Rate My Professor Patrick Drohan

Patrick Drohan is Professor of Pedology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Penn State University. In Geoscience, his work centers on pedology and soil science. He earned a Ph.D. in Soil Science from The Pennsylvania State University in 2000, an M.S. in Environmental Pollution Control from Penn State in 1996, and a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Cook College-Rutgers University in 1992. Drohan leads the Penn State Soil Characterization Lab and is affiliated with the Institute of Energy and the Environment and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. He serves as Associate Editor for Soil Use and Management journal and has held past associate editor roles for Soil Science Society of America Journal and Agricultural and Environment Letters. Additionally, he is a member of the Soil Science Society of America's Council of Soil Science Examiners and past chair of its Pedology and Wetlands Divisions. Drohan co-founded the Smithsonian Soil Exhibit Project, Dig It: The Secrets of Soil.

Drohan's research investigates human use of landscapes and the resulting changes in soil function across ecosystems, with applications to land management and ecosystem stability. He studies dynamic and inherent soil properties over timescales from the Pleistocene to the present day. Areas of expertise include soil science, watershed management, landscape ecology, and natural resource management. His highly cited publications encompass impacts of shale-gas development on landcover and forests, such as Early trends in landcover change and forest fragmentation due to shale-gas development in Pennsylvania: a potential outcome for the Northcentral Appalachians (2012, 254 citations); Weathering of rock to regolith: The activity of deep roots in bedrock fractures (2017, 169 citations); and Refinement of the differential water loss method for gypsum determination in soils (2006, 139 citations). Other notable works include Watershed-scale impacts from surface water disposal of oil and gas wastewater in western Pennsylvania (2017) and Residential demolition and its impact on vacant lot hydrology (2014). Drohan received the Soil Science Society of America's President's Citation for Outstanding Service for his contributions to the Dig It exhibit. With over 2,790 citations on Google Scholar, his research influences soil systems, ecosystem change, and environmental management.