Loyola Marymount University Assistant Professor of Environmental ScienceRobert Welch traces his geological curiosity back to summers in his teens spent with his father, a fly-fishing guide, exploring the mountain belts and rock formations of Idaho and Yellowstone National Park.

Starting out as a math and physics double major in college, he took his first geology class and was hooked. "Through the application of math, physics, chemistry, and biology, we can begin to understand how our dynamic world came to be," said Welch. "I often tell my students that we're exploring an unfinished textbook of Earth's history, and that sense of discovery is what makes the work so compelling."

Welch's research focuses on how mountains form from an initially underformed state and progress through stages of deformation, due to geological processes such as plate collisions, and investigating where earthquakes have been occurring within these mountain belts. "As a quantitative structural geologist and applied geophysicist, my goal is to understand this process called mountain building," Welch said. "And more specifically, the earthquakes that occur within mountain belts."

He has helped pioneer new ways to gather geological data in hard-to-reach places, using remote sensing technology to create detailed 2D and 3D models of specific mountain ranges in Canada and California. In the San Joaquin Valley, he developed a structural model that combined seismic, geologic, and groundwater data-revealing that several fault segments in the region may be more active than previously thought. At LMU, his research is expanding into the southern San Joaquin Valley and Santa Maria Basin to better understand the seismic hazard and structural evolution of the basins and how oil, gas, and groundwater production have influenced earthquake sequences in these areas.

He has three LMU undergraduate students and one observer on his current research team investigating two broad categories: 1) Creating a reconstruction of the history of past mountain-building events through data analysis methods to accurately model the development of those regions to better inform about current mountain building prophecies in California, with the intention of developing future models around the world, and 2) Increasing understanding of earthquake hazards in these complex fault settings. The faults in these mountain belts are made up of different geometric segments so this research seeks to understand the occurrence of earthquakes that rupture multiple geometric segments, which in turn allow for a better understanding of the risk of larger earthquakes.

Welch is currently teaching Environmental Statistical Analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) this fall and will teach two courses in the spring: Earth System Science and Environmental Management. Since his youth, he has followed his natural curiosity, discovering his passion in the process and he hopes to inspire his students to do the same. His extracurricular activities include supporting the newly formed Environmental Science Club on campus and connecting with LMU's Coastal Research Institute to help his students "not only see the impact of their work through a geology lens, but also its direct impacts to the local wetlands and coastal areas of southern California."

He says the main reasons he wanted to teach at LMU is because the university values the teacher-scholar model and also encourages undergraduate research. "I'm excited about providing opportunities for students to find that specific area they are each passionate about and help them build foundational skill sets for their future endeavors," said Welch.

He earned both his Ph.D. and a master's degree in Earth and planetary sciences from Harvard University. He received a bachelor's degree in geosciences from Hamilton College in New York.