Alison R Duvall
Brief Bio
I am a geologist who integrates the broad fields of surface processes, structural geology, and tectonics to tackle a host of questions relating to landscape evolution. I seek to resolve tectonic deformation, faulting and mountain uplift histories in active mountain belts using the erosion record. I am passionate about human resilience to geohazards, especially landslide related events in subduction zones.
Our research team explores these topics at field sites around the world, including New Zealand, Chile and the Himalaya/Tibetan Plateau, and in locations closer to home, such as the Cascadia subduction zone, Seattle and the Puget Lowland, the Wallowa Mountains of NE Oregon and central Idaho. I received the 2016 AGU Luna B. Leopold Award (Earth Surface Processes early career award) for “contributions to fluvial, hillslope, and tectonic geomorphology that have fundamentally advanced understanding of landscape dynamics across a wide range of scales” and delivered the 2016 Sharp Lecture in San Francisco at the AGU annual meeting as part of this honor.
Check out this youtube video for a bit more about what I study
Education
2011 Ph.D. in Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dissertation: The Tectonic Evolution of the Tibetan Plateau: Insights from the Deformation and Erosion History of Northern Tibet and the Surrounding Region (Supervisor: Professor Marin K. Clark)
2003 M.S. in Geology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California
Thesis: Bedrock Channel Response to Variability in Rock Strength and Rock-Uplift Rate in the Santa Ynez Mountains, California
(Supervisor: Professor Douglas W. Burbank)
2000 B.S. in Geological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Summa Cum Laude
Employment
2020 – present Associate Professor, University of Washington
2013 – 2020 Assistant Professor, University of Washington
2012 – 2013 Assistant Professor (NTT), University of Washington
2011 – 2012 CIRES Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Colorado, Boulder
2006 – 2011 Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, University of Michigan
2003 – 2006 Geologist, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA
2001 – 2003 Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, UC – Santa Barbara, CA