Joel P Johnson

Dr. Joel P. Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences. His research focuses on quantifying active surface processes, including geomorphic feedbacks, landscape evolution, and sediment transport dynamics. He explores topics like lithologic controls on topography, tsunami deposit analysis, and morphodynamics in mountain rivers. His work integrates field studies, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling.

Education: BS in Earth Sciences, PhD from MIT, postdoc at USGS. He teaches courses like Earth Wind and Fire, Geomorphology, and Professional Ethics in Geosciences. He co-leads the Jackson Scholars program, fostering student engagement and professional development.

Research Themes: (1) Climatic and lithologic influences on landscape evolution, (2) Mountain river morphodynamics using smartrocks and flume experiments, (3) Tsunami and storm surge deposit analysis for hazard assessments. Key projects include Guadalupe Mountains lithology studies, Martian canyon comparisons, and Hawaii climate-erosion feedbacks.

Advising: Supervises PhD/Master’s students and undergrad researchers (e.g., Grace Guryan, Morgan Carrington). Collaborates with institutions like Tulane University and Durham University. Publications span 20+ peer-reviewed articles since 2003, focusing on fluvial processes, sediment transport, and geomorphic modeling.

Labs/Teams: Active in experimental flume research at UT, smartrock tracer technology development, and comparative planetology studies. His group emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to address Earth system challenges.