Robert Thorson is a geologist, author, and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His teaching combines core courses and seminars for the Honors Program with science literacy. His scholarship strives to mitigate the intellectual apartheid between STEM science and the humanities by untangling and retangling geology, archaeology, ecology, history, art, and literature.
His research focuses on three main themes: New England’s iconic fieldstone walls; The 19th century environmental prophet Henry David Thoreau. The New England sense of place. For scholarly engagement, he leads the Stone Wall Initiative and the Stone Pavilion Project and is now working on his fifth exhibit for the William Benton Museum of Art.