Noah J. Finnegan
Research Interests:
Fluvial Geomorphology, Tectonic Geomorphology
Education
2007
1999
Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Washington
B.A., Geology, Carleton College, magna cum laude, distinction
Positions
2009-
Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
2009-2011
Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park,
California
2008-2009
Postdoctoral Associate, National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED), U.C.
Berkeley
2006-2008
Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric
Science
2001-2006
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant, University of Washington, Department of Earth
and Space Sciences
2000-2001
Contract Researcher, Skagit System Cooperative & National Marine Fisheries Service,
Washington State
1999-2000
Paid Intern, United States Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA
Awards and Honors
● MJ Kirkby Award, Earth Surface Processes & Landforms, 2008 (in recognition of excellence in
reviewing)
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Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship, U.S.Geological Survey, 2006 (declined)
Peter Misch Fellowship, UW, 2006
David A. Johnston Memorial Fellowship, UW, 2006
Peter Misch Fellowship, UW, 2005
AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award, Tectonophysics, 2003
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 2002 - 2005
Achievement Rewards for Collegiate Scholars (ARCS), UW, 2001- 2004
Service
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Reviewer for Geology, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Geophysical Research Letters,
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Quaternary Research, GSA Today, Nature Geoscience, and
Tectonics.
Proposal Reviewer for Tectonics, Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics, and Marine Geosciences
Programs of the National Science Foundation
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Member of steering committee for the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), 2011Member of the advisory board for OpenTopography.org, 2011National Science Foundation Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics Panel, 2012
Publications
11. Gran, K.B., Belmont, P., Day, S. S., Finnegan, N.J., Jennings, C., Lauer, J.W., and Wilcock, P.R.,
2011, Landscape evolution in South-Central Minnesota and the role of geomorphic history on modern
erosional processes, GSA Today, 21, doi: 10.1130/G121A.1
10. Fournier, T.J., Pritchard, M.E., and Finnegan, N.J., Accounting for atmospheric delays in InSAR data in a
search for long wavelength deformation in South America, 2011, IEEE Trans. on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, 99, p. 1-12.
9. Hsu, L., Finnegan, N.J., and Brodsky, E.E., 2011, A seismic signature of river bedload transport during
storm events, Geophysical Research Letters, 38, L13407, doi:10.1029/2011GL047759
8. Finnegan, N.J., and Dietrich, W.E., 2011, Episodic bedrock terrace formation due to meander migration
and cutoff, Geology, 39, p. 143-146.
7. Finnegan, N.J., and Pritchard, M.E., 2009, Magnitude and duration of surface uplift above the Socorro
magma body, Geology, 37, p. 231-234.
6. Finnegan, N.J., Pritchard, M.E., Lohman, R.B., and Lundgren, P.R., 2008, Constraints on surface
deformation n the Seattle, WA urban corridor from satellite radar interferometry time series analysis,
Geophysical Journal International, 174, p. 29-41.
5. Finnegan, N.J., Hallet, B., Montgomery, D.R., Zeitler, P.K., Stone, J.O., Anders, A.M., and Liu, Y., 2008,
Coupling of rock uplift and river incision in the Namche Barwa-Gyala Peri massif, Tibet, Geological Society of
America Bulletin, 120, p. 142-155.
4. Finnegan, N.J., Sklar, L.S., and Fuller, T.K., 2007, Interplay of sediment supply, river incision, and channel
morphology revealed by the transient evolution of an experimental bedrock channel, Journal of Geophysical
Research, 112, doi:10.1029/2006JF000569.
3. Anders, A. M., Roe, G.H., Hallet, B., Montgomery, D.R., Finnegan, N. J., and Putkonen, J., 2006, Spatial
patterns of precipitation and topography in the Himalaya, in Willett, S.D., Hovius N., Brandon, M.T., and
Fisher, D.M., eds., Tectonics, Climate and Landscape Evolution: Special Paper - Geological Society of
America, 398, p. 39-53.
2. Finnegan, N.J., Roe, G., Montgomery, D.R., and Hallet, B., 2005, Controls on the channel width of rivers:
Implications for modeling fluvial incision of bedrock, Geology, 33, p. 229-232.
1. Montgomery, D.R., Hallet, B., Liu, Y., Finnegan, N.J., Anders, A., and Gillespie, A., 2004, Evidence for
Holocene megafloods down the Tsangpo gorge, southeastern Tibet, Quaternary Research, 62, p. 201-207.
