Rate My Professor Andy Breckenridge

Dr. Andy Breckenridge serves as Professor of Geology and Environmental Science in the Natural Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, a position he has held since 2018. He advanced through the ranks at the institution, starting as Assistant Professor from 2010 to 2014 and Associate Professor from 2014 to 2017. Previously, he was Assistant Professor at Mercyhurst College from 2005 to 2010, where he helped revitalize the geology program, with approximately 50% of graduates pursuing advanced degrees. Breckenridge earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Minnesota in 2006, with a thesis titled "Lake Superior’s Varve Stratigraphy: a record of regional ice margin dynamics and Lake Agassiz overflow," advised by Dr. Tom Johnson. He also holds an M.S. in Geology from the University of Minnesota in 1999, focusing on paleolimnological methods to document Maya landscape alteration, and a B.S. in Geology with distinction from Purdue University in 1994. Since 2018, he has coordinated the Environmental Sciences program at UW-Superior and previously coordinated the Earth Science program from 2010 to 2017.

Breckenridge teaches a variety of courses emphasizing critical thinking and communication, including Environmental Science, Dynamic Earth, Geomorphology, Climatology, Earth Science for Teachers, Geology of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and field-intensive classes such as Western Field Experience. His research specializes in sedimentology, stratigraphy, glacial geology, global climate change, and landforms, utilizing lake sediments to reconstruct past climates and environments. Current projects examine the 13,000-year history of Lake Superior, the drainage dynamics of Lake Agassiz potentially linked to abrupt climatic cooling events, mapping of landslides from the June 10, 2012 flood, and techniques to reconstruct barren-ground caribou populations over millennia. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, including "A new glacial varve chronology from along the southern Laurentide Ice Sheet that spans the Younger Dryas-Holocene boundary" (Geology, 2020, with Lowell, Peteet, Wattrus, Moretto, Norris); "Deglacial patterns for the MIS 2 Laurentide Ice Sheet in Manitoba, Canada" (Boreas, 2021, with Gauthier, Hodder); "Reconstruction of isostatically-adjusted paleo-strandlines along the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet" (Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2021, with Lewis, Teller); "Eastward routing of glacial Lake Agassiz runoff caused the Younger Dryas cold event" (Geology, 2015, with Leydet, Carlson, Teller, Barth, Ullman, Sinclair, Milne, Caffee); and "An analysis of late glacial lake levels within the western Lake Superior basin based on digital elevation models" (Quaternary Research, 2013). His work elucidates ice sheet responses to warming, isostatic rebound, and freshwater influences on ocean circulation.