturated hydrology, evaporation, and geochemistry of neutral and acid rock drainage in highly heterogeneous mine waste rock at the Antamina Mine, Peru. Doctoral dissertation, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
  • Peterson, H., Fretz, N., Bay, D., Mayer, U., Smith, L., and Beckie, R. 2013. Observed and modeled multi-year evaporation from three field-scale experiments using water balance and Penman-Monteith methods: Profound effect of material type and wind exposure. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2013. San Francisco, California, USA.
  • Peterson, H., Beckie, R., Harrison, B., Mayer, K. U., & Smith, L. 2012. Rapid transition from neutral to acidic drainage in a waste rock test pile at the Antamina Mine, Peru. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, 2012. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  • Javadi, M., Peterson, H., Blackmore, S., Mayer, K.U., Beckie, R., and Smith, L. 2012. Evaluating preferential flow in an experimental waste rock pile using unsaturated flow and solute transport modeling. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, 2012. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  • Singurindy, O., Lorca, M., Blackmore, S., Peterson, H., T. Hirsche, T, Aranda, C., Javadi, M., Mayer, K.U., Beckie, R., and Smith, L. 2012. Spatial and Temporal Variations of O2 and CO2 Pore Gas Concentrations in an Experimental Waste Rock Pile at the Antamina Mine, Peru. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage, 2012. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  • Urrutia, P., Wilson, W., Aranda, C., Peterson, H., Blackmore, S., Sifuentes, F., Sanchez, M. 2011. Design and construction of field-scale lysimeters for the evaluation of cover systems at the Antamina mine, Peru. Proceedings, Tailings and Mine Waste annual meeting, 2011, Vancouver BC, Canada.
  • Beckie, R., Aranda, C., Blackmore, S., Peterson, H., Hirsche, T., Javadi, M., Blaskovich, R., Haupt, C., Dockrey, J., Conlan, M., Bay, D., Harrison, B., Brienne, S., Smith, L., Klien, B., Mayer, K. U. 2011. A study of the mineralogical, hydrological and biogeochemical controls on drainage from waste rock at the Antamina Mine, Peru: An overview. Proceedings, Tailings and Mine Waste annual meeting, 2011, Vancouver BC, Canada.
  • Peterson, H., Beckie, R., Blackmore, S., Haupt, C., Hirsche, T., Klein, B., Mayer, K. U., Singurindy, O., & Smith, L. 2010. The Antamina waste rock project: a multi-scale study of mineral release, transport, and attenuation in waste rock under neutral drainage conditions. The Geological Society of America annual meeting, 2010, Denver, Colorado, USA.
  • Peterson, H., Bay, D., Beckie, R., Mayer, K. U., Klein, B., & Smith, L. 2009. Role of rock texture and mineralogy on the hydrology and geochemistry of three neutral-drainage mesoscale experimental waste rock piles at the Antamina Mine, Peru. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 2009. San Francisco, California, USA.
  • Bay, D., Peterson, H., Singurindy, O., Aranda, C., Dockrey, J., Sifuentes, F., Mayer, U., Smith, L., Klein, B. and R. Beckie. 2009. Assessment of neutral pH drainage from three experimental waste-rock piles at the Antamina mine, Peru. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage. Skellefteå, Sweden.
  • Bay, D., Corazao Gallegos, J.C., Peterson, H., Dockrey, J., Singurindy, O., Beckie, R., Mayer, U., Smith, L., Klein, B. and W. Wilson. 2008. Preliminary geochemical and flow responses of neutral drainage from a field-scale experimental waste rock pile at the Antamina mine, Peru. In: Proceedings of the Water Air Land Sustainability in Mining Symposium, 47th Conference of Metallurgists. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
  • Peterson, Holly. 2002. Fault scaling relationships in Newark Basin mudstones. Honors Thesis, Department of Geological Science. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.Professional Development