Earth and Environmental Science Researchers Develop New Riverbed Erosion Modeling Technique

In a study published in Nature Communications, Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Douglas Jerolmack reveals his new model for predicting riverbed erosion. Theoretical models, which use principles of physics to predict patterns of sediment transport in rivers, have rarely matched observations from nature. Jerolmack's study, which used his custom laboratory apparatus, more closely aligns with what is seen in nature.

The study’s new model of sediment transport—involving not only the motion of surface grains pushed by flowing water but also the creep beneath the surface resulting from interactions among particles—may substantially improve geologists’ abilities to predict erosion rates and landscape evolution over time, and could also help inform future civil engineering projects. Douglas Durian, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Morgane Houssais and Carlos Ortiz, both Earth and Environmental Science postdoctoral researchers, also worked on the study.

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Arts & Sciences News

University of Pennsylvania, Neubauer Family Foundation, and Philadelphia Police Department Partner to Support Police Leadership Education

The first-of-its-kind graduate degree in the U.S. for police leaders launches this fall at the School of Arts & Sciences.

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Marisa C. Kozlowski Named Next Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences

Kozlowski, who joined the Penn faculty in 1997, succeeds Mark Trodden, who transitions to the Dean of Penn Arts & Sciences on June 1.

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One Fourth Year, One Alum Receive 2025 Hertz Fellowship

Eric Tao, C’25, Gr’25 (left), and Suraj Chandran, C’23, were awarded the honor, part of a group of 19 fellows selected this year. Each one receives five years of funding toward a doctoral program.

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Benjamin Nathans Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction

Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History, won for his book “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.”

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Mark Devlin Elected to National Academy of Sciences

He joins three others from Penn to receive the honor this year, all recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

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Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Rosenfeld Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

They join three others from the University of Pennsylvania, selected as part of the Academy’s mission to convene leaders from “every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together.”

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