NWTRB Board Member
Updated February 15, 2005

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Dr. Thure E. Cerling was appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board on June 26, 2002, by President George W. Bush.

Dr. Cerling is Distinguished Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of Utah.  He brings to the Board expertise in terrestrial geochemistry.  His research interests are in the study of geochemistry processes occuring at or near the Earth's surface and in the geological record of ecological change.

Dr. Cerling was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.  He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Geological Society of America.  He has been a visiting professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Yale University; the University of Lausanne in Switzerland; the California Institute of Technology; and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. 

Dr. Cerling has served on numerous boards, panels, and committees, including the National Research Council-National Academy of Sciences Board of Earth Sciences and Resources, Geochemical Society Board of Directors, and the Nuclear Waste Group of the International Union of Geological Sciences.  He also served on the Governor’s Nuclear Waste Task Force, State of Utah, in 1981-83.  In 1998, he received the University of Utah Distinguished Research Award.

In 1972, Dr. Cerling earned a bachelor of science degree in geology and chemistry from Iowa State University.  In 1973, he received a master of science degree in geology from Iowa State University.  In 1977, he was awarded a Ph.D. in geology by the University of California-Berkeley.  From 1977 to 1979, Dr. Cerling worked as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  In 1979, he joined the faculty of the University of Utah.

Dr. Cerling lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.