Contact Information
1301 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Interests
Research Description
My research has two focus areas: firstly, I research how changing climates, surface processes, and tectonic forcings determine the landscapes we see around us, by testing theoretical models of landscape evolution and geodynamics against geomorphological, thermochronological and sedimentalogical observations. Recently, this research has involved fieldwork in the Olympic Mountains, the Patagonian Andes, and the Ross Sea.
Secondly, I research how new technologies - such as MOOCs, video, open-source textbooks, blended classes, in-class response systems, and adaptive learning systems - impact education, both at the student and institutional level.
Education
Ph.D., Earth Science, Australian National University 2000
B.Sc. (Hons), Physics, University of Melbourne 1996
Additional Campus Affiliations
Research Scientist, Geology
Research Associate Professor, Geology
Recent Publications
Tomkin, J. H., & West, M. (2022). STEM courses are harder: evaluating inter-course grading disparities with a calibrated GPA model. International Journal of STEM Education, 9(1), [27]. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-022-00343-1
Ellwood, B. B., Febo, L., Anderson, L., Hackworth, R. T., Means, G. H., Bryan, J. A., Tomkin, J., Rowe, H., & Jovane, L. (2020). Regional to global correlation of Eocene-Oligocene boundary transition successions using biostratigraphic, geophysical and geochemical methods. Geological Magazine, 157(1), 80-100. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756819000578
Ellwood, B. B., Nestell, G. P., Lan, L. T. P., Nestell, M. K., Tomkin, J. H., Ratcliffe, K. T., Wang, W. H., Rowe, H., Nguyen, T. D., Nguyen, C. T., & Dang, T. H. (2020). The Permian-Triassic boundary Lung Cam expanded section, Vietnam, as a high-resolution proxy for the GSSP at Meishan, China. Geological Magazine, 157(1), 65-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756819000566
Ma, S., Herman, G. L., West, M., Tomkin, J., & Mestre, J. (2019). Studying STEM Faculty Communities of Practice through Social Network Analysis. Journal of Higher Education, 90(5), 773-799. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2018.1557100
Mestre, J. P., Herman, G. L., Tomkin, J. H., & West, M. (2019). Keep Your Friends Close and Your Colleagues Nearby: The Hidden Ties that Improve STEM Education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 51(1), 42-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2019.1547081