Eric Hutton
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
Landscapes change through erosion, river flow and the build-up of sediment, and forecasting how Earth's surface will change requires understanding these processes over time. Geomorphologists, who study how landforms take shape, work in three main ways: they analyze satellite images, run computer simulations and run physical laboratory experiments such as flowing water over sand.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Computer Science
Engineering
- Topics
geomorphology
sedimentology
stratigraphy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Design and build an affordable, modular open-source hardware–firmware system so geomorphology labs around the world can make uniform measurements and produce reproducible data.
- Lead a community effort to create a shared data standard for geomorphology data, such as raster images and topography, so results from different teams can be combined easily.
- Develop a flexible open-source analysis library that works with the data standard and reduces drift in custom algorithms copied between labs and student generations.
- Build a community of practice by working with researchers in their own labs and computing environments to reuse and contribute algorithms, and create museum exhibits with an interactive web interface.
More about the research
Each approach yields insight, but results from the three are hard to combine. Much of the analysis depends on custom computer code that is copied and altered as it passes between labs and student generations. The problem is worst in experimental geomorphology, where technical barriers have kept data from being easy to find, share and reuse.
Why it matters
Shared, reproducible tools could help geoscientists combine satellite data, models and lab experiments to better forecast how landscapes and environments will change. Researchers in geomorphology, sedimentology and stratigraphy would benefit from affordable lab instruments, a common data format and reusable analysis code. The abstract notes the tools could also influence fields such as hydrology, seismology and dendrochronology, the dating of tree rings.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Katharine Huntington
University of Washington, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine the source, depositional age and grain-size distribution of megaflood deposits along the Yarlung-Siang-Brahmaputra river system in the eastern Himalaya, using field observations and laboratory analytical tools.
John Naliboff
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, NM·Earth & Environmental Science
Improve the performance and robustness of the linear and nonlinear solvers in ASPECT, the open-source code for simulating mantle convection and long-term tectonics, so complex models run with fewer computational resources.
David Harbor
Washington and Lee University, VA·Earth & Environmental Science
Run scaled flume experiments on fractured rock blocks to measure how rock mass properties and flow conditions together control when hydraulic plucking begins.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.