Associate Professor
Dept of Geology

Dr. Toran’s expertise is in the study of ground water quality and ground water quantity. She has been a member of the Temple University faculty since 1997, having worked 11 years at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tenn., prior to her appointment. Dr. Toran is the Weeks Chair in Environmental Geology at Temple. She teaches Introduction to Geology, Introduction to Hydrology, Advanced Hydrogeology, and Ground Water Modeling. A licensed professional geologist, Dr. Toran has had previous experience working and studying contaminated water sites — determining where the contamination has come from and recommending forms of remediation. She presently has students working on storm water sampling in the Wissahickon and Pennypack Creek watersheds and is being funded by the National Science Foundation to develop new sampling methods in karst — groundwater systems with fast flow paths through caves and fracture networks. Dr. Toran also has a site on the Ambler campus where she has drilled wells into fractured bedrock. The site will be maintained as a “clean site,” which will help teach students sampling techniques they will need when studying contaminated locations such as superfund sites. Dr. Toran is an associated faculty member of the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple University Ambler. She is a member of the Geological Society of America, the National Ground Water Association, and the American Geophysical Union.