BIOGRAPHY

Geomorphology class in Panamint dunes, California

 

Personal history

  • Born 17 November 1952, Denver, Colorado.
  • Married 28 June 1987 to Suzanne Prestrud.
  • Two children: Hannah and Grace

Present position

  • Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado
  • Fellow, INSTAAR

Education

  • Ph.D., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1986
    • Dissertation: Sediment transport by wind: Saltation, suspension, erosion and ripples.
  • M.S., Department of Earth Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, August 1977
    • Thesis: A Biography of Clarence Edward Dutton (1841-1912): 19th Century Geologist and Geographer.
  • B.A. in geology, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, June 1974.
    • Highest honors in geology, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa.
    • Honors thesis: Petrology and emplacement of the Lake George intrusive complex, Colorado.

Post-doctoral research experience

  • Post-doctoral research fellow, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, 1986-1988.
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1988-1992.
  • Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992-1997.
  • Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1997-2003.

Awards

  • Dissertation fellowship from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation, 1985.
  • NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award 1991-1996.
  • Gladys Cole Award for research in arid regions, Geological Society of America, 1995.
  • AGU Fellow, 2006

Professional societies

  • American Geophysical Union
  • American Quaternary Association
  • Geological Society of America
  • International Glaciological Society

Appointments

  • Erosion and Sedimentation Committee of Hydrology Section, AGU 1988-1996.
  • Associate editor, Geology. 1993-1995; 1996-1998, 1999-2001.
  • Associate editor, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 2001-2003.
  • Editor, JGR-Earth Surface, 2002-2006.

Special conferences

  • First meeting of the Association of Field Geomorphologists, Pinedale, Wyoming, September 1982.
  • First through eighth meetings of theoretical geomorphologists (Gilbert Club), Berkeley, California. December 1983-1990.
  • Annual meetings of the Pacific Northwest Glaciologists, Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver, B.C., December 1980-86.
  • First International Conference on Geomorphology, Manchester, England. September 1985.
  • International Workshop on Hydraulic Effects at the Glacier Bed and Related Phenomena, Interlaken, Switzerland. September 1985.
  • Euromech 201 Conference on Applications of the Mechanics of Granular Materials in Geophysics, Interlaken, Switzerland. October 1985.
  • International Workshop on Sand Transport and Desertification in Arid Lands, Khartoum, Sudan. November 1985.
  • Seventeenth Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. September 1986.
  • Eolian Sediment Transport, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. March 1988.
  • Self-organization in goechemical systems. Santa Barbara, California. June 1988.
  • Symposium on snow and ice and the human condition, International Glaciological Society, Lom, Norway. September 1988.
  • Workshop on sand, dust and soil in their relation to aeolian and littoral processes. Sandbjerb, Denmark. May 14-18, 1990.
  • USGS Redbook Conference on the Significance of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Co-convenor with Greg Beroza and Bill Ellsworth. Monterey, California. May 1991.
  • Chapman Conference "Tectonics and Topography" Snowbird, Utah. August 1992.
  • Keck Conference on teaching undergraduate geomorphology. Carlton, Minnesota, September 24-26, 1993.
  • 19th Donnell Foster Hewett Lecture Series, Lehigh University, October 19, 1995.
  • Bedrock channel incision conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, August 28-September 1, 1996.
  • co-convener with Emi Ito of workshop on the Future of Geomorphology and Quaternary Studies, University of Minnesota, February 1999.
  • Workshop on the physics of dunes and the impacts of dunes on human structures, Medenine, Tunisia, April 19-24, 1999.

Speaking engagements

  • The marine terraces of the Santa Cruz coastline, the Santa Cruz mountains, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake: connections and implications. Bay Area Geophysical Society November 29, 1990.
  • Tectonic uplift in the Monterey Bay area associated with the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
  • California Shore and Beach Protection Association annual conference 1990. November 14, 1990.
  • The marine terraces of the Santa Cruz coastline, the Santa Cruz mountains, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake: connections and implications. Association of Engineering Geologists, San Francisco Section. January 8th 1991.
  • Monterey Bay area geology. Training session for docents, Seacliff State Park, Aptos, California. June 22, 1991; May 1993.
  • Invited Speaker, Keck Symposium on teaching undergraduate geomorphology, Carlton, Minnesota, September 24-26, 1993.
  • Invited Speaker, 19th Donnell Foster Hewett Lecture Series, Lehigh University, October 19, 1995.

External examiner

  • Stephen Wolfe, University of Guelph Department of Geography, PhD final exam, August 1993. Thesis title: "The role of sparse vegetation in reducing the erosion potential of arid lands"
  • Marek Cichanski.USC Department of Geological Sciences, Ph.D. candidacy exam, Fall 1993. Panamint Valley structure and neotectonics.

