Terry Swanson

Headshot of Terry Swanson.

Terry Swanson

Research areas

Interests: Quaternary Geology, Glacial Geomorphology, Environmental Geology and Geochronology

Graduate Students:
Devin Bedard (Assessment of the Ledgewood Beach Landslide).

As a faculty member in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, teaching is the most important aspect of my campus life. I teach six different courses within my department that attract a diverse group of students, ranging from non-major undergraduates to advanced graduate students in my instructional development seminar. I believe that my enthusiasm for my subject matter is as important as the subject matter itself in facilitating student learning. I also believe that this enthusiasm in the classroom is contagious and itself promotes learning amongst my students. I do not know if enthusiasm and passion really constitute a teaching philosophy, but in truth, it is these two attributes that I believe have had the biggest impact on my student’s education. Most of the content is forgotten over time, but the passion and the excitement of the science remains for life. I have now been teaching at the University of Washington long enough to see children of my previous students entering the lecture hall with expectations that the passion for learning that I shared with their parents is still there. I am proud to say it still is.

My teaching is not limited to the campus of University of Washington. For the past fifteen years I have been involved with community outreach that involves NSF-sponsored K-6 instructional development training, K-12 classroom visits and fieldtrips, University and Departmental tours of our laboratories and the Burke Museum, community lectures providing earth science education to the general public. As a student myself who was educated relying on public-funded student loans and grants, and state-funded teaching assistantships, I believe I owe a great deal to my community. Consequently, community outreach is a major part of my off-campus life.

Selected publications

  • Rogers, H.E., Swanson, T.W., and Stone, J.O. 2012. Long-term shoreline retreat rates on Whidbey Island, WA. Quaternary Research. V. 78, 315-322.
  • Porter, S.C. and Swanson, T.W. 2008. Surface exposure ages and paleoclimatic environment of [Middle and] Late Pleistocene glacier advances, northeastern Cascade Range, Washington. American Journal of Science. V. 308, 130-166.
  • Swanson, T.W. (2003) Editor. “Geological Field Guide of the Western Cordillera and Adjacent Areas.” Geological Society of America. 284 pp.
  • Putkonen, J. and Swanson, T.W. (2003). Accuracy of cosmogenic ages for moraines. Quaternary Research 59 (2), 255-261.
  • Swanson, T.W., and Caffee, M.L (2001). Determination of 36Cl production rates from the Deglaciation History of Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands, Washington. Quaternary Research. 56, 366-382.
  • Porter, S.C., and Swanson, T.W. (1998) Advance and Retreat rate of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in southeastern Puget Sound Region. Quaternary Research 50, 205-213.
  • Briner, J.P. and Swanson, T.W. (1998) Inherited Cosmogenic 36Cl Constrains Glacial Erosion Rates of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Geology. 26, 3-6.
  • Swanson, T.W., Elliott-Fisk, D.L., and Southard, R.J. (1993). Soil development trends in the Chiatovich Creek Basin, White Mountains, CA-NV in the absence of a chronosequence. Quaternary Research. 39, 186-200.