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Former Members

Former Postdocs and Staff

Ben Mackey, Caltech Postdoc 2009-2011
Now Natural Hazards Analyst, Otago Regional Council, New Zealand

Ryan Ewing, Caltech Postdoc 2009 - 2011
Now Professor at Texas A&M

Pailin Chatanantavet, Caltech Postdoc 2011 - 2013
Now Engineer, Environmental Consulting, Ocean and Human, Tokyo, Japan

Adam Booth, Caltech Postdoc 2012 - 2013
Now Associate Professor, Portland State University

Roman DiBiase, Caltech Postdoc 2011 - 2014
Now Associate Professor, Penn State University

Dirk Scherler, Caltech Postdoc 2012 - 2014, *main advisor J.-P. Avouac.  
Now Professor at GFZ-Potsdam.

Vamsi Ganti, Caltech Postdoc 2013 - 2015
Now Assistant Professor, U.C. Santa Barbara

Isaac Larsen, Caltech Prize Postdoc 2013 - 2015
Now Associate Professor, U. Massachusetts Amherst

Florent Gimbert, Postdoc 2013 - 2015, *V. Tsai main advisor
Now Research Scientist, CNRS

Marisa Palucis, NSF Postdoc, 2014-2017
Now Assistant Professor, Dartmouth

Francois Ayoub, Staff Scientist, 2015-2016
Now at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Brian Fuller, Lab Manager, 2010-2017
Now Engineering Geologist, CA Water Board

Mark Torres, Caltech Prize Postdoc, 2015 - 2017, W. Fischer co-advisor
Now Assistant Professor, Rice University

Lizzy Trower, Agouron Postdoc, 2015 - 2017, W. Fischer and J. Grotzinger co-advisors
Now Assistant Professor, U. Colorado Boulder

Ke Liu, JPL-Caltech postdoc, 2017 - 2018, Marc Simard (JPL) main advisor
Now Quantitative model developer, J. P. Morgan

Jan de Leeuw, Caltech postdoc, 2017-2019
Now Engineering Consultant in Bavaria

Alex Beer, Caltech and SNSF postdoc, 2017-2019
Now Postdoctoral Scholar at Tuebingen University

Flavien Beaud, Caltech and SNSF postdoc, 2017-2019
Now Postdoctoral Scholar at U. British Columbia

Tom Ulizio, Lab Manager, 2017-2020
Now at Maryland Geological Survey

Lisanne Braat, Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020-2021
Now Scientist at European Space Agency

Tamara Pico, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2021
Now Assistant Professor at U. California - Santa Cruz

Gen Li, Caltech Postdoc, 2018-2021
Now Assistant Professor at U. California - Santa Barbara 

Tien-Hao Liao, Caltech and JPL Postdoc, 2018-2021
Now Assistant Professor at National Taipei University of Technology

Gerard Salter, Caltech Postdoc, 2019-2022
Now Mendenhall Scholar at USGS 

Ben Cardenas, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2022
Now Assistant Professor at Penn State University

Janice Grancich, Administrator, 2022

Kieran Dunne, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, 2021-2023
Now Assistant Professor at TU Delft

Omar Wani, Caltech Postdoc, 2022-2023
Now Assistant Professor at NYU

Mary Scott, Administrator, 2022 - 2024

Former Graduate Students

Ajay Limaye, PhD 2014, "Valley Evolution by Meandering Rivers"
Now Assistant Professor, U. Virginia.

Joel Scheingross, PhD 2015, "Mechanics of Sediment Transport and Bedrock Erosion in Steep Landscapes"
Now Assistant Professor, U. Nevada.

Jeff Prancevic, PhD 2016, "Sediment Mobility in Steep Channels and the Transition to Landsliding"
Now at U.S Geological Survey.

Luca Malatesta, PhD 2016, "Impact of climate and tectonics on the morphodynamics of alluvial piedmonts, implications for sediment transfer and the stratigraphic record" (J-P Avouac main advisor), Now Senior Researcher GFZ-Potsdam.

Mathieu Lapotre, PhD 2017, "Sedimentary Processes on Earth and Mars: Canyon Erosion, Sand Ripple Formation and Mineral Comoposition."  B. Ehlmann co-advisor.  Now Assistant Professor Stanford University.  [Web]

Austin Chadwick, PhD 2019, "Mechanics of River Avulsions on Lowland Deltas"
Now Postdoctoral Scholar, UC Santa Barbara

Alistair Hayden, PhD 2020, "Exhumed Fluvial Deposits: New Paleohydrological Tools Indicate Long-Duration Fluvial Activity in Early Mars"
Now Assistant Professor, Cornell.

Madison Douglas, PhD 2023, "Mechanics of River Erosion and its Effects on Floodplain Biogeochemistry"
Now Postdoctoral Scholar, MIT

Former Undergraduate and High-School Research Fellows

Eric Keinsasser (Occidental College), SURF 2010, Boulder transport in steep channels.

