Summer Brown

Summer Brown is a Lecturer in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky's College of Arts & Sciences. Her work bridges geoscience education, science communication, and natural hazards research. She teaches large introductory courses (EES 110, 180, 190) and specialized courses for majors (EES 230, 235), while also contributing to the UK Next Generation Scholars program for high school students. Her research focuses on geohazard resilience and outreach, including NSF-funded projects like the Enviropods program (middle/high school geoscience education) and the Southern Appalachian Flood Resilience Incubator. She has conducted extensive fieldwork on the Teton fault system, investigating paleoseismicity and climate records. Notably, her team discovered potential recent earthquakes on the Teton fault through lake seismic and core analysis.

Her professional experience includes designing educational programs, managing EES social media, and organizing community events. She emphasizes visually communicating complex earth science challenges to non-experts. While she does not advise graduate students, her teaching and outreach efforts aim to democratize STEM access.

Scientific contributions span structural geology, thermochronology, and fault dynamics, with publications on the Teton Range's uplift history, Scottish Caledonides orogeny, and Yellowstone hotspot interactions. Her work blends field observations with lab-based geochronological techniques to address both academic and societal challenges.