Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Petition for University of Maryland to Reconsider Tenure Decision in Case of Dr. Derrick J Lampkin
Final supporters
Promotion and Tenure Committee
University of Maryland
Office of Faculty Affairs
College Park, MD 20742
Leigh A. Stearns
University of Kansas
Department of Geology
Lawrence, KS 66045
November 5, 2019
Dear Promotion and Tenure Committee –
I am writing in support of Derrick J. Lampkin receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. I have been a colleague of Dr. Lampkin’s for nearly 15 years and am shocked that his record is not sufficient for this promotion. I recognize that an unsolicited letter of support is untraditional, but as a member of the cryosphere community, I am fiercely advocating for him.
UMD outlines 4 key qualifications in the Policy & Proceedings on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure for the rank of Associate Professor. I know Dr. Lampkin as a valuable member of the cryosphere community, so am mostly writing about his accomplishments as a researcher and his service to our community. However, I also read through his dossier and outline how Dr. Lampkin meets each of the qualifications set by UMD.
1. have a high level of competence in teaching and advisement
Dr. Lampkin’s teaching evaluations are consistently good, and he maintains solid enrollment in his classes. He has developed several new classes, including one that directly links work done at nearby NASA GSFC and students at UMD, hopefully opening up internships and research opportunities between the two. In candid comments from students in his classes (included in his teaching portfolio), even when they are confused by course content, they appreciate his enthusiastic teaching style and his genuine care for them as individuals.
Dr. Lampkin has advised a large number of undergraduates, Master’s students and Doctoral students – both formally and informally. At UMD he graduated 1 MS and 2 PhD students. Four of his recent publications are first-authored by graduate students, which is an important metric for the students and the department, and demonstrates his effectiveness as a research advisor.
2. demonstrated significant research
Dr. Lampkin has 21 publications: 12 as first author, 4 first authored by graduate students, and 10 since starting at UMD. He has acquired 12 federally funded grants, totaling $2.2 million. These metrics alone would satisfy tenure requirements in most universities.
Research from Dr. Lampkin’s group focuses on using remote sensing, field observations, and numerical models to understand how water flows through, and impacts, glaciers. This work has led to major advancements in understanding how glaciers might change in a warming climate. As a community, we largely thought that surface water only impacted glacier flow once it got to the bed of a glacier. Dr. Lampkin’s work showed that surface water can also weaken shear margins, causing glacier acceleration. This observation shifted our thinking about the importance of lateral margins and the role of surface water on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
As shown in his publications and funded grants, Dr. Lampkin is actively collaborating with other glaciologists to address questions of surface melt water production, runoff, and infiltration. I have always been impressed by his ability to engage a wide range of researchers and get them excited and curious about his research questions.
3. shown promise of continued productivity
The clearest metric for continued productivity is the number of publications and funded grants, both of which have increased for Dr. Lampkin since he began at UMD in 2013. He has 10 publications (average 2/year) and 5 federally-funded grants (1/year) since joining at UMD.
4. shall have served the campus, the profession, or the community in some useful way
Dr. Lampkin does more than his share of tough service jobs, an example of his commitment to being an active community member. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, which is one of our top journals in glaciology (acting as an Associate Editor is an enormous time commitment). He is also on the Executive Committee for the Cryosphere Section of AGU. These service responsibilities are all substantial jobs, year-round. He is also active as a reviewer and panelist (for both NASA and NSF panels).
AT UMD, Dr. Lampkin is a University Senator, and the Undergraduate Program Co-Director in his department. Again, these are service obligations that require year-round attention, and are a lot of work. As highlighted in his dossier, he is committed to supporting students and their research, and being engaged in these programs helps him achieve that.
It is noteworthy, and understated in his dossier, that Dr. Lampkin has devoted a lot of effort supporting minority students, both formally and informally. He created a student mentoring program for minority students in his department, and became the informal advisor to a number of minority graduate students. Following up on efforts to diversify his department, he is active in their recruiting efforts. While these efforts alone don’t justify tenure, combined with his research and teaching contributions, they do. Geoscience remains the least diverse STEM field, and Dr. Lampkin is one of only a few black glaciologists in the US. Not allowing his research and teaching accomplishments to speak for themselves is an additional obstacle that he should not have to confront.
I hope this letter has served to express my unwavering support for Dr. Lampkin’s tenure and promotion. Please be in touch with any questions.
