Michael Robinson
Join us for a coffee hour with Michaelon July 29th, 2025, 11am PST. Register here.
Tell us about yourself:
My name is Michael Robinson, and I am a Ph.D. student in the interdisciplinary Program of Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where I work with Joel Scheingross and a network of awesome collaborators. Before my PhD, I was a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Arizona Water Science Center. There, I worked on a wide range of projects from regional aquifer monitoring and geophysics-based hydrogeologic investigations to sediment transport studies in the Grand Canyon. I earned my B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northern Arizona University.)
What is your research about?
My research ranges from identifying characteristics of landscape organization to fluvial and hillslope geomorphology. My first PhD project focused on identifying characteristics of river network structure. For this research, I used topographic analysis of high-resolution digital elevation models to develop a predictive framework for the length and spacing of river tributaries within watersheds. In the fluvial domain, I am exploring the role of self-generated waterfalls in bedrock erosion with analog experiments that are run in a flume I constructed at UNR. My hillslope research focuses on the morphology of ridgelines and developing new morphometrics to identify divide migration at high spatial resolutions.
What excites you about your research?
This might sound cliché, but what excites me most about my research is taking part in pushing forward the broader knowledge base of earth surface processes. Whether it’s through my own work or reading the work of others in our community, expanding my knowledge and sharpening my intuition about the processes shaping Earth’s landscapes is incredibly motivating and fulfilling for me.
What broader importance does your research have for society?
My work on predicting the length and spacing of river tributaries has society-relevant interdisciplinary applications. This work can be combined with river long-profile models to predict the distribution of relief within watersheds, and it can be used to define synthetic river networks for ecological and flooding models to better predict how water, sediment, and nutrients are routed through river networks.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Earth Science?
My interest in earth science was spurred from the experiences I had rock climbing and recreating while receiving my engineering degree. Climbing sandstone towers in Sedona and perfect columnar basalt cracks in the canyons draining the edge of the Colorado Plateau always left me wondering how these amazing landscapes were formed. Earth science curious, I started volunteering with the USGS in my free time, even taking unpaid time off from my engineering job to collect water quality samples, monitor sediment in desert rivers, and calibrate stage sensors. This experience culminated in a 14-day Grand Canyon river trip. After that, I was hooked. I was offered a hydrologic technician position at the USGS, which paid significantly less than engineering, but I accepted without hesitation.
What are you looking to do after you complete your PhD or postdoc?
After completing my Ph.D., I hope to continue doing research as a postdoc. While I am having a blast in my Ph.D., I’m excited about the opportunity to broaden my research perspective and continue to build a great network of collaborators and friends.
Given unlimited funding and access to resources, what is your dream project that you would pursue?
The answer that first comes to mind regarding this question is largely dictated by the focus of my most current research. I’ve been conducting analog flume experiments with undergraduate researcher Adan Albarran Ayala to explore the controls on self-formed cyclic step morphology in steep mountain streams and investigates how these steps impact alluvial cover and the spatial distributions of erosion during high flow events. Like many physical experiments, our current experimental apparatus has some limitations, and field data to validate the lab results is sparse.
With unlimited resources, I would build a larger flume capable of tilting to high slopes and recirculating sediment up to the size of coarse gravel. With this flume it would be possible to build off of our current work and explore how sediment size and distribution, as well as channel width, affect the morphology of cyclic steps and the resulting patterns of fluvial erosion in steep mountain streams. I would also collaborate with engineers to develop new tools for quantifying the spatial dynamics of alluvial cover during high flow discharge events, allowing us to validate our experimental results.
What else do you do? Any hobbies or interests outside of work?
For much of my adult life, I’ve been a dedicated rock climber, though that’s tapered a bit recently. I still enjoy climbing casually with friends, as well as other outdoor activities like road biking around Reno and mountain biking in the nearby hills. Mostly though I love my daily bike commute to campus and getting a workout in at the university gym during lunch. They might not seem like awesome hobbies, but these simpler day-to-day activities have become something that brings me a lot of joy lately.
Find out more about Michael's work on his website: www.mjrgeomorph.com
Email: mikerob643@gmail.com