Rate My Professor Katherine Adelsberger

Katherine A. Adelsberger serves as Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies Department and holds the Douglas and Maria Bayer Endowed Chair in Earth Science at Knox College since 2008. She received her Ph.D. in 2008 and A.M. in 2005 from Washington University in St. Louis, and her B.S. in 2002 from Beloit College. Specializing in geoarchaeology, Adelsberger explores the geologic dimensions of human-environment interactions. Her research examines site formation and taphonomic processes on archaeological sites, paleoenvironmental conditions throughout human history, and how societies adapted to environmental changes. Current projects focus on desert pavement development, spring deposits, paleochannels of ancient river systems, landscape history in arid environments, soil recovery in glaciated landscapes, and microplastics in local sediments.

Adelsberger has extensive field experience, co-directing the Dhiban Excavation and Development Project in central Jordan since 2009, participating in NYU Excavations at Amheida since 2010, and contributing to projects in Dakhleh Oasis, Kharga Oasis, Abydos, and Sai Island in Sudan, as well as local investigations at Green Oaks Field Station. Key publications include "Desert pavement development and landscape stability on the eastern Libyan Plateau, Egypt" (Geomorphology, 2009), "Paleolandscape and paleoenvironmental interpretation of spring-deposited sediments in Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt" (Catena, 2010), "Mid-Holocene environmental change and human occupation at Sai Island, Sudan" (Geoarchaeology, 2020), "Bitumens from Tell Yarmuth (Israel) from 2800 BCE to 1100 BCE" (Organic Geochemistry, 2022), and "High Desert Near Abydos, Egypt" (Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa, 2023). Her awards encompass the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2003-2008), NSF Major Research Instrumentation Grant (2014), Geological Society of America Student Research Grant (2007), Claude C. Albritton, Jr. Award (2007), and multiple Knox College faculty grants. She serves on committees for the Geological Society of America Archaeological Geology Division and Society for American Archaeology, and holds memberships in Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.