Arjun Heimsath

Arjun Heimsath is professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. He is also Senior Sustainability Scientist at Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU. His current research involves building a field-based, mechanistic and quantitative understanding of landscape processes and evolution that can be applied to fundamental problems facing scientific as well as non-scientific communities.

Arjun grew up partly in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya and partly in the Hill Country of Texas, both of which led to his current passion for understanding how the earth’s surface works. His work as a Peace Corps water development engineer on the coast of Kenya led to his focus on environmental science, which he pursued in the Nepal Himalaya to quantify differences between human and natural processes of erosion. While struggling to understand all that controls erosion, Arjun “discovered” the field of geomorphology and focused his research efforts on the thin skin of the earth’s surface that is referred to as Earth’s critical zone. This zone is directly relevant to supporting human life and his main interests are in soil and water sustainability.

Arjun has been a fellow at the Geological Society of America, a Blaustein visiting professor at Stanford University and was also awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for soil erosion and sustainability.