Welcome to the homepage of the River Origins, Evolution, & Response Lab (ROER Lab), led by Professor Austin Chadwick at the Columbia Climate School & Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Started in Sept 2025, the ROER Lab tackles fundamental questions about the origin and organization of river systems on Earth, as well as societal challenges in riverside hazards and sustainability.

What we do

River systems are the arteries of the Earth. Water and sediment naturally self-organize on their journey from the mountains to the sea, forging ever-changing channels that come in diverse shapes and sizes. [Image Credit: NASA Landsat 1985–2021]

More than 3 billion people worldwide live along river systems and rely upon them directly for food, water, and energy. Many of Earth's river systems today are facing rapid changes associated with human activities (e.g., damming, deforestation, man-made levees) and climate change (e.g. sea-level rise, extreme weather, cyclones). [Image Credit: Austin Chadwick]

The ROER Lab vision is defined by two common threads. First, we seek answers to fundamental questions about the origin and organization of river systems on Earth. Second, we investigate how rivers today are responding to human activities and global climate change to address twenty-first-century concerns about geologic hazards and environmental sustainability. We tackle this vision with a blend of approaches, including geologic fieldwork, satellite remote sensing, theoretical modeling, and laboratory flume experiments.

Recent highlights

Science Magazine Cover Feature

Shaping Rivers | July 2025

AAAS Video Interview

How rivers flow, split, and change | July 2025

Grant Awarded: NSF WaLCZ

Collaborative Research: Disentangling Subsidence - Integrated observations and modeling of vertical land-surface dynamics in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (Co-PI) | July 2025

People

The ROER Lab has officially started as of September 2025! If you are interested in joining, please contact me. For the 2025–2026 application cycle, I am looking to hire a postdoc and to hire a lab manager.

Austin J. Chadwick

Paros Assistant Professor of Geohazards & Climate Mitigation at the Columbia Climate School

Lab Manager

Looking to hire 2025-2026 Application Cycle

Postdoctoral Scholar

Looking to hire 2025-2026 Application Cycle

Joining The ROER Lab

I am looking to hire two positions during the 2025–2026 application cycle: a postdoc a lab manager. If you are interested in applying, please email me at achadwick at ldeo dot columbia dot edu.