Dr. Peter Whiting is the interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and is a professor of environmental sciences at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He received his bachelor’s degree in geology from Carleton College and his PhD in geology from University of California Berkeley.

As interim dean, Whiting leads 21 departments across the college, along with major centers and programs including the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, the Schubert Center for Child Studies, the Emerging Scholars Program, the Dittrick Medical History Center and the Leonard Gelfand STEM Center (K-12 programming).

Whiting joined the regular faculty in 1992 and has held several leadership positions in the college and university including director of the SAGES program and associate dean of the college. In his role leading SAGES, he has nurtured a ten-year partnership with the Cleveland Foundation that brings scholars to CWRU to lead semester-long courses exploring racism and the diversity of human culture.  Whiting most recently served as the interim vice president for student affairs where he helped oversee a major reorganization of the division.  

Whiting’s research focuses on rivers and streams and the processes that shape channels and contribute sediment to the channels. He worked with the U.S. Forest Service and Justice Department to estimate the most important river flows needed to move the bulk of the sediment in streams in support of major water rights cases in the Western U.S.  Separately he has developed novel approaches using fall-out radionuclides to trace fine sediment as it moves from the landscape and through river systems. He and his colleagues and students have published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Whiting teaches courses in environmental geology and climate. He also directs the environmental studies major and minor and advises about 40 students. 

Whiting spent much of his youth living abroad as the child of U.S. diplomats.  He twice hiked from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans (in Panama).  Peter and his spouse, Cindy Gherman, are the proud parents of two grown children, Zack and Emma. Peter enjoys road biking, skate skiing, growing tomatoes and walking with Cindy and their dog, Goose.