Joel Leonard

Joel Leonard is an Assistant Professor and Research Scientist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He specializes in tectonic geomorphology, focusing on mountain range evolution and surface processes.

• Education
  • B.S. Arizona State University, 2012
  • M.S. Indiana University - Bloomington, 2017
  • Ph.D. Arizona State University, 2022

His research explores how tectonics, climate, and erosional processes interact to shape topography, with applications to environmental hazards and landscape evolution modeling. He combines fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and computational methods to study both active and stable mountain systems globally.

Joel is actively recruiting graduate students for Spring 2026 projects, including a funded collaboration with Sandia National Laboratory on landscape evolution modeling and field-based studies in tectonic geomorphology.

Affiliated with the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, he addresses critical linkages between mountain building and the carbon cycle while evaluating risks from landslides, debris flows, wildfires, and floods to human infrastructure.