Gregory S. Okin

Professor
Department: Department of Geography

1166 Bunche Hall
Tel: (310) 206-5976
okin@ucla.edu
Personal Website

Keywords: Biodiversity, Environment, Water

Education

Postdoctoral Research, Department of Geography, UCSB (2001-2002)

Ph.D., Geochemistry, California Institute of Technology (2001)

M.S., Geology, California Institute of Technology (1997)

B.A., Chemistry & Philosophy (Double Major), Middlebury College (1995)

Research Interests

My research focuses on the geomorphology, soils, and vegetation of arid and semiarid lands at scales ranging from meters to regions. One theme that I emphasize in my research is aeolian geomorphology, due to its importance in understanding desert landscape dynamics and because dust emission from deserts produces mineral aerosols that strongly influence downwind ecosystems and impact the Earth’s climate. Another major theme of my research is the interaction between soils, vegetation, and climate in deserts. I conduct field and laboratory research and employ remote sensing and spatial modeling to understand fine-scale processes, meso-scale patterns, and global-scale Earth system interactions. My research program reflects my interest in fundamental questions of scale that transcend disciplinary boundaries: how do physical, chemical, and biological processes act across landscapes to produce observed environmental patterns and how, in turn, do these patterns modulate large-scale spatial and temporal interactions within the Earth system?