• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search Menu

The College of Arts & Sciences

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

  • Home
  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Diversity, Equity, + Inclusion
    • EAS Advising Guidelines
    • EAS Ombudsperson
    • Advisory Board
    • History
    • About Bloomington
  • Directory
    • Faculty
    • Adjunct Faculty
    • Post-Docs & Research Associates
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Undergraduate Students
  • Undergraduate
    • Atmospheric Science B.S.
    • Atmospheric Science Minor
    • Atmospheric Science Certificate
    • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences B.A.
    • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Minor
    • Earth Science B.S.
    • Environmental Geosciences B.S.
    • Earth Science B.S./M.S.
    • Environmental Sciences B.S.
    • Courses
    • Field Courses
    • Advising
    • Honors Program
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Scholarships & Awards
    • Research Opportunities
    • Student Experience
  • Graduate
    • Degrees
    • Courses
    • Field Courses
    • Financial Support
    • Fellowships & Awards
    • Research Opportunities
    • Student Experience
    • How to Apply
  • Research
    • Research Areas
    • Centers, Labs, & Resources
    • Workshops
    • IU Geologic Field Station
  • Career Preparation
    • Career Advising
    • Career Paths
    • Internships
  • Giving
    • Department Endowed Funds
    • Alumni & Giving
  • News + Alumni
    • EAS Calendar of Events
    • Colloquia & Seminars
    • Department News
    • EAS Named Lectures
    • Outreach
    • Alumni News
    • EAS Newsletter
    • Get Involved
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
  • EAS Calendar of Events
  • Colloquia & Seminars
  • Department News
    • Archive
  • EAS Named Lectures
  • Outreach
  • Alumni News
  • EAS Newsletter
  • Get Involved
  • Home
  • News + Alumni
  • Department News
  • Archive
  • Jeff Valenza awarded NSF fellowship

EAS Graduate Student Jeff Valenza awarded NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Jeffrey Valenza

Jeff Valenza has been awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship.  These postdocs allow the recipient to carry out their own work with a mentor of their choice, and can be split between US and international labs.  Jeff will do exactly that to continue his work on fluvial processes including river avulsion events.  He will work with Vamsi Ganti at UC Santa Barbara and Alex Whittaker at Imperial College.  

Jeff is working with Doug Edmonds.

Read more about Jeff's research

"I will be studying pre-vegetation river dynamics and stratigraphy. Vegetation-free rivers have been shown to migrate at rates up to 10x faster than vegetated counterparts, which could create fluvial stratigraphy resembling braided, or multi-thread, river deposits. Using a two-pronged approach, I aim to identify the defining characteristics of rapidly-migrating single thread channels using bar and channel body stratigraphy. First, I will conduct flume experiments at UC Santa Barbara to establish a scaled-down, actively meandering stream to observe channel and bar migration rates and resulting stratigraphy. We will apply observations from flume-generated stratigraphy to the Precambrian (and pre-vegetation) Torridonian Sandstone in the Scottish Highlands to determine if the amalgamated bar forms in outcrop represent an ancient meandering or braided stream. Confirming meandering conditions in pre-vegetation rivers would explain the appearance of single-thread meander channels on Mars, and shed light on Earth's early sedimentological history. Furthermore, constraining migration rates of vegetation-free channels may soon become relevant for human management of rivers in warming and drying arid and semi-arid environments in the midst of global climate change.

I'll be working under Dr. Vamsi Ganti and UCSB and Dr. Alex Whittaker at Imperial College London. I'll be at UCSB for the majority of time, travelling to the UK for field work and also to be a visiting scholar at Imperial College during the summer of 2022."

  • Faculty + Staff Intranet

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences social media channels

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

The College of Arts & Sciences

Indiana University

Copyright © 2023 The Trustees of Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice

The College of Arts & Sciences

  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Diversity, Equity, + Inclusion
    • EAS Advising Guidelines
      • Faculty Advisor Guidelines
      • Graduate Student Guidelines
    • EAS Ombudsperson
    • Advisory Board
    • History
      • Faculty in Memory
      • GFS Endowment Campaign
    • About Bloomington
  • Directory
    • Faculty
    • Adjunct Faculty
    • Post-Docs & Research Associates
    • Emeriti Faculty
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Undergraduate Students
  • Undergraduate
    • Atmospheric Science B.S.
    • Atmospheric Science Minor
    • Atmospheric Science Certificate
    • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences B.A.
    • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Minor
    • Earth Science B.S.
    • Environmental Geosciences B.S.
    • Earth Science B.S./M.S.
    • Environmental Sciences B.S.
    • Courses
    • Field Courses
      • EAS E116 ASPIRE Semester in Salerno, Italy
      • Treks in Provence: Geology, History, and Culture in Southern France
      • Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
      • IU Geologic Field Station, Montana
      • Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
    • Advising
    • Honors Program
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Scholarships & Awards
      • Rudman-Pavlis Undergraduate Research Fellowship
    • Research Opportunities
    • Student Experience
      • GeoClub
  • Graduate
    • Degrees
    • Courses
    • Field Courses
      • Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
      • IU Geologic Field Station, Montana
      • Indiana
    • Financial Support
    • Fellowships & Awards
      • EAS Application for Graduate Scholarships
    • Research Opportunities
    • Student Experience
    • How to Apply
  • Research
    • Research Areas
      • Faculty Positions in EAS
      • Atmospheric Sciences
      • Economic Geology
      • Geoarchaeology
      • Geobiology and Geoanthropology
      • Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry
      • Geophysics, Structural Geology, Tectonics
      • Mineralogy and Petrology
      • Sedimentation and Stratigraphy
      • Surface Processes
    • Centers, Labs, & Resources
      • IU Seismograph Station
      • Stable Isotope Research Facility
    • Workshops
      • Water Resources Workshop
    • IU Geologic Field Station
  • Career Preparation
    • Career Advising
    • Career Paths
      • Atmospheric Science Career Paths
      • Earth Sciences Career Paths
    • Internships
  • Giving
    • Department Endowed Funds
    • Alumni & Giving
  • News + Alumni
    • EAS Calendar of Events
    • Colloquia & Seminars
      • Archive
        • Fall 2020 Colloquia
    • Department News
      • Archive
    • EAS Named Lectures
      • Daniel Tudor Lecture
      • Richard Owen Alumni Award Lecture
    • Outreach
      • Science Fest
      • Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP)
      • K-12 Professional Development
      • Meet + Greets
    • Alumni News
    • EAS Newsletter
      • EAS Newsletter Summer 2022
        • EAS Chair's Message
        • News
      • EAS News Archive
        • EAS Directories Archive
    • Get Involved
  • Contact
  • Student Portal
    • Undergraduate
      • Atmospheric Science B.S.
      • Atmospheric Science Minor
      • Atmospheric Science Certificate
      • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences B.A.
      • Earth Science B.S.
      • Earth Science B.S./M.S.
      • Environmental Geosciences B.S.
      • Environmental Sciences B.S.
      • Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Minor
      • Honors Program
      • IU Resources
      • Fields of Study
      • Courses
        • Spring Courses
        • Fall Courses
        • Comprehensive Undergraduate Course List
    • Graduate
      • Degrees
        • Ph.D. Geological Sciences
        • Ph.D. Geological Sciences-Atmospheric Sciences
        • M.S. Geological Sciences
        • M.S. Geological Sciences-Atmospheric Sciences
      • Graduate Student Handbook
        • Handbook Archive
      • Courses
        • Spring Courses
        • Fall Courses
        • Comprehensive Graduate Course List
      • Employment Resources
      • Professional Organizations
      • IU Resources
    • Grant Sources
    • Forms