External committee member

  • Chuck Headley, Department of Geology, Hayward State, Masters advisory committee. Marine terraces of the Marin Coast, California.
  • Yvonne Martin (Ph.D. at UBC, outside member of reading committee, May 1998)

Consultant, scientific mentor

  • Mentor of a group of 4 high school students in Hylton, Virginia, modeling sand transport by wind (winners of a Superquest Award), 1993-1994
  • Advisor to Ned Kahn, artist on staff of Exploratorium, San Francisco, in submitting NSF proposal to construct additional traveling exhibits of self-organizing phenomena, 1994

Departmental seminars

  • UCLA . October 1987
  • Johns Hopkins. April 1987
  • Bowdoin College. January 1988
  • UC Santa Cruz. February 1988
  • UC Berkeley. April 1990
  • UC Santa Barbara. January 1990
  • Williams College. (3 talks) Geology, Environmental Studies. February 1991
  • Duke University. Geology. February 1991
  • University of Wyoming. November 1991
  • University of Texas, Austin. November 1991
  • San Jose State. January 1992
  • University of Southern California. November 1992
  • Caltech. February 1994
  • Stanford. March 1994
  • UC Berkeley. March 1994
  • MIT. March 1994.
  • Oregon State. April 1994
  • University of Wyoming. February 1995
  • University of California Santa Barbara. March 1995
  • Franklin and Marshall College. October 1995
  • Penn State. October 1995
  • Lehigh University. October 1995
  • Stanford. May 1996
  • UC Riverside. April 1996
  • Penn State. April 1996
  • University of Washington. May 1996
  • Scripps. January 1997
  • USC. January 1997
  • Harvard. March 1997
  • UC Davis. January 1998
  • University of Alaska Fairbanks June 1998
  • University of Oregon October 1998
  • William and Mary March 1999
  • Arizona State April 1999
  • UC Santa Barbara February 2000
  • Caltech February 2000
  • USGS Marine Geology February 2001, University of Arizona February 2001, Duke November 2001, MIT November 2001, INSTAAR December 2001
  • University of Wyoming January 2002, University of Colorado January 2002, Colorado College April 2002, University of Nebraska Lincoln September 2002, 'Year of the Mountain symposium', University of Colorado November 2002, Gilbert Club December 2002
  • Stanford, January 2003, Penrose conference Taiwan January 2003, University of Colorado January 2003, Purdue February 2003, UC Santa Barbara February 2003
  • Colorado School of Mines, April 2004; Colorado State University, April 2004; Yosemite, June 2004

Teaching at UCSC

lower division

  • Earth catastrophes (co-taught with Thorne Lay; no longer involved as of S99)

upper division:

  • Geomorphology. broad introduction to the mechanics and chemistry of Earth's surface processes
  • The Dynamic Earth (110C, third course in the foundation series)

graduate level:

  • Geomechanics (no longer taught as such)
  • Advanced geomorphology: flavors include Matlab-based modeling in the earth sciences, field trip-based course, glaciology, fluvial, hillslope
  • Seminar on topics in geomorphology and Quaternary studies

Teaching at University of Colorado

lower division

  • Earth catastrophes
  • 2001 The Earth

upper division:

  • Geomorphology. Broad introduction to the mechanics and chemistry of Earth's surface processes.

graduate level:

  • Geomechanics. Introduction to the formal treatment of earth physics problems.
  • Modeling landscapes (usually co-taught with Greg Tucker)
  • Advanced geomorphology: flavors include Matlab-based modeling in the earth sciences, field trip-based course, glaciology, fluvial, hillslope
  • Seminars on topics in process geomorphology (ongoing every semester)

Undergraduate student theses

  • Melissa Swartz, 1993. A map analysis of the fluvial terraces of the Fremont River, Utah.
  • Jon Block, 1993. Vegetational analysis of packrat middens on North Caineville Plateau, Utah
  • Peter Apostle, 1994. A sliding velocity history as taken from a subglacial film of Grinnell Glacier, Montana
  • Taka Furuichi (visiting student from Japan), 1994. Regolith thickness near local channel heads as deduced from hammer seismic surveys
  • Richard Hum, 1994. Beach cusps documented using video camera and survey systems
  • Matthew Heismann, 1995. Pajaro valley groundwater basins
  • Darren Croteau, 1997. Analysis of the Amesti Road landslide
  • Gary Conley, 1998. Morphology of a rapidly evolving gully system during an El Nino year
  • Jessica Thomas, 1999. Peak discharge determinations for Wilder Creek basin using paleoflood indicators, Water year 1998-99.
  • Chris Pollack, 2000. Response of the Bench Glacier and her Sisiters to Little Ice Age climate variations
  • Rebekah Helms, 2001. Modeling the radiation input tot he Bench glacier: the role of topographic shading.