Michael Robinson

Michael Robinson

Photo: Taking a discharge measurment on Bright Angle Creek during the rising limb of a flash flood, 2020.

News

October 2026: Invited speaker, AGU Earth and Planetary Surface Processes (EPSP) Virtual Seminar Series (October 14).
October 2026: PhD defense, University of Nevada, Reno. 2026: Awarded the William J. "Hoot" Newman Hydro Endowed Scholarship.
2026: Invited talks at Idaho State University, the Arizona Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey.
2026: New paper in JGR: Earth Surface: "Equilibrium ridge-crest morphology records external forcing." [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JF008670]
2026: Accepted a postdoctoral position at UC Berkeley with Madison Douglas, starting January 2027.
2025: Featured in the AGU EPSP Early Career Spotlight.
2025: Invited talks at Caltech (Geoclub), UC Berkeley (EPS Lunchtime Seminar), the University of Houston and the AGU Fall Meeting.

Michael J. Robinson

Geomorphologist and hydrologist

PhD Candidate, Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno Incoming Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley (January 2027)

I study how landscapes record the forces that shape them. I combine topographic analysis of highresolution elevation data, fieldwork, laboratory flume experiments and theory to understand how rivers, ridgelines and hillslopes respond to tectonics, climate and rock type. My recent work includes the first predictive framework for the length and spacing of river tributaries (PNAS, 2024) and a theory, tested in the field, showing that ridgeline shape records erosion rate (JGR: Earth Surface, 2026).

I am finishing my PhD with Joel Scheingross at the University of Nevada, Reno, and will defend in October 2026. In January 2027 I will join Madison Douglas's group at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral scholar.

Before my PhD, I spent three years with the U.S. Geological Survey Arizona Water Science Center in Flagstaff, first as a hydrologic technician and then as a hydrologist. There I worked on regional aquifer monitoring and tribal water resources, sediment transport in the Colorado River through Grand Canyon, uranium contamination in springs, and geophysical surveys of how faults affect groundwater flow. I earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northern Arizona University and worked as a land surveyor and Engineer in Training at Shepard Wesnitzer Inc. in Flagstaff.

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