Mariya Levina (Caltech), SURF 2010 - 2011, Sediment trapping by vegetation.

Cailan Halliday (Humbolt State), 2011, Waterfall hydraulic modeling.

Cindy Tran, 2010 - 2011, Debris flow initiation experiments.

Conor O'Toole (Harvard-Westlake high school, Bowdin College), 2010, 2011, Waterfall erosion experiments.

Odin Marc (Ecole Normale Superieure, France), 2010-2011, Permafrost and river stability.

Peter Buhler (Caltech), 2010-2011, Paleolake mapping on Mars.

Mathieu Lapotre (Université de Strasbourg, France), 2010, 2011, Numerical modeling of large floods on Mars.

Daniel Lo (Caltech), 2012, Experiments on waterfall erosion.

Aaron Tran (UC Berkeley), 2012, Multibeam laser scanning through air and water.

Khadijah Omerdin (Westridge high school), 2013, Bedrock erosion by suspended load.

Fanny Brun (Ecole Normale Superieure, France), 2013, Forces on boulders in steep channels.

Gheorghe Schreiber (Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies), 2013, Bedrock erosion with mixed particle sizes.

Michael Jensen (Caltech), SURF 2013, Meandering rivers in bedrock.

Hima Hassenruck-Gudipati (Caltech), SURF 2013-2014, Avulsions on deltas.

Juliane Preimesberger (Caltech), SURF 2014, Bedrock erosion in the big flume.

Elliot Simon (Caltech), SURF 2014, Exposure age dating in Washington.

Jay Yalamanchili (high school), 2015, Pressure transducer calibration 

Sam Holo (Caltech), SURF 2015, Grain flow experiments

Kirby Sikes (Caltech), 2015-2016, River delta experiments

Brian Zdeb (Caltech), 2016, Debris flow experiments

Jose Silvestre (UNAVCO intern), 2017 & 2018, River delta experiments

Sarah Steele (Caltech), SURF 2017 and assistant 2017-2019, River delta experiments

Lydia Kivrak (Caltech), SURF 2017, Ooid experiments

Erich Herzig (Caltech), 2017-2018, Debris flow experiments

Zewei Ma (Tsinghua University), SURF 2018, Bedrock erosion

Victor Heme (Aix-Marseille University), 2019, Bedrock gully experiments

Denise Garcia (San Diego State), WAVE Fellow, 2019, Subglacial channel experiments

Janie Levin (Columbia University), SURF 2019-2020, Gullies on Mars

Jade Fischer (MIT), SURF 2019-2020, Bedrock gully experiments

Sarah Feil (UCLA), SURF 2020, Streaklines on deltas

Patrick Donohoe (Caltech), SURF 2021 Bedrock gullies on Mars

Maria Schmeer (Washington University), SURF 2021 Permafrost river experiments

Kenny Thai (Caltech), SURF 2021/2022 River delta accretion rates

Grace Knuth (Woodridge Academy), High School Researcher 2021-2022, Permafrost river experiments

Sarah Preston (Rice University), SURF 2022, Death Valley channel extraction

Vincent Soldano (University of Nevada, Reno), WAVE 2022, Alaska relative age mapping

Isaac Smith (Caltech), SURF 2022, Image analysis of flocs

Mavis Stone (Harvey Mudd), WAVE 2022, Permafrost river experiments

Kyd Williams (University of New Orleans), WAVE 2023, Floc experiments

Asiah Giutitoni (UC Berkeley), SURF 2023, AK sediment analysis

Andy Liu, SURF 2023, Permafrost experiments

Ayush Bhattacharya (UT Austin), WAVE 2023, Image analysis of flocs

Olivia Xu (Caltech), SURF 2023, Extracting secondary channels

Emiliano Gonzales (Cal Poly Pomona), SURF 2023, Mars shorelines

Former Visiting Graduate Students

Omar Wani (ETH), 2018, Visiting PhD student, Uncertainty analysis in deltas

Zhongheng Sun (China University of Geoscience), 2019-2020, Visiting PhD student, Bedrock gully experiments

Niccolo Ragno (University of Trento), 2021-2022, Visiting PhD student, Modelling meandering rivers

Former Visiting Faculty

Paul Myrow, 2012, Colorado College

Zhongxin Chu, 2013, Ocean University

Sergio Fagherazzi, 2014, Boston University

Jeremy Venditti, 2014, Simon Fraser University

Joshua West, 2014, USC

Gary Parker, 2017, U. Illinois

Chris Paola, 2021, U. of Minnesota

Todd Elhers, 2021, U. of Tubingen, Germany

Paul Myrow, 2021, Colorado College

Gareth Roberts, 2023, Imperial College London