Early Career Spotlight

Safiya Alpheus


Tell us about yourself: 

Hello, I’m Safiya, and I’m originally from Trinidad and Tobago. I’m currently a graduate student at Penn State University working with Liz Hajek. I’m working on my master’s research which is focused on understanding the morphodynamics of braided river systems.

 

What is your research about? 

My research is aimed at understanding the morphodynamic processes that influence sedimentation in braided rivers. I specifically focus on how river discharge and sediment supply conditions influence the morphology and kinematics of bar deposits in these systems. To accomplish this, I create simulations of braided rivers under different discharge and sediment supply conditions and compare the different models and the stratigraphic results, across the different conditions to understand how deposition of sediment within the river changes.

 

What excites you about your research? 

Oh, I could go on and on. I’m really fascinated by how variable rivers can be, and at first order, just being able to understand how a shift in the balance of discharge and sediment supply can cause changes to a river’s planform geometry is so exciting and interesting to me. I’m also really excited by the prospect of these models being a potential linkage between the processes and patterns we observe in modern systems and the stratigraphy that we can observe in the ancient record. It’s exciting to see how much additional context we might be able to gain by leveraging and combining insights from observations in the modern, ancient, and computational domains.

 

What broader importance does your research have for society? 

Put broadly, rivers and their floodplains, are incredibly resource rich environments in society, and understanding their sensitivity to changes in flow and sediment supply conditions directly informs strategies for maintenance and management of rivers and their associated environments. Additionally, we can use the findings from this type of research to further constrain assessments of flood susceptibility and flood risk in lowland river systems, especially those facing increased flooding risk due to the consequences of climate change.

 

What inspired you to pursue a career in Earth Science? 

I think I’ve always been drawn to Earth Science, and naturally took a liking to Geography in high school. Our Geography curriculum had a healthy mix of human and physical geography, and geology, and I really, really enjoyed the topics involving rivers, earthquakes, and plate tectonics, so I took that interest and ran with it. In undergrad, I had the opportunity to do a senior thesis and spent a lot of time thinking about how river avulsion patterns influence the stratigraphy of fluvial basin fills, and realised that I enjoyed process sedimentology, and connecting bedform/channel scale observations to basin scale processes and vice versa, so after that I decided to follow a path that allowed me to realise those interests.

  

What are you looking to do after you complete your PhD or postdoc? 

Well, first on my list is starting the PhD, but I’m currently leaning towards pursuing a career as a research scientist.

 

Given unlimited funding and access to resources, what is your dream project that you would pursue? 

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately looking at all sorts of active braided and multi-threaded systems, and fluvial outcrops in Google Earth, and I think with unlimited funding, time, and access, I’d like to spend some time doing UAV surveys and building 3D models and reconstructions of fluvial outcrops and their potential modern analogues. I think it’ll be beneficial to also compile these models into a large dataset that is openly accessible and user friendly. This kind of resource could be useful on many fronts—for potentially connecting ‘fingerprints’ of kinematic processes in active systems to preserved geometries in the ancient record; as a teaching/outreach tool; and as a good resource for ‘virtual’ field work.

 

What else do you do? Any hobbies or interests outside of work? 

Currently, I’m really into painting, and baking, I binge watched a lot of Great British Bake Off this past year and have a newfound appreciation for the activity. I also enjoy travelling, and playing the steelpan.

 

File

Safiya in the field preparing for a drone flight to get imagery of outcrops of the Morrison Formation in Western Utah.