Sincerely,
Leigh A. Stearns
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I have had the distinct honor and privilege of collaborating with Dr. Lampkin for over a decade. Beyond the previously-highlighted enthusiasm and service that he brings to our discipline, Dr. Lampkin’s refusal to accept leading hypotheses without interrogating their implicit assumptions through observational data and carefully planned experiments is not only inspiring, but is an essential and fundamental contribution to cryospheric science. Our research discussions are inevitably enriched and enlivened by his experiences, viewpoints, and unwavering commitment to generate hypotheses that are able to rectify seemingly incongruent data.
As a Meteorology Professor I taught with Dr. Lampkin at Penn State -to an enthusiastic class on remote sensing. His expertise in cryo is much needed in UMD AOSC, providing an important dimension in water-ice-related research. I am Adjunct at both AOSC and PSU Meteo. Thank you for the chance to support a very fine colleague.
I am writing to support Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. He is a highly regarded colleague who has done significant research contribution to cryospheric sciences.
I express my support for Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. Dr. Lampkin has been a terrific colleague/collaborator and his work has been pivotal to move forward the cryosphere community.
I would like to add my support for Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. Dr. Lampkin has served as my advisor for my entire time at the University of Maryland and has not only been a terrific advisor, but a terrific colleague/collaborator as well.
I've collaborated on a study led by Dr Lampkin that demonstrates broad thinking and leadership on an original topic of general interest to society. Thus, I am confident of his work is at a level commensurate with promotion to Assoc. Prof.
I fully support the tenure and promotion of Prof. Lampkin. He has been an exemplary colleague and role model at the University of Maryland, and fills an incredibly important knowledge gap in program expertise in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. His research program straddles multiple disciplines, and represents a novel and newly emerging view of meltwater processes in the rapidly changing world of glacial dynamics in a warming climate world. He is a pioneer in these types of studies, and is already finding new ways to connect this understanding to other processes not just on Earth, but elsewhere in the Solar System. He is committed to the highest levels of standards in his science and teaching, and is an outstanding mentor to his students.
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Petition for University of Maryland to Reconsider Tenure Decision in Case of Dr. Derrick J Lampkin
Final supporters
Promotion and Tenure Committee
University of Maryland
Office of Faculty Affairs
College Park, MD 20742
Leigh A. Stearns
University of Kansas
Department of Geology
Lawrence, KS 66045
November 5, 2019
Dear Promotion and Tenure Committee –
I am writing in support of Derrick J. Lampkin receiving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. I have been a colleague of Dr. Lampkin’s for nearly 15 years and am shocked that his record is not sufficient for this promotion. I recognize that an unsolicited letter of support is untraditional, but as a member of the cryosphere community, I am fiercely advocating for him.
UMD outlines 4 key qualifications in the Policy & Proceedings on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure for the rank of Associate Professor. I know Dr. Lampkin as a valuable member of the cryosphere community, so am mostly writing about his accomplishments as a researcher and his service to our community. However, I also read through his dossier and outline how Dr. Lampkin meets each of the qualifications set by UMD.
1. have a high level of competence in teaching and advisement
Dr. Lampkin’s teaching evaluations are consistently good, and he maintains solid enrollment in his classes. He has developed several new classes, including one that directly links work done at nearby NASA GSFC and students at UMD, hopefully opening up internships and research opportunities between the two. In candid comments from students in his classes (included in his teaching portfolio), even when they are confused by course content, they appreciate his enthusiastic teaching style and his genuine care for them as individuals.
Dr. Lampkin has advised a large number of undergraduates, Master’s students and Doctoral students – both formally and informally. At UMD he graduated 1 MS and 2 PhD students. Four of his recent publications are first-authored by graduate students, which is an important metric for the students and the department, and demonstrates his effectiveness as a research advisor.
2. demonstrated significant research
Dr. Lampkin has 21 publications: 12 as first author, 4 first authored by graduate students, and 10 since starting at UMD. He has acquired 12 federally funded grants, totaling $2.2 million. These metrics alone would satisfy tenure requirements in most universities.
Research from Dr. Lampkin’s group focuses on using remote sensing, field observations, and numerical models to understand how water flows through, and impacts, glaciers. This work has led to major advancements in understanding how glaciers might change in a warming climate. As a community, we largely thought that surface water only impacted glacier flow once it got to the bed of a glacier. Dr. Lampkin’s work showed that surface water can also weaken shear margins, causing glacier acceleration. This observation shifted our thinking about the importance of lateral margins and the role of surface water on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
As shown in his publications and funded grants, Dr. Lampkin is actively collaborating with other glaciologists to address questions of surface melt water production, runoff, and infiltration. I have always been impressed by his ability to engage a wide range of researchers and get them excited and curious about his research questions.