Submitted Manuscripts
Finnegan, N.J., and Balco, G., Braiding, sediment supply, and bedrock terrace formation, Geological Society of
America Bulletin
Balco, G., Finnegan, N.J., Gendaszek, A., Stone, J.O.H., and Thompson, N., Erosional response to northward
propagating crustal thickening in the coastal ranges of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, American Journal of Science
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Invited Talks
● SUNY Albany/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Earth Sciences Joint Colloquium Series, Jan. 31, 2007
● Wesleyan University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar, April 30, 2007
● Geological Society of America 2007 Annual Meeting, invited talk in Deformation and the Landscape:
Quantitative Approaches to Tectonic Geomorphology, October 29, 2007
● SUNY Binghamton Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies Seminar Series, February
29, 2008
● U.C. Santa Cruz Earth and Planetary Science Department Seminar, March 7, 2008
● U.C. Davis Geology Department Seminar, March 11, 2008
● San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences Distinguished Speakers Series, September 17,
● U.C. Berkeley Seismological Laboratory Seminar Series, September 23, 2008
● Boston College Department of Geology and Geophysics Department Seminar, November 7, 2008
● Brigham Young University Department of Geological Sciences seminar, March 19, 2009
● U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Science Center Coastal Processes Seminar, April 1, 2009
● Sonoma State University Department of Geology Seminar Series, April 23, 2009
● U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center Seminar, Menlo Park, CA, February 3, 2010
● Keynote Speaker, University of Washington Department of Earth and Space Sciences' first annual graduate
research symposium, April 1, 2010
● California Institute of Technology Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences Seminar, May 3, 2010
● University of Oregon Department of Geological Sciences Seminar Series, May 26, 2010
● NSF-sponsored “New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data,” Boulder, Colorado, June
1-2, 2010.
● Yale University Frontiers in Crustal Geoscience Symposium, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2010
● Fresno State University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar, Jan. 28, 2011
● Tulane University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar, March 18, 2011
● Trustees of the UCSC Foundation, October 22, 2011
● San Jose State University Geology Department Speaker Series October 24, 2011
● University of Pennsylvania Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar, November 11, 2011
Current Grant Support
PI
7/1/10-6/30/13
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California State Agricultural
Research Initiative
$102,412
Post-Fire Change Detection of Selected Water Quality
and Watershed Characteristics following the 2009
Lockheed Fire
9/1/09-8/30/14
National Science Foundation
$443,795
Collaborative Research: Investigating the Relationship
Between Pluton Growth and Volcanism at Two
Active Intrusions in the Central Andes
5/1/11-4/30/14
National Science Foundation
$246,332
Investigating the Role of Bedrock River Meandering
in the Formation of Strath Terraces
4/1/12-3/31/14
National Science Foundation
$176,141
Collaborative Research: Unlocking the Seismic Signature
of Rivers
2/1/10-1/31/11
National Science Foundation
$100,000 w/ $54,078 Supp.
RAPID: Fire, Food webs, and Fish
7/1/10-6/30/11
UCSC Committee on Research
$10,000
Are wildfires good or bad for salmonids? Characterizing
geomorphic and ecological coupling in a recently burned
catchment.
CO-PI
Graduate Students Advised
Kerri Johnson (PhD) 2009-Present
Jonathan Perkins* (PhD) 2009-Present
Danica Roth (PhD)* 2010-Present
David Santaniello (PhD) 2011-Present
Alex Nereson (PhD) beginning Fall, 2012
Claire Masteller (PhD) beginning Fall, 2012
Rachael Klier (MS) beginning Fall, 2012
Allison Pfeiffer (MS) beginning Fall, 2012
*Advanced to PhD Candidacy
Postdoctoral Scholars Advised
Leslie Hsu, 2010
PhD Committees
Nicole Kinsman (Primary Advisor: Gary Griggs)
Ian Miller (Primary Advisor: Gary Griggs)
Jeff Hansen (Primary Advisor: Gary Griggs)*
Heidi Stauffer (Primary Advisor: Lisa Sloan)
Bruce Daniels (Primary Advisors: Lisa Sloan & Andy Fisher)
Melanie Michalak (Primary Advisor: Rob Coe)
Travis Orloff (Primary Advisor: Erik Asphaug)
Nicholas van der Elst (Primary Advisor: Emily Brodsky)
Tess Russo (Primary Advisor: Andy Fisher)
Saffia Hossainzadeh (Primary Advisor: Slawek Tulaczyk)
Ken Mankoff (Primary Advisor: Slawek Tulaczyk)
*examination committee only
MS Committees
Tristan Rhodes (Primary Advisor: Slawek Tulaczyk)
Samuel Johnstone (Primary Advisor: Jeremy Hourigan)
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