Rachel Glade, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences as well as Mechanical Engineering as the University of Rochester.
Dr. Glade’s group studies how sediment transport shapes planetary surfaces through erosion and deposition. We use mathematical theory, numerical modeling, fieldwork, and physical experiments to better understand how landforms like rivers and hillslopes fundamentally work, with an eye toward connecting geomorphology with other fields. Ongoing research focuses on the formation of large-scale spatial patterns in arctic soils and their connection to fluid instabilities; sediment diffusion in rivers; the evolution of blocky, rocky hillslopes; and development and testing of landscape evolution models. In our lab, we’re in the process of building a frozen hillslope inside of a walk-in climate chamber and a laminar flume to study sediment transport in rivers.
Dr. Glade is the PI of the DRIP Lab (Dirt, Rivers, Ice, Particles), an interdisciplinary group of scientists at the University of Rochester Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences who strive to understand how sediment dynamics influence the evolution of Earth’s surface by drawing connections between Geomorphology and other fields like Fluid Dynamics, Soft Matter and Statistical Physics. They use a combination of theory, numerical models (everything from homegrown “toy” models to CFDEM), physical experiments, and fieldwork to work on problems ranging from grain to landscape scales.