Christopher Gerbi
Professor – Mineralogy/Rheology, Dept. of Earth Sciences
Faculty Member of the RiSE Center
117 Bryand Global Sciences Center
207.581.2153
Email Chris Gerbi
Education
- Ph.D. Earth Sciences, University of Maine, 2005
Research
Having taught both middle and high school, I have a first-hand appreciation for the state of education and the pressures and constraints on teachers. So, as with all of us in the Center, I seek to provide pre- and in-service teachers with the resources and training they need to be the most effective educators they can. Currently, my interests in education research focus primarily on delivery and retention of Earth Science concepts as well as knowledge transfer of cross-disciplinary concepts, such as density and gradients, among disciplines. I regularly teach SMT503, Integrated Approaches to Earth Sciences Education I, typically offered in alternate Fall semesters.
My Earth Science research focuses on crustal rheology, or the mechanics of how rocks in Earth’s uppermost layer deform. Some of the overarching questions I pursue include:
- How well do the mechanical parameters in large-scale numerical models of Earth’s crust reflect what actually happens?
- To what degree can rocks weaken due to metamorphic and textural changes?
- How mechanically anisotropic is the crust in different areas?
- Can we predict the mechanical consequences of fluid infiltration into tectonically active areas?
I also manage Earth Sciences’ new Scanning Electron Microscope laboratory http://www.umaine.edu/earthsciences/about-us/facilities/electron-microscopy-laboratory, installed in May, 2009.
News
Earth Scientist Gerbi Named Kavli Fellow
University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Sciences associate professor Christopher Gerbi has been selected a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He participated in the 2012 Chinese-American Symposium, which was held Oct. 12–14 in Irvine, Calif., and will serve as an organizer of the 2014 Chinese-American Symposium to be held in China.
