Sarah Williams

Biography

I’m curious how different perspectives from physics, geology, and environmental science can help us build a more holistic understanding of the stochastic natural processes shaping the landscapes around us. I am particularly interested in the ways sediments --- think grains of sand all the way to small boulders--- mechanically interact with one another as they are moved by water along the bottom of river channels or over craggy hillslopes during a storm. Right now, I’m wondering how grain properties like shape or size impact the distance different sediments move during transport events and how these variations can impact the stability of sediment surfaces. Are eroding landscapes soft, rigid, or some secret third thing? My approach to understanding the evolution of our semi-squishy world primarily involves physical experiments and theory which I am starting to supplement with computational modeling and field work.