Computational Geosciences

Professor Erasmus Oware, Professor Kristin Poinar, and graduate student Jeremy Stock running geophysics experiments on the Vaughan Lewis Glacier, a part of the Juneau Icefield, Alaska.

With a strong focus on computational approaches, the group's work leverages cutting-edge tools and methodologies to tackle pressing scientific questions across these diverse areas of Earth science.

• Beata Csatho – Ice sheet mass balance and dynamics, remote sensing of the cryosphere, laser altimetry (LiDAR sensing), geologic controls on ice flow, data fusion. 
• Margarete Jadamec  – Geodynamics, tectonophysics, high performance computing, high-resolution data-driven modeling of natural tectonic plate boundaries 
• Chris Lowry – Physical hydrogeology and groundwater flow modeling
• Sophie Nowicki - Ice sheet modeling, climate change, ice-climate interactions. sea-level change
• Kristin Poinar – Glaciology, ice-sheet modeling, glacier hydrology
• Elizabeth Thomas - Paleoclimate dynamics; environmental change in the Arctic, Asia, and Western New York; stable isotope and organic geochemistry; proxy system modeling
• Greg A. Valentine – Volcanic risk, basaltic volcanic fields, pyroclastic deposits, volcano fluid dynamics, volcaniclastic and surface processes 

Our research spans all three thematic research groups in the Department of Earth Sciences: Climate, Water & the Environment and Geohazards, Volcanoes & Geodynamics.  We maintain research and computer labs in remote sensing, large-scale geodynamics, glaciology, hydrology, geophysics, volcanology and data visualization.  Many of our students and research groups work with the University at Buffalo’s Center for Computational Research (CCR), which hosts and maintains UB's high-perfomance computing resources.

We run a number of research labs on campus:

• Hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet – how does meltwater flow on, within, and underneath the glacier and how does this affect the speed of ice flow?
• Global sea-level rise – how will melting glaciers and warming ocean temperatures change the future surface of the planet?
• Water Security – what controls the availability of water in the subsurface and how will the movement and storage of water change in the future?
• How do explosive volcanic eruptions – especially large ones – interact with their surroundings?
• What are the mechanisms behind the formation, propagation, and deposition of pyroclastic flows?
• Large-scale numerical simulations of plate tectonics and subduction- How do slab geometry, upper plate structure, and mantle rheology control three-dimensional tectonic deformation and mantle flow?
• 3D Virtual Reality for Model Exploration - How do modern 3D VR tools enhance the exploration of big data and numerial simulation output from supercomputers?

Research in the Computational Geosciences group can form the basis of a PhD or MS degree in the Department of Earth Sciences.  Our students benefit from the course infrastructure and collaboration with students across the Computational Masters coursework-based MS program.