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Research

Current Areas:

Dr. Lisa L. Ely is currently a Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, where she has been since 1994. She received her B.S. from Principia College in Illinois; and M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona (1992). From 1992-94 she was an NSF Post-doctoral Fellow in the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Ely's interests include fluvial geomorphology, Quaternary geology, paleoclimatology, and catastrophic events of all sorts.

Her research projects include:

• Investigating the links between climate change and the frequency of large floods over the last several thousand years in the western U.S. and monsoonal India.
• Evolution of bedrock channels in the uplifted volcanic plateau of eastern Oregon
• Landscape-scale effects of outburst floods from glacial lakes, lava dams and landslide dams
• Paleo-tsunami deposits in southern India and Chile
• Processes and timing of arroyo incision in semi-arid central Washington
• Lacustrine sedimentary records in northern India and Baja California as evidence of past lake-level fluctuations and climate change

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Teaching and Schedule

Courses

Dr. Ely teaches undergraduate majors' courses in Geomorphology, Environmental Geology, and an interdisciplinary Regional Natural History field course in conjunction with the biology department. She also offers courses in Quaternary Environments and and Fluvial Geomorphology for graduate students and upper division undergraduates.