Biography:

Josh Roering is an academic expert on hillslope geomorphology, particularly landslide processes, soil weathering and erosion, carbon cycling, and landscape evolution. His research group uses field observations, laboratory experiments, computer models, and remote sensing to investigate how tectonic (e.g., earthquakes), climatic (e.g., extreme rainfall events), and anthropogenic (e.g., timber harvesting) forces impact landscapes. His work is focused along the Pacific coast, including Southeast Alaska, Oregon, and California. At the UO, he has served in a number of administrative roles, including Department Head of Earth Sciences from 2019 to 2022. In 2018, Roering was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and he currently serves on the Federal Advisory Committee on Landslides convened by the US Department of Interior as part of the National Landslide Preparedness Act. 

Recent Media:

• Klukwan wants to build more housing. Intensifying landslide risk is getting in the way. (Alaska Public Media, July 16, 2025)
• The mysterious hill in Sudan that looks like 'landlocked lips' — Earth from space (Live Science, June 3, 2025)
• Causes of Wrangell’s deadly 2023 landslide still coming to light (Alaska Public Media, Feb. 6, 2025)
• Woven Peoples and Place: Ḵutí expands across Southeast Alaska (Juneau Empire, Oct. 24, 2024)
• Deadly landslide strikes Ketchikan, Alaska (The New York Times, Aug. 26, 2024)
• After landslides killed three locals in Sitka, the Alaska city responded with science (WMRA/WEMC-FM/NPR, March 8, 2023)
• The devastating mudslides that follow forest fires (Nature, Jan. 12, 2022)
• What can Haines learn from Sitka's deadly landslide? (Chilkat Valley News, Dec. 17, 2020)
• Oregon Rain Brings New Threat After the Fires: Landslides (The New York Times, Sept. 18, 2020)
• Rain expected to suppress Oregon fires, could bring landslides, flooding and lightning to region (OPB, Sept. 17, 2020)
• Scientists look to the shaky future by probing lakes to learn from great quakes of the past (Northwest Public Radio, Sept. 19, 2019)
• Slowing of landslide flows reflects California's drying climate (EurekAlert, June 1, 2016)
• UO team opens window on landscape formation (OregonNews, July 2, 2015)
• As scientists examine landslide, questions about logging's potential role (National Geographic, April 4, 2014)
• Investigation into causes of Oso landslide underway (Nature World News, April 1, 2014)