3. shown promise of continued productivity
The clearest metric for continued productivity is the number of publications and funded grants, both of which have increased for Dr. Lampkin since he began at UMD in 2013. He has 10 publications (average 2/year) and 5 federally-funded grants (1/year) since joining at UMD.
4. shall have served the campus, the profession, or the community in some useful way
Dr. Lampkin does more than his share of tough service jobs, an example of his commitment to being an active community member. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, which is one of our top journals in glaciology (acting as an Associate Editor is an enormous time commitment). He is also on the Executive Committee for the Cryosphere Section of AGU. These service responsibilities are all substantial jobs, year-round. He is also active as a reviewer and panelist (for both NASA and NSF panels).
AT UMD, Dr. Lampkin is a University Senator, and the Undergraduate Program Co-Director in his department. Again, these are service obligations that require year-round attention, and are a lot of work. As highlighted in his dossier, he is committed to supporting students and their research, and being engaged in these programs helps him achieve that.
It is noteworthy, and understated in his dossier, that Dr. Lampkin has devoted a lot of effort supporting minority students, both formally and informally. He created a student mentoring program for minority students in his department, and became the informal advisor to a number of minority graduate students. Following up on efforts to diversify his department, he is active in their recruiting efforts. While these efforts alone don’t justify tenure, combined with his research and teaching contributions, they do. Geoscience remains the least diverse STEM field, and Dr. Lampkin is one of only a few black glaciologists in the US. Not allowing his research and teaching accomplishments to speak for themselves is an additional obstacle that he should not have to confront.
I hope this letter has served to express my unwavering support for Dr. Lampkin’s tenure and promotion. Please be in touch with any questions.
Sincerely,
Leigh A. Stearns
13 Comments
Dr. Derrick Lampkin has developed important synergies between his research and his strong efforts helping enhance scientific diversity, education and outreach, to the benefit of all. These synergies are now unfortunately endangered, and the loss of his research productivity at the University of Maryland will negatively impact diversity as well. On the research side, Dr. Lampkin has participated in much important work, with his recent studies of meltwater infiltration along ice-stream shear margins especially notable, pointing towards better understanding of the risks of rapid sea-level rise in a warming world.
I have had the distinct honor and privilege of collaborating with Dr. Lampkin for over a decade. Beyond the previously-highlighted enthusiasm and service that he brings to our discipline, Dr. Lampkin’s refusal to accept leading hypotheses without interrogating their implicit assumptions through observational data and carefully planned experiments is not only inspiring, but is an essential and fundamental contribution to cryospheric science. Our research discussions are inevitably enriched and enlivened by his experiences, viewpoints, and unwavering commitment to generate hypotheses that are able to rectify seemingly incongruent data.
As a Meteorology Professor I taught with Dr. Lampkin at Penn State -to an enthusiastic class on remote sensing. His expertise in cryo is much needed in UMD AOSC, providing an important dimension in water-ice-related research. I am Adjunct at both AOSC and PSU Meteo. Thank you for the chance to support a very fine colleague.
I am writing to support Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. He is a highly regarded colleague who has done significant research contribution to cryospheric sciences.
I express my support for Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. Dr. Lampkin has been a terrific colleague/collaborator and his work has been pivotal to move forward the cryosphere community.
I would like to add my support for Dr. Lampkin's tenure and promotion. Dr. Lampkin has served as my advisor for my entire time at the University of Maryland and has not only been a terrific advisor, but a terrific colleague/collaborator as well.
I've collaborated on a study led by Dr Lampkin that demonstrates broad thinking and leadership on an original topic of general interest to society. Thus, I am confident of his work is at a level commensurate with promotion to Assoc. Prof.
I fully support the tenure and promotion of Prof. Lampkin. He has been an exemplary colleague and role model at the University of Maryland, and fills an incredibly important knowledge gap in program expertise in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. His research program straddles multiple disciplines, and represents a novel and newly emerging view of meltwater processes in the rapidly changing world of glacial dynamics in a warming climate world. He is a pioneer in these types of studies, and is already finding new ways to connect this understanding to other processes not just on Earth, but elsewhere in the Solar System. He is committed to the highest levels of standards in his science and teaching, and is an outstanding mentor to his students.
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Dr. Derrick Lampkin has developed important synergies between his research and his strong efforts helping enhance scientific diversity, education and outreach, to the benefit of all. These synergies are now unfortunately endangered, and the loss of his research productivity at the University of Maryland will negatively impact diversity as well. On the research side, Dr. Lampkin has participated in much important work, with his recent studies of meltwater infiltration along ice-stream shear margins especially notable, pointing towards better understanding of the risks of rapid sea-level rise in a warming world.