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About Douglas
Douglas J. Jerolmack is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. A geoscience faculty member, he earned a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006 and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University in 2001. Jerolmack leads the Penn Soft Earth Dynamics (PennSED) Lab, where he pioneers Soft Earth Geophysics, applying principles of soft matter physics to elucidate the dynamics of Earth's fragile surface layer of particulate and living materials. His research employs laboratory experiments, fieldwork, and theoretical modeling to investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of patterns emerging at fluid-sediment interfaces on Earth and planetary surfaces. Core interests encompass experimental geophysics with a focus on geomorphology, granular physics governing fluid-driven sediment transport by water and wind, landform evolution including dunes, river channels, deltas, and fans, stochastic and nonlinear transport processes, and landscape responses to climate change and perturbations such as natural hazards.
Jerolmack's contributions have advanced understanding of natural hazards like landslides, earthquakes, and flooding; sustainable geomaterials; and planetary exploration techniques, including collaborations with roboticists and cognitive scientists for missions to Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Notable awards include election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in the Division of Statistical and Nonlinear Physics in 2025, the S. Reid Warren Jr. Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching in 2024, a 2025 Charles E. Kaufman Foundation New Initiative Grant for fracture network research, and an Honorary Faculty appointment in the Department of Morphology and Geometric Modeling at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2023. Key publications feature 'Shredding of environmental signals by sediment transport' (2010), 'Soft Earth Geophysics' in Nature Reviews Physics (2019), 'Structure-property relationships from universal signatures of plasticity in disordered solids' (2017), 'Conditions for branching in depositional rivers' (2007), and 'Multiscale soft matter mechanics of Major League Baseball's rubbing mud' in PNAS (2024). His work bridges geoscience with physics, enhancing hazard prediction, landscape management, and STEM education.
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