Jeffrey Munroe

Research Interests

• Quaternary Geology and Palaeoclimatology
• Mountain Environments
• Periglacial Geomorphology
• Critical Zone Science

Short CV

• 2026- APART-USA/öAW Research Fellow, University of Innsbruck
• 2026- Research Scholar, Middlebury College
• 2019-2026 Philip Battell Stewart and Sarah Frances Cowles Stewart Professor of Geology, Middlebury College
• 2024 Guest Professor, University of Innsbruck, summer semester
• 2013-2019 Professor, Middlebury College
• 2018 Fulbright Guest Professor of Natural Sciences, University of Innsbruck, summer semester
• 2008-2013 Associate Professor, Middlebury College
• 2003-2008 Assistant Professor, Middlebury College
• 2001-2003 Visiting Assistant Professor, Middlebury College

Awards

• 2019 Elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America
• 2018 Fulbright Scholarship
• 2013 Inaugural Gladstone Excellence in Teaching Award, Middlebury College
• 2007 University of Wisconsin-Madison Distinguished Research Paper Award
• 2000-2001 University of Wisconsin-Madison Vilas Fellowship
• 1996 Stanley Tyler Excellence in Teaching award, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Recent Grants

• 2024: “Exploring the potential of cosmogenic burial dating to constrain rates of river incision and landscape evolution in the Uinta Mountains, Utah” National Cave and Karst Research Institute
• 2024 “AccelNet Design: Accelerating Critical Zone Science with an International Network of Networks” US National Science Foundation AccelNet Program
• 2020 “RUI: Collaborative Research: Network Cluster: Dust in the Critical Zone from the Great Basin to the Rocky Mountains” US National Science Foundation Critical Zone program
• 2020 “RUI: Water from Stone -- Investigating the Hydrologic Role of Rock Glaciers” US National Science Foundation Hydrology program
• 2019: “MRI: Acquisition of a Cavity Ring-Down Spectrometer for Analyzing Stable Isotopes in Water Samples at Middlebury College” US National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation program
• 2017: “Collaborative Research-P2C2-RUI: Combining Glacier and Paleolake Records to Limit Latest Pleistocene Climate Change in the Northern Great Basin” from the US National Science Foundation Paleo-Perspectives on Climate Change program
• 2015: “RUI: Alpine Loess, Periglacial Uplands, and Exotic Additions: Investigating Past and Present Dust Deposition in the Alpine Zone of the Uinta Mountains, Utah” from the US National Science Foundation Geomorphology program

Science Communication

• Oracles of Ice and Stone: Rock Glaciers of the High Uintas
• The Collectors Tour: 2024
• A Remarkable Convergence
• Rephotographier les monts Uinta pour montrer que le changement climatique s’accélère
• 150 Years of Change: How Old Photos, Recaptured, Reveal a Shifting Climate
• Dust clouds are killing people out West—and the dangers could spread
• Ashley Caves Project

Links

• Full c.v.
• Mastodon
• Critical Zone Network of Networks
• DUST^2

Recent Publications

• Kluetmeier, C.L., Handwerger, A.L., and Munroe, J.S., 2026: Active and transitional rock glaciers above the 0°C mean annual air temperature isotherm in the La Sal Mountains, Utah, USA. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 58(1); 2680743. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2026.2680743
• Davies, I., Anderson, L., Thorne, M., Olson, M., Munroe, J. and Morris, M., 2026: Mass Addition to Timpanogos Rock Glacier: Debris‐Covered Snow and the Importance of Interannual Variability in Headwall Erosion and Climate. Geophysical Research Letters, 53, e2025GL121482. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL121482
• Munroe, JS. and Spötl, C., 2026: Stable isotopes in cave ice reveal Holocene changes in mountain snowpack sublimation. Geology, https://doi.org/10.1130/G54328.1.
• Munroe, J., Wittmer, M., McGee, D., Serrato Marks, G., Kimble, K., Santis, A., Spötl, C., and Herron, D., 2026: Speleothems in Utah caves record past dynamics of mountain permafrost. Quaternary Research, http://doi:10.1017/qua.2026.1007.
• Munroe, J.S., 2026: Mineral dust and the global Critical Zone. Earth Critical Zone, 3(1): 10052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecz.2025.100052.
• Munroe, J.S., Carling, G.T., Perry, K.D., Fernandez, D.P., and Mallia, D.V., 2025: Mixing of natural and urban dust along the Wasatch Front of northern Utah, USA. Scientific Reports, 15:3851. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88529-9.
• Brahney, J., Heindel, R.C., Gill, T.E., Carling, G., Gonzalez-Olalla, J.M., Hand, J., Mallia, D.V., Munroe, J.S., Perry, K., Putman, A.L., Skiles, S.M., Adams, B.R., Aanderud, Z., Aarons, S., Aguirre, D., Ardon-Dryer, K., Blakowski, M.B., Creamean, J.M., Fernandez, D., Foroutan, H., Gaston, C., Hahnenberger, M., Hoch, S., Jones, D.K., Kelly, K.E., Lang, O.I., LeMonte, J., Reynolds, R., Singh, R.P., Sweeney, M., and Merrill, T, 2024: Dust in the Critical Zone: North American case studies. Earth Science Reviews, 258, 104942, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104942.
• Seixas, M.H., Munroe, J.S., and Eggleston, E.M, 2024: Bacterial diversity and geomicrobiology of Winter Wonderland ice cave, Utah, USA. Microbiology Open, https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.1426.
• Munroe, J.S. and Handwerger, A.L., 2024: Contemporary Movement of Rock Glaciers in the La Sal and Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Quaternary Science Advances, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100188.
• Munroe, J.S., Laabs, B.J.C., Corbett, L.B., Bierman, P.R., and Handwerger, A.L., 2024: Rock Glacier Movement and Debris Transport over Annual to Multi-Millennial Timescales. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 129:4, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JF007453.
• Munroe, J.S., 2024: Ground Penetrating Radar Investigation of Regolith Thickness on a Periglacial Alpine Summit Flat, Uinta Mountains, Utah, USA. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 56:1, https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2024.2322334.
• Munroe, J.S., Santis, A.A., Soderstrom, E.J., Tappa, M.J., and Bauer, A.M., 2024: Mineral Dust and Pedogenesis in the Alpine Critical Zone. SOIL, 10:1, 167-187, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-167-2024.