UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Peter Newman, the former associate dean of academic affairs in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, has assumed the role of head of the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Management at Penn State. He is replacing Garry Chick, who served as head of the department for four years.
"This department has a rich legacy of graduate and undergraduate alumni who have become faculty in park and tourism programs and practitioners across the globe," said Newman. "Today, I believe, we have a lot to contribute on issues in the nexus of protected area management, tourism, human health and environmental sustainability.”
Newman's research focuses on the human dimensions of natural resource management and social carrying capacity decision making in the context of protected areas management. In particular, he studies visitor management in protected areas, soundscape/ acoustic management in parks, transportation management and planning, and efficacy and communication of "leave no trace" principles.
He has conducted research in many parks and protected areas around the world, including Yosemite National Park in California, Denali National Park in Alaska, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Fulufjallet National Park in Sweden. He also conducts work with the Natural Sounds Program of the U.S. National Park Service. His research led to the development of a domestic and international reputation for research on visitor capacity in U.S. national parks.
"I am excited to collaborate across campus with colleagues from within the College of Human Health and Development to Penn State’s graduate program in acoustics in the College of Engineering," he said.
Newman is the recipient of the 2013 George Wright Society Social Science Achievement Award and the 2012 National Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Award for Research. He was appointed to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and as the U.S. delegate to the International Standards Organization ISO (WG-54) on Human Perception of Acoustics in Natural Areas, a commission made up of members from 16 countries. He also was appointed as a member of the 21st Century Council of Congressional Black Caucus Institute subcommittee on the environment and education.
Newman earned a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Rochester in 1994, a master's degree in forest resource management at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 1998 and a doctoral degree in natural resources at the University of Vermont in 2002. He joined the faculty of Colorado State University in 2002 and became associate dean of academic affairs in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State in 2009.