Kelin X. Whipple

Kelin Whipple is a Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.  He holds a B.A. (1985) in Geology from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. (1989) and Ph.D. (1994) in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington.  Dr. Whipple spent a year as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Lab at the University of Minnesota before taking a faculty position in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995.  He joined CIFAR's Earth System Evolution Program in 2001.  In 2008, Whipple was awarded the Bagnold Medal by the European Geophysical Union.

He describes his research interests as follows:

Landform evolution in active tectonic settings. Current research activities focus on the geomorphic evolution of fluvial bedrock channel and alpine glacial valley systems. Active projects and interests span a range from small-scale modeling and investigation of the physics of bedrock channel erosion, to reach-scale modeling of the dynamics of bedrock channel evolution, to neotectonic studies of active deformation using geomorphic tools, and to quantitative investigation of linkages between tectonics, climate, and surface processes at mountain range scale. These work efforts integrate field, experimental, remote sensing, and numerical approaches.

Additional interests and experience include rheology of fine-grained debris flows, mass wasting processes in the submarine environment, the transition of subaqueous debris flows into turbidity currents, kinematics of chemical weathering in soils, controls on alluvial fan sedimentation and morphology, and applications of remote sensing in geomorphology.