Donald Chesnut is a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey. He has done graduate work in stratigraphy, paleontology and basin analysis. He has worked at the Kentucky Geological Survey since 1979 where he worked on coal stratigraphy and coal resources. He was Section Head of the Coal and Minerals Section from 1993 to 2000. His major research interests are Carboniferous geology and paleontology. He was President of the Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists in 1998 and has been President of a project to develop the Kentucky Museum of Natural History since 1990. He received the 2003 Gordon H. Wood, Jr. Memorial Award, Eastern Section, Energy and Minerals Division, AAPG. He is a member of 17 professional societies and is a registered professional geologist. He has more than 150 publications on Carboniferous and coal geology.

Cobb, J. C., Chesnut, D. R., Hester, N. C., and Hower, J. C., 1981, Coal and coal-bearing rocks of eastern Kentucky: Guidebook and roadlog for Coal Division of Geological Society of America, Field Trip No. 14: Kentucky Geological Survey, ser. 11, 169 p.

Chesnut, D. R., 1985, Source of the volcanic ash deposit (flint clay) in the Fire Clay coal of the Appalachian Basin: Dixieme Congres International de Stratigraphie et de Geologie du Carbonifere, Madrid, Spain, 1983, Compte Rendu, v. 1, p. 145-154.

Chesnut, D. R., and Ettensohn, F. R., 1988, Hombergian (Chesterian) echinoderm paleontology and paleoecology, south-central Kentucky: Bulletins of American Paleontology, v. 95, no. 330, 102 p.

Chesnut, D. R., 1991, Timing of Alleghenian tectonics by Central Appalachian foreland basin analysis. Southeastern Geology, v. 31, n. 4, p. 203-221.

Chesnut, D. R., Jr., 1991, Paleontological survey of the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field: Part 1--Invertebrates: Kentucky Geological Survey, ser. 11, Information Circular 36, 71 p.

Chesnut, D. R., Jr., Cobb, J. C., and Greb, S. F., 1992, "Pipe-organ structures" in the Lee Formation (Pennsylvanian) of the Central Appalachian Basin: Animal or plant? Journal of Paleontology, v. 66, no. 1, p. 148-155.

Chesnut, D. R., Jr., 1992, Stratigraphic and structural framework of the Carboniferous rocks of the Central Appalachian Basin: Kentucky Geological Survey, ser. 11, Bulletin 3, 99 p.

Chesnut, D. R., Jr., 1994, Eustatic and tectonic control of deposition of the Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian strata of the Central Appalachian Basin, in Dennison, J. M., and Ettensohn, F. R. [eds], Tectonic and Eustatic Controls on Sedimentary Cycles. SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology, Vol. 4, p. 51-64.

Chesnut, D. R., 1996, Geologic framework for the coal-bearing rocks of the Central Appalachian Basin. International Journal of Coal Geology, v. 31, p. 55-66.

Chesnut, D.R., Jr., Nuttall, B.C., Eble, C.F., Greg, S.F., Hower, J.C., and Hiett, J.K., 1997, Coalbed methane in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, USA. 1997 International Coalbed Methane Symposium, May 12-17, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, p. 365-374.

Chesnut, D.R., Jr., Eble, C.F., Greb, S.F., and Dever, G.R., Jr., Geology of the Pound Gap roadcut, Letcher County, Kentucky. Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists, 